Page 33 of Broken Destiny

“The pain will lessen after she shifts for the first time. It won’t heal her legs, but it will strengthen her immune and pain responses,” Duggar explains.

Garrett is still considering my question. “What kind of information could they gather from a sphinx?” No one answers because it’s clear he’s asking himself. If I knew, I would answer. His eyes turn to me. “How long?”

I shrug. “I don’t know for sure, but I do know she escaped and ended up in a hospital as a young teenager - around twelve or thirteen years of age. Ansel helped protect her and keep her hidden after that.”

“Before they’re born, supernatural babies are pure magic. Before they’ve had a chance to channel that magic into the formation of powers, bones, and tissue, it can be stolen.”

Bren’s words sicken me to the point that I think I’d vomit if I could. My brain tricks me into feeling nauseous, even more so when I realize that his words strike some truth in me, as if confirming a memory I don’t clearly recall. “They wanted to breed her?” My voice cracks halfway through the sentence.

“Every sphinx bears a female sphinx as their first child,” Duggar mutters, his tone dark. Avery’s pale skin looks almost green, and Garrett is gripping the table so hard, I’m worried it might break in half. That man must spend all his time in the gym. If I become solid again, will I still retain the muscle it looks like my body has?

Bren nods. “If they couldn’t extract the power from her body, it would have been their next course of action.”

“Do we know they didn’t succeed?” The query sickens us all, but Garrett asks it bravely. It’s a reasonable question.

Duggar shakes his head. “My wife would have detected a previous pregnancy. There was none.”

I release a breathless exhalation of relief. Thankfully, she got away in time.

“So how is being a guardian of a library supposed to help in this race war?” Garrett asks, turning the conversation away from Zo.

“Knowledge is power,” Bren replies with a slight shrug, but his eyes dance. He’s hiding something.

“So what? We’re supposed to find ways to stop it by poring through books?” Garrett’s tone sounds as sarcastic as I feel.

Bren shakes his head. “Not necessarily. There are many ways. Not only do secrets get spoken in libraries, but even bad guys need information. They’ll come to the library for it. You know that not everyone knows what this place is? To almost every other supe except those in the know, this is a normal library. Zo is a normal librarian. We are security without a life or death tie to our beautiful boss. Secrets will be spoken, secrets will be searched for, and we’ll be in a unique position to pass that information along.”

“So, we’re the midpoint? Like spies working for the good?” Avery asks slowly. “How do we know who the good guys are?”

Bren points a finger straight into the sky. “Excellent question! Almost no human, or supe for that matter, is all good or all bad. It’s the ones that bear the best intentions for the world that we must help. That may be our government or not. Several factions will come to us for help, and we will choose who to help. One thing we know for certain is that the division capturing supes or turning humans are part of the faction we don’t want to help. It’s wrong in every sense. This includes your former owner.” He shoots a look at me.

“Walthers?” I ask with a fake shudder. “That, I believe. The man has a twisted mind.” I only caught small glimpses when I was tethered to him, but it was enough to scar me for my afterlife.

“Does he have any power over the library with his position? He certainly knows what we are.”

The seer shrugs in response to the vampire’s question. “I’m uncertain. It depends on who his contact on the delegation is. His conversations with our father are not looking good.” He shares a look with Garrett. I assume they have far more information than they’ve shared already.

“So we need more knowledge,” Avery observes.

Bren nods and flashes the vampire a blinding smile he can’t see. “Precisely, my friend. There can never be enough of that. Now, what about our living arrangements?” He changes subjects so fast, it makes my head spin.

Duggar shrugs. “The library will arrange it as she sees fit while you're sleeping. Now that Zo has her full complement of guardians, the library will open at the beginning of the term in two days. You’ll all need to be prepared to work and to gather any information that may assist those who will protect all species on this planet. Regardless of what some supernaturals think, humans have become an integral part of modern society. To eradicate them would have negative repercussions for all races.”

I shiver, feeling that weird, squirmy sensation I get when Zo accidentally flows through part of me. Eradicate is a horrible word, especially when applied to living beings.

“So the library will arrange the walls as we sleep? In our sleep?” Garrett repeats, stuck on that small detail. Bren shakes with amusement. He reminds me of an excitable teenager in some ways. The look in his eyes when he watches Zo is far from boyish, though.

“Welcome to living in a magical building, brother! Isn’t it exciting?” Suddenly, the seer stands. “I’m going to look for something.” And he runs toward and up the stairs as if he has an overabundance of energy to burn. Garrett watches him before he sighs. It’s a long-suffering sound, as if he’s used to years of his brother’s erratic behavior. Clearly, they’re very close. Did I have family like that? I can’t remember.

“Where is our boss now?” he asks, looking at me as if I can see through walls as well as being able to pass through them.

“You should be able to feel her after signing the contract,” Avery points out.

“Feel her?”

I roll my eyes. “Extend your senses. What do you feel? See? Don’t look with your eyes.”

He sniffs, and I restrain a laugh. “I suppose you could use your shifter senses as well, but you shouldn’t have to be so obvious.” He looks at me with suspicion but closes his eyes.

---