Page 13 of Bound By Honey

"You return books at the front desk." Sage's eyes darted to Prince Finn. "As you so kindly pointed out, this isliterallyyour library. You, of all people, should know that."

"True," Colby said, causing Sage's eyes to waver from Prince Finn, "but since we didn't check it out officially, we thought it best to give it back to the librarian who saw us leave with it."

"I understand why you came here, but I wonder why both of you had to return the book together. Afraid the little librarian would attack you again?"

Prince Finn rolled his eyes. "He may have carried it out of the library, but I carried it out of the restricted section. Besides, I wanted to talk to you. You intrigue me."

She couldn't have heard him right. This was only the second time she had met this man, and the last time, they had only seen each other for a moment.

"You could have just asked me to join you for some tea. And I would have told you that I'm busy."

The prince let out an unamused chuckle. "Tea? My mother always said that tea is to be shared with friends, and I don't believe I know anyone here who would qualify as such."

With amusement, Colby's head swiveled between them as they argued, the book tucked back under his arm.

"On that, you are correct. It seems you really didn't need to make this trip to see me specifically. The return desk is that way," she said, pointing toward the entrance with a pasted-on simile. “We don't care who returns the books as long as they are indeed returned." She offered a slight bow and walked away from the prince. “Have a good day, Your Highness."

It took everything in her to walk and not run back to the children's section. She intrigued him? That was highly doubtful, but she wasn't willing to stick around long enough to find out if it was true.

***

Sage pulled her cloak tighter as she hurried alongside Freddy in the dark alley. "Are we almost there?"

With a cock of his head, he grinned. A twinkle in his eye told her he was up to something, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Somehow, I imagined that you never left the library. Do you usually leave the library?"

"Not usually. Only when there's somewhere I want to be or something I need."

Sage waited for him to continue, but he never did. The last hour had been unexpected, to say the least.

Freddy had approached her as she was closing the library for the night. He told her that he had something to show her, and, of course, she was intrigued.

In the back corner of his private library, behind a bookshelf, was the secret tunnel's entrance.

Of course, he had a secret tunnel in his secret room. Why hadn't she expected that? Hadn’t he told her the night he found her that there was no other way out? How had he gotten around lying about that? He was fae, after all. Not that she minded. She would take sleeping in the library over the streets any day.

Sage had been hesitant, but Freddy assured her that the spells protecting the library would keep everything secure and that this tunnel changed its exit location every time someone used it, so no one could break in that way. So she agreed to go with him, and now there they were, hurrying through a dark alley toward who knew what.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a large stone wall. There was nothing special about it, but Freddy seemed to know what he was doing. He muttered something under his breath and waved his hand over the wall's surface. A thin door materialized, just big enough for them to squeeze through one at a time.

"After you," he said, gesturing for her to go first.

Sage took a deep breath and stepped through the door, quickly followed by Freddy. The hallway was dark and narrow, but it opened into a large room with no windows that seemed to sink into the ground.

People were hurrying toward the arena in the middle, eager to get a good seat for whatever spectacle they would be witnessing.

Sage was swept up in the excitement of it all and couldn't help but wonder what they had come here to see. Whatever it was, she knew she would enjoy every minute of it.

"What is this place?"

"Welcome to the Underground. Have you ever been to one of Sarash's mage rankings?"

"Never."

“You’re in for a treat.”

Freddy threaded through the crowd down a steep flight of stairs, Sage close behind in his wake. Clusters of people stood around, talking and people-watching as they waited for the event to start. Freddy zeroed in on two empty seats near the front of the stage and led Sage over to them. A drop of almost three men high separated the tiers of seats from the stage below. Only a wooden railing to prevent the audience from joining the impending fights below.

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