Page 33 of Dragon Compelled
If there were ever to be a book with answers, it could very well have been here this entire time. Right under my nose and I never even considered checking.
Aries frowns. “Isn’t that the same section Constantine tried taking a book from?”
“Shit.” Blossom’s eyes widen. “I forgot about that.”
“Whoa, when did that happen, and why wasn’t I told?” Mag asks.
“Because not everything revolves around you,” Blossom tells him.
“He didn’t get away with it,” I explain to Mag.
Blossom continues, “If that asshole was poking around there before, maybe there really is something to find. Or something that will tell us what he really wanted from the library in the first place.”
Or from me.
“It could be our answer.” I look up at him, hope filling my chest with warmth for the first time since Hoc disappeared. Turning, I sprint down the stacks toward the stairs that lead up to the collection.
I don’t have to look to know that Aries, Blossom, and Mag are following me.
Upstairs, I head straight to the back wall where the collection is displayed behind lock and key. I pull up my sleeve and press my tattoo to the lock. It clicks free, and I pull the case open. The moment I see the shelves, my heart plummets. Hope disintegrates like smoke in a gust of wind as I stare at the empty wooden shelves.
“What the shit?” Mag says.
“They’re all gone. Why are they gone?” I look to Blossom whose expression has gone far harder than I think I’ve ever seen it.
“Did you move them?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“No,” I whisper.
“Well, someone sure as hell did,” Mag says darkly.
“Someone being Constantine,” I say quietly.
“I think, if they were gone before Hoc was taken, we would have known,” Mag agrees.
“But how could it happen in the first place?” Blossom demands.
Possibilities I want to refute rush through my mind.
“What if Constantine brought Hoc here and forced him to open the cage?” Mag asks.
I shake my head. “Now that the library has marked me as head librarian, Hoc wouldn’t have access. Would he?”
“Maybe,” Mag hedges.
“If he portaled out and then immediately back in the day he took Hoc...” Blossom muses. “He could have done it right before your mark overtook his.”
I don’t answer. Mostly because my mind has already wandered into even starker possibilities.
What if Constantine found a way to draw on my magic again and I’m the one who opened the case? What if, once again, this is all my fault? “This is a big problem.” Blossom steps forward and runs her finger over an empty shelf. It comes away clean. “They haven’t been gone long. There’s no dust where the books were sitting."
“What I don’t understand,” I say, “Is how did we not hear the alarm go off? It would have gone off if anyone but the head librarian had tried to access these, right?”
Blossom and Mag exchange a look.
“What?”
She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “You can’t panic. We already have it covered, okay?”
