Page 42 of Legends and Librarians
“Whoa now,” the Demon Lord teased, “I thought you wanted us to stay hidden.”
Without realizing it, I’d moved closer to the door, as if I’d wanted to go defend Roan’s honor or something. My cheeks flushed. Roan was perfectly capable of defending himself, he didn’t need me interrupting them. But it just wasn’t right.
“You’re looking a little red,” the Demon Lord mocked. “Want me to teach them all a lesson?”
“Quiet,” I whispered back.
Oren paced in front of the window, then stopped and gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, but I’m going out there. They’re too emotional to deal with this.”
“Oren!” I reached out for his arm, but he was too quick and already out the door. He strode up to the woman with a wave, apparently not caring how her eyes narrowed or how she reached for her sword.
“Hello, my name’s Oren and I’m a researcher here.” He held out his hand.
She ignored it and glared at Roan. “So, you brought moreinnocent people here, huh? Figures.”
Oh this was not going to end well. I almost joined them, but I felt the other story spirits gathering around us. If I left them alone, they might do something drastic themselves. For now, I’d stay inside and trust Roan and Oren to handle this.
“Look, this is all a big misunderstanding,” Oren said calmly, “the books come to life. They’re story spirits, not ghosts.”
Roan nodded. “He’s right. If there was wild magic here, it’s stable now. There’s nothing to dispel.”
Jade stared at Oren like he’d grown another head. “Books? You really think books came to life and scared people away? The townsfolk aren’t that stupid and neither am I. You have no idea how frightened each person was after fleeing the mountain. No idea what they experienced. They attacked children, Roan. Children.”
Children? I glanced at the Demon Lord, but he just shrugged again. “We just scared them, that’s all.”
That somehow didn’t feel as reassuring coming from him than when Lisa said it. That didn’t matter right now though because if we couldn’t convince these adventurers that they weren’t ghosts, then we’d have a real problem on our hands.
As Jade and Roan glared at each other silently, neither willing to budge an inch, shadows swirled around me. The Demon Lordlooked like he was about to go give Jade a piece of his mind.
“Oh no.” I pushed him back. “We’re supposed to be proving this isn’t a haunted library, so no adding fuel to the fire.”
He glared at me, shadows curling around him like a cloak. “I’ll do what needs to be done to protect this library. Just because you think that means inviting people in doesn’t mean I do.”
I sighed. If he really wanted to go out there and fight, I couldn’t stop him. I had no idea how the library had put himor anyone else back in their books in the past, but the better question was why wasn’t it doing it now? He’d said the story spirits usually hid inside their books, but that hadn’t happened when the contractors came or now.
“Why are you here instead of hiding?” I asked the Demon Lord. “Why confront them at all?”
“Because you gave the library hope,” he said, “and now it wants people back, even if that means rotten adventurers at its doors. This is your fault, so don’t even try and stop me.”
Wait, what did he mean by the librarywantedpeople back? Was the library....no, I didn’t have time for crazy thoughts like that. Libraries didn’t have feelings, no matter how magical they were. I had to do something about these adventurers right now.
If we were going to reopen, we needed people to feel safe. To be excited about the story spirits instead of fearful. Which meant we had to prove that the story spirits weren’t ghosts.
“Wait!” I grabbed the Demon Lord’s arm before he could storm outside just like Oren had. “We need a plan. Whatever the adventurers are here to do, we have to prove them wrong.”
As we stood there, staring at each other, the other story spirits peeked out from behind the stacks. Mochi wandered over, patting the Demon Lord’s leg. He looked down, having a silent conversation with the panda, before ripping his arm away from me.
“Fine, what do you have in mind?” he asked.
I glanced outside as Roan and Jade started yelling at each other about something, with Roan standing between her and the library. It looked like they were about to come to blows. Cerbie raced over from wherever he’d been playing outside, growling and snapping at the adventurers. I’d never seen him look so fierce before, defending Roan.
Apparently, the adventurers thought so too as they all drew their swords. I had to do something before this got out of hand.Something that would give everyone what they wanted...
“What would happen if those adventurers tried to dispel you like a ghost?” I asked. “Like if you let them burn sage or chant or whatever they’re planning on doing?”
“Absolutely nothing,” the Demon Lord said. “We aren’t ghosts.”
“Then let’s get out there and prove that.” I grinned, looking around the library at all the story spirits. “If none of their techniques work, then they’ll have to accept you’re not ghosts. Are you with me?”
