Page 4 of Dragon Compelled
“Do you vow to protect this place?” Athenaeum asks.
I turn to face her. “Please pick someone else.”
“I will not,” she replies. “Do you vow to protect this place?” Athenaeum repeats.
“With my life,” I choke out, repeating Hoc’s vow. He protected this library, and it cost him his life. What will it cost me? Even though I’m terrified of the answer, I can’t do anything but make my promises to this place. It’s what Hoc needs, and I can’t fail him now.
“Do you vow to uphold what is good and right, no matter the cost?”
“I do,” I repeat.
Hoc was good. Straight through to his soul. He was a beacon. A shining light of all that was right in this place.
“Then I pass the responsibility of head librarian to you, Paige.”
“Wait! There’s still so much I don’t know.”
“Let his memories guide you,” she replies then disappears.
The world around me comes back into focus, and time picks up where it left off.
“Paige?”
I turn to Aries. He’s watching me carefully. “What?”
“What do you mean you belong to this place?”
Tears burn in the corners of my eyes as I stare at the ink on my wrist. “I am bound to the library. It is my duty to keep it safe. My vow to protect it.” The words are far more painful than I could have thought they would be. And as I speak them, I picture nails being hammered into my coffin. “My life belongs to Athenaeum now.”
Chapter2
Paige
Around me, stacks of books sit dusty and untouched from where Hoc left them last. I ignore them just like I’ve been doing since the moment this office became mine two weeks ago. Instead, I stare at the words on the screen until they begin to blur together into one indistinguishable line of virtual goo. My head pounds, each beat of my heart like a heavy drum in my ears. Removing my glasses, I pinch the bridge of my nose and breathe deeply, trying to find some semblance of sanity in the midst of the chaos my life has become.
A part of me is still hoping to wake up and discover that this is all some kind of twisted mind game. A test, maybe, to see if I’m ready to be a keeper rather than the role of head librarian I’ve been thrust into.
But each and every day I wake up in this living nightmare, I’m forced to face realizations I wish I could bury.
Just a few weeks ago, everything had been going according to plan. I was working as a soon-to-be keeper in the Athenaeum, a secret supernatural library hidden in the Earth realm, spending my evenings listening to spicy audiobooks and drinking wine.
I had Hoc.
My eyes mist, and I push to my feet to pace. I can still smell him in here. The foresty musky smell that belongs to the troll who raised me. Not to mention the hidden door to his private apartment glamoured over where it stands along the back wall, charmed against anyone else’s entry but his. I’ve yet to go in there. It feels too personal, especially knowing he’s going to return. Because hewillreturn.
He has to.
Hoc’s the only father I’ve ever known, and now…my throat swells, so I take a deep, steadying breath, stopping to study a picture of the two of us he always kept on his desk. In fact, this office is full of his personal effects that I haven’t removed despite the fact that it’s been two weeks and I still don’t know where Hoc is or whether he’s alive.
Two weeks since Constantine ripped away the only father I ever knew and changed the trajectory of my life forever.
True to her word, the Athenaeum hasn’t re-appeared. No matter how many times I call out to her. No matter how many different moments I’ve demanded she tell me how to summon the mysterious council…she remains silent and aloof.
If it weren’t for the memories she showed me, I would have wondered if I imagined all of it. Through Hoc’s experiences, I gleaned nearly all I need to know about the daily tasks of running this place, though I still struggle to keep up with the workload.
It’s as though he moved at twice the speed I can.
So, in spite of the nightmare my life has become, I continue to sit here day after day, attempting to run this place the way Hoc would have wanted me to.
