Page 10 of Discord
“Severed heads?” Balthazar asked.
“What the fuck, Balthazar? This is a library. People send us books, not severed heads,” I said.
“Yes, but Silvaria is a naughty, naughty witch. She’s holding a demon hostage, and she managed to find Reyson’s vessel. She could totally FedEx you severed heads to make a point.”
“Balthazar is right,” Bram said. “If she’s kept Talvath detained, I wouldn’t put it past her. People have done some crazy shit to get out of deals, and she is a special kind of crazy.”
“Okay, but she’s not the kind of crazy that mails the heads of her enemies to a library. That’s just silly. The box would get messy, and someone would open it. She’d get arrested. I can’t believe I’m having a conversation about mailing heads! She shipped some books, Balthazar, you’ve been stalking her online. You knew she was traveling under that pretense. How did you even make the jump to heads instead of books?!”
Balthazar shrugged.
“I’m a vampire. Giving someone a severed head can be considered foreplay. Do you want me to gift you Silvaria’s?”
“No way. That bitch kidnapped Talvath. I’m going to be the one that tears her apart,” Bram said.
“Yes, yes. We all want to kill her. She’s sending books.”
“You’re a very confusing witch,” Balthazar said. “Shouldn’t that make you happy? You can get mean about the books in here.”
Reyson strolled up to my desk and sat down.
“I think I know. The books in the vault just tried to kill us. One of them got mad I took the painting, and books must have some sort of herd mentality. One of them was shrieking as it tried to assault me… it got right up in my face.”
“You have to know how to put each one to sleep, or they will do that. Sentient books need to give their permission before they come here, or they are miserable little shits. Silvaria sent some books, and she never takes care of anything like permission or infestations. This box is going to be a hot mess, but it won’t be full of body parts.”
“That’s a little disappointing,” Balthazar said. “If she’s trying to make a point, she should go big or go home. I’m way less scared of her now.”
“Don’t underestimate that vile creature. I still don’t know how she figured out how to trap a demon. Some of these books have bits and pieces, and some are totally useless. I’m not sure who wrotethisone, but no editor fact-checked it. The sigils are total nonsense. If you drew any of them thinking you’d trap a demon or Hellhound, you’d get a pretty rude awakening.”
I saw a man with a massive box walking towards my desk. New books were generally exciting, unless they came from Silvaria. He was struggling with the box because it was that big. It probably would have been easier on his back to put it on a cart.
I needed to move them to the atrium to diffuse anything Silvaria hadn’t handled, and I was definitely not carrying that.
“You can set that down over here,” I said.
I groaned when the shifter dropped the box, and the shrieking started. There were definitely some sentient books in there, and Silvaria had definitely brought them here without asking them first.
“I’ll get the cart and—”
Reyson lifted the box with one hand and smirked at me.
“Why, my witch? I can carry this.”
The shifter’s eyes bugged out of his head as Reyson balanced the massive box on one hand like it was empty, clearly showing off. I cleared my throat.
“Do you have something for me to sign?”
He pulled his pad from the back pocket of his pants, and I added my signature. Reyson carried the box to the atrium like it was nothing. I sent Bram to go get Felix. I trusted all these men, but Felix was the only one here capable of taking over my duties while I was doing other library work.
Reyson and I were alone in the atrium. I cut the tape on the box warily, but didn’t jump back in time. An entire swarm of pixies flew out of the box and immediately set about trying to bite my face. Book pixies were vicious little things, and they bred like rabbits. If any of them got out of the atrium, we’d have to close the entire library to get rid of them.
This was not the first time Silvaria had sent me books infested with book pixies. I’d complained about it before because, even if she was a shitty witch like Laris said, she could have easily handled a few pixies. They'd been given a chance to multiply thanks to her laziness.
“Shit!” I yelled, trying to swat pixies away from my face.
There were also sentient books in the box that started shrieking about being kidnapped as soon as the box was open. Some of them were offended they had been shoved in the same box as regular books full of pests.
I heard a loud smack as Reyson clapped his hands together. All the pixies stopped moving and fell to the floor. I tried to talk to him over the shrieking of the books.
