Page 11 of Discord
“Did you kill them? We usually just trap them and let them go outside. They like books, but they are perfectly happy in trees. There’s a colony in the woods.”
“They are just sleeping, my witch. Áine went a little crazy with her creations when she made the Fae. They have blamed me for some of her pixie creation’s nonsense many times. Everyone is talking about the ramifications of demon deals, but no one ever talks about deals with the Fae. People think just because they can’t lie, that they are getting the better end of that deal… but the Faealwayscome out ahead.”
We could’ve talk about the Fae and their trickery all day, but I needed to round up the pixies before they woke up, and I really needed those books to stop screaming. I didn’t sleep at all last night, and I was just starting to feel it.
After the first box Silvaria sent me, I decided I would never be underprepared again. I wasn’t stupid enough to think complaining about it was going to change things. I had a mesh enclosure just for book pixies. If she sent me a book with a spirit attached to it this time, I was going to be so mad.
I grabbed my mesh enclosure and tossed it to Reyson.
“Can you round up the pixies and stick them in this? Try not to smash them. They all know each other, and they are total snitches. They’ll tell the pixies outside that one of their friends is missing and they’ll turn into total dicks about it. I need these books to stop screaming.”
“As you wish, my witch.”
I pulled the first shrieking book out of the box. Thankfully, this one wasn’t on battle magic or shifters. It wasn’t trying to fight me. It was justmad.I started stroking the cover.
“You’re okay. You’re at the Library of the Profane. There are plenty of books like you here. I’m sorry they didn’t ask you permission to come, but you’re among friends now.”
The book ruffled its pages and sighed. It was still angry, but it was no longer screaming. This was normal. Now, it just needed to rant.
“I had been with the same family forcenturies.My owner just handed me to that witch like I meant nothing! He changed after he made that deal with the demons.”
The book started sobbing. Books were a little like ghosts in that way, after they’d been through something traumatic, they needed to be soothed. Though, I’dmuchrather deal with an upset book than any spirit. Every book Silvaria had kidnapped was usually quite content when they realized they’d ended up at the Library of the Profane. I could have an actual conversation and help a book. There wasn’t a whole hell of a lot I could do for a ghost without ending up in jail.
I started stroking the gold embossed title. This book was old, but well cared for. The gold had barely started fading.
“Shh. You’re at the biggest and best library in the entire world now. I’m the librarian here, and I’ll take care of you. You’ll be with other books like you. And if you like, I can offer you revenge on the warlock who carelessly tossed you aside. The witch he gave you to is a bad person. She brought you here, and this is an excellent place, but she was talking to him because she’s up to no good. You could be a hero.”
“I’m a history book. The family only ever brought me out when they needed to teach their children. I’m not written for heroics.”
“Then, let’s write you a new chapter! You might be a history book, but you’re still sentient. They may have been ignoring you until they needed to pull you off the shelf, but you have probably seen and heard a lot of things that could help us. Your master gave you to an evil witch, because they promised him her help to get out of the deal he made with a demon.”
The book finally stopped weeping and got all snobbish with me. Excuse a witch for trying to kiss a book's ass to make being kidnapped a little better!
“Iknowall this. I was in the room when he was making the deal. Both deals. I was there when he summoned the demon. He threw me in a desk drawer when I said I didn’t want to leave with her. IsaidI didn’t want to go with the nasty witch, but neither of them cared!”
“I can’t change how they treated you, but I can tell you that will never happen in this library. I’m fairly certain you don’t want me to find this warlock and mail you back to him after what he did to you, right? You could help many people by telling me what you saw.”
“I’m not convinced this place is any better than the one I left.”
Reyson set the pixies down and laid one finger on the book. I’d been petting the cover for a good ten minutes, and all it took was his finger. The book had a female voice. I guess even books weren’t immune to Reyson’s charms.
“Well, hello there,” the book purred.
Only Reyson would get sexually objectified by a sentient history book!
“Hello there, little book. My witch here, you know, she wasn’t lying... this really is a wonderful place for books to live. She’ll take care of you. I’ll be here, too. We just need your help. Ripley was right, you could be a hero just by telling us what you heard.”
Okay, this book didn’t even have a fucking vagina. Reyson shouldn’t be able to hit on it for information. Sentient books were so fuckingweird,and this one wasn’t even trying to bite me. Then the book started fucking giggling!
“Okay.You,I trust. You aren’t a warlock. My owner made a deal for more potent magic. The family was losing money, at an alarming rate, they were going to lose their estate. Centuries of inbreeding had made their magic weaker. They couldn’t cheat like they used to. That was what his deal was for, to build the fortune back up and save the estate.
“He had been using me and his other books a lot, trying to find a way out of his payment. That was when the nasty witch showed up. She claimed to have knowledge of trapping demons. She said she couldn’t outright kill it herself, but she had unleashed something terrible into the world that could. It was a being she could control and instruct to slaughter all the demons, thereby allowing everyone to keep their gifts. This being could give out even stronger gifts than a demon could.”
“Horse shit!” Reyson yelled.
“My master wasn’t convinced, but she showed him a live video on her phone of the demon she had trapped. He wanted proof of the existence of a being that was even more powerful than a demon, but she didn’t have it. She said she knew exactly where it was until she was ready to make her move. It impressed him that she’d held a demon captive and so he took her at her word. He handed me over like I was nothing, then let her shove me into a dark box.”
Silvaria was makinga lotof big promises. I knew Reyson insisted a simple witch had no power over him. We still didn’t know what kind of deal Silvaria made, and before that moment, not even Bram thought it was possible to trap a demon.
