Page 54 of Living Legend

“That’s impossible,” he murmured, leaning in to get a better look inside.

“There’s a secret passage to this place. I hardly think a hidden book is something to fawn over.” I stood next to him, bumping his hip before reaching into the dark space, feeling around.

“Anything?” he asked. The hope in his voice almost lightened my heart.

I flattened my palm and patted the space. I felt small bits of destroyed stone and dirt, but nothing of interest until…cloth. I felt cloth. I felt a spine. I traced along the edge and engraved stars greeted my fingertips. I grabbed as much as I could and pulled it out. Delicately, I brought it into our sights, noticing its front cover was plain, a simple, iridescent blue.

Nicholas lightly took it from my hands and motioned for us to take a seat. I pulled out a chair, sitting down next to him. Elise walked over, dust covering her cheeks, and Reese came around from the other direction.

“What’s that?” Reese asked, pointing to the book in his best friend’s hand.

“The book we’ve been looking for.”

Elise looked behind us at the wall and let out a laugh. “I’m not fucking surprised.”

“It’s getting closer to morning, Nick. I’ll keep an eye out from the first floor but take a page out of my book and skim over the unimportant shit and get to key points. That’s how I passed all my classes.” Reese made his way to the stairs.

“No, you made it through your classes cheating off me,” Nicholas threw over his shoulder as Reese descended the stairs with a hardy laugh.

“Call me over when you’re done. I saw a book aboutcivilizedtorture, and it’s been a few hours since I’ve had a good laugh.” Elise winked at me, nodding over to Nicholas, who’d already begun to devour the pages.

Nicholas flipped over it all, skimming through lines of texts that clearly held no meaning to him. I placed my hand on his wrist, stilling him.

“Nicholas, it's odd an Enchanter was able to overpower Natalia’s hold on a portal key.”

He didn’t remove his hand from my hold, but instead pressed his palm on a page, smoothing it out. “Believe me, I’m well aware of that.”

“Does the book explain that?”

“Dani, I’m not an idiot. That’s what I’m looking for. For now, it’s just the history of their people and a log of their ancestors.” He sounded stern and annoyed, but his hand remained firmly underneath mine. I shifted my chair closer to him so I could read over his shoulder.

I heard his breath start to hitch with the proximity. I saw the slight red of the back of his neck, thanks to the lights above us. I slid my arm around so it hung across the back of his chair.

“You know, reading over someone’s shoulder its actually really annoying,” he said, flipping another page.

“I think you rather enjoy my level of annoyance. I think it excites you a little.”

“I get my daily level of annoyance from Reese; I don’t need it from you.”

I laughed. “Fine, you can get your annoyance from Reese, but there are plenty of other things I can give you that Reese can’t.” I pressed my lips together. “Well, I mean hecould, but I feel like he’s not your type.”

“You think you’re my type?” he asked in the most nonchalant way possible, even though I knew he’d read the same sentence twice.

“That’s yet to be determined. Although, I think I might be,” I said in his ear as he straightened. His face contorted like I had just slapped him in the face.

I slid the book over to me to start where he left off. He reached over to grab the book back, but I slid it further away. He started to open his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. “So, does your magic just consist of concealing your wings and being a night light?”

He looked confused and a bit insulted at my question. “Yes, it’s more than that. It depends on the angel. If I really wanted to, I could use it to fight. I’ve seen angels practically blind someone.”

“Then why don’t you? Use it to fight, I mean.”

“I don’t like relying on it. Sometimes, being an angelic night light is enough, I suppose,” he joked, catching my eye when I looked up. The way his lips pulled into a smirk let me know he was making my joke his own. I kicked him from under the table, letting my foot remain near his.

“I knew I liked you for a reason.”

He looked at me, but this time, he looked into my eyes as if was searching for something. I could almost feel his heart start to thud in his chest. His eyes traveled from my eyes to my mouth. His lips parted a bit as his breathing slowed. He made no move to get closer to me; he just looked at my mouth as if he were contemplating his very existence in the curves of my lips.

I broke away from his gaze as I began to look over the book again. “I wasn’t completely alright in the tunnel, by the way.”

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