Page 23 of Must Love Libraries and Libations
I rose from my workbench. “Please do not let that be the reading chaise again.”
I made my way out of the study and peered across the workroom.
Louisa May was skittering across the floor with a torn scrap of silver velvet in her mouth. Behind her, Hawthorne was attempting to pull a silver-bound tome across the floor.
My eyes narrowed. “Hawthorne, please tell me that is not the Hekate codex.”
He paused mid-lug and blinked innocently at me.
“Wait, have you been in the rare books room?” I looked from Lousia May to Hawthorne. “Please tell me you have not been in the rare books room.”
Lousia May chirped sweetly, but Hawthorne’s eyes narrowed. I could see he was planning his escape with his very shiny book.
“Hawthorne, that book is four centuries old and only slightly less temperamental than I am. And, I remind you, it is still cursed even if I have the spells locked in place.”
Louisa May trilled cheerfully.
“No, I don’t care how shiny it is,” I said then narrowed my gaze at her. “Wait a minute. What is that fabric in your mouth?” In that moment, I could see the velvet drape in her mouth had, in fact, been pilfered from the rare artifacts display case.
Caught.
Lousia May called to Hawthorne, sounding a loud trumpet, then the two sprinted into action, dashing away from me, the codex bumping along behind Hawthorne.
“Hawthorne! Stop! That book could kill you, you scaley fool. I don’t care how shiny it is.”
Louisa May took to the air in a gleeful zigzag, looping toward her mate. As I lunged to intercept them, she somersaulted midair and dropped the velvet directly over my face.
Blinded, I stumbled, tripping over Poe, who had inexplicably stationed himself in the middle of the floor. I collided squarely with the biographies shelf. The shelf would have collapsed, but the library itself righted the bookcase in time.
By the time I untangled the velvet from my horns, the codex had changed claws.
Ambrose was now sprinting full-tilt down the corridor with it, flanked by Hemingway and Twain, who were working as a getaway crew. The Hekate codex released warning puffs of purple smoke.
“This is not happening,” I growled, giving chase. “You have to stop! You’re going to release a hex on the book.”
The other bookwyrms aided the getaway. Book carts wheeled directly into my path. Paper planes fluttered through the air like a squadron of butterflies chasing after me.
Twain paused to blow a raspberry at me before tossing the codex into the air, where Louisa May caught it with a triumphant screech.
Finally, the library itself weighed in on my side. Sending pillows flying from the lounge chairs, it gently diverted the other bookwyrms from my path. I rounded the corner into the low and narrow Herbalism section of the library only to find…
I stopped short.
A nest.
There was a nest.
Louisa May landed beside Hawthorne in their makeshift nest. The pair looked at me from the assembled nest of paper scraps, an abandoned scarf, ribbons, silver buttons, silver inkpots, and a surprisingly elegant butter dish I had no idea how had gotten into the library. Of course. They had done all this for the nest. Nesting season always made the bookwyrms’ judgment cloudy. I understood that. And while I also understood their propensity for shiny silver items, I just wished they didn’t drag ancient cursed tomes into it…or rare pieces of embroidered velvet.
Lousia May and Hawthorne looked at me, blinking almost innocently.
The codex hissed, releasing another plume of purple smoke.
“If that thing turns you two into fire-breathing toads, I’m not reversing it,” I told them. “You know you can’t take things from the rare book room, even if for a noble purpose,” I said, eyeing their nest. “It’s not safe,” I added gently.
Lousia May chirped sweetly at me.
“Not fair turning your charm on me. I can’t let you have it, but I can find you something to replace it. And I promise I will. But nothing else from the rare books room.”
