Page 15 of Whispers of Wisteria
“What are you plotting?” Brayden asked.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I told him. Had anyone besides Damen checked for accuracy? It seemed… off, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why.
“I need to look it up,” I muttered, touching my chin. I glanced back at him. “What’s the Triarch?”
Brayden blinked, and I added, “You just mentioned it.”
“Oh.” He seemed taken aback. “It’s what we are.” I looked at him blankly, and he continued, “The Officers, Xing, and the Council. They’re the three governing bodies of our world.”
“Hm,” I responded.
“That’s also why Officers are made up of three generations, and there are three ranking tiers within each generation,” Brayden explained.
Interesting.
“Mu…” He seemed to be picking his words cautiously. “He really liked the number three.”
I pursed my lips. Was thatcriticism? It seemed perfectly logical to me. Very orderly.
“I’ll give you some books on it,” Brayden said. “I’ve got some stuff on what you asked for, too.”
I blinked at him and lowered my hand. “Already?”
“Well—” He looked at me strangely. “Yeah. Let’s go look at them together, okay?” He held out his hand.
I looked at it for a long second, my heart pounding. I’d dreamed of something like this—this kind of connection between favorite siblings.
I wasn’t going to let fear ruin it.
“O-okay.” My voice was small, and I couldn’t look at his face, but I still placed my hand in his.
Brayden ledme to a room in the far corner of the first floor. There was a wall of stained-glass windows and rows of brightly-colored books.
I’d never been here before.
“The most popular hangouts in the library are the psychology and science sections,” he said. “No one comes back here.”
“We have a section for kids?” The low tables were bright red, and the chairs were smaller than elsewhere. “How come no one uses it?”
Brayden shrugged, holding out a red chair for me. “The early childhood education department uses it sometimes.” He pushed my seat. To anyone else, it might have been a tight fit, but I was able to sit semi-comfortably.
“Now—” He sat on the floor and pulled his backpack to his lap“—I stole this from—”
“Wait.” His choice of words had thrown me off, and I held up my hand, interrupting. “You, what?”
Brayden paused, watching me, before he finally opened his mouth, speaking more slowly. “I’verecentlyacquiredthis book, which has everything you’ve requested.” He set a deep brown-colored book on the table and slid it toward me.
With a racing heart, I eyed the book. I did not believe that this book had been ‘recently acquired’ by anything less than illegal means.
But there was something familiar about it.
“What is it?” I heard myself ask.
Brayden didn’t appear to notice. “It’s from your private library,” he said.
I was finally able to tear my eyes from the book.
“Well, one of them.” Brayden was almost bouncing in excitement. He was thrilled to be sharing this with me. “You have a few.”
