Page 56 of Outlaw Witch

“You’d think it would be a worse kept secret that we have an entire library of forbidden and dangerous texts right below the city library,” Roscoe comments at one point.

“Hold on, you’d never heard of the forbidden stacks either?” I ask, incredulous.

Roscoe just shrugs and continues tapping away at his laptop.

Unsurprisingly, considering who they are, they have a bunch of contacts online that can apparently find out anything and everything you could ever want to know.

Need to know when a counselor is off sleeping with their mistress? They can find out.

A list of the Archarcans by most to least corrupt to see whose pockets you need to line? Easy as pie.

A way inside the archives hidden under the library that no one is supposed to know about?

... that seems a slightly tougher ask.

Seriously, they couldn’t have named the place something different? It sounds like it’s going to be a non-stop adventure venturing down there, complete with skeletons jumping out at us and riddles to solve.

Once we’re all done eating, Fabian takes me downstairs for his checkup. I then sit outside on an uncomfortable plastic chair while Fabian gets a check up done, and can tell by the expression on his face when he comes out that it’s not good news. My own quick inspection shows it’s no different than yesterday, which seems to cause his good mood to dive-bomb.

Having taken a look at Fabian’s blood, there’s no way I’m risking messing with it until we know what might make things worse.

Knowing my luck, I’ll piss off the angry demon living in his blood and accidentally kill him.

“I’m going to visit Seb. Do you want to come with me?”

I nod and he puts a hand on my hip to steer me to the room along the corridor where we find his brother staring aimlessly at the ceiling.

Fabian then gestures to the sofa and takes a seat beside his brother.

“Seb, this is my friend Silver. Silver, this is Seb.”

“You like chess?” Sebastian asks me.

“Never played before,” I tell him.

He lets out a world-weary sigh. “Good. If I have to play one more game, I’m going to go insane.”

Fabian ruffles his hair and shoots me a grin before turning back to his brother. “Did you eat breakfast today, bud?”

Cue another exasperated eye roll. “Yes,dad.Lucy’s back and she made sure I had a bunch of gross granola.”

That causes Fabian to cock his head to one side. “Lucy’s back? I better go have a quick chat with her.” He hesitates, glancing at me like I’m going to object to him leaving.

... or maybe he’s reluctant to leave me with Seb. Can’t say I blame him. I’m weird about who Una and Mona spend too much time with too.

“I’ll be back in two minutes,” he says, although I’m still not sure if he’s reassuring himself or me.

As soon as his brother leaves the room, Sebastian’s eyes flick to the door Fabian disappeared behind before returning to me. “My brother likes to smother me.”

“Your brother cares a lot about you.” I’m not sure why I feel the need to tell him that. And from the world-class, teenage eye roll he gives me, it’s not necessary.

“I know that. Our mom’s a flake and a bit of a bitch and both my dad and Fabian’s father have their heads up their butts most of the time. But Fab’s always been there for me.”

I settle deeper into the sofa, smiling as Fabian reappears, holding a tray of drinks and snacks.

“Your belt is weird,” Sebastian comments, grabbing a handful of candy and shoving it into his mouth.

“Little dude, that’s rude,” Fabian grumbles, and I snort. I’m pretty sure teenagers and toddlers are some of the most honest people around, so it doesn’t bother me.

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