Page 46 of Live Like Legends

He took the stairs two at a time, placing his hands on his hips as he surveyed his surroundings. “The Divine Library is secured so that no one can just pop in with portals, regardless of their stature here. We would have gotten kicked back to the North Village. There are always loopholes, hence the secret passage.”

I pushed my bottom lip out, nodding my head. I widened my arms and spun around. “And we are in here, why?”

Nick turned around. “The library was Jonah’s favorite place.”

“We’ve established this, yes.”

“All this time, Ariel said they’d looked everywhere for it, but maybe they just didn’t know where to look.” Nick scratched his chin and then made his way over to the wall where the tapestries hung. The same wall where I’d found the book about Enchanters.

Something in my mind clicked. “We are here about Jonah’s powers?”

He didn’t answer me. He simply looked at the tapestries, examining them. He touched one of them, letting his fingers feel the golden tassels. He skipped the one of the Enchanter and angel, where I’d found the book and stood in front of the last one. It looked just like a simple picture of an angel etched into the fabric.

“Nick, you are making a big assumption on a conversation we had.”

Nick pulled the tapestry away from the wall and started searching the wall. “I remember that they wanted to redecorate, make new tapestries, a bunch of things at one point, but Jonah had declined that request. He had made such a big deal out of keeping these here.”

“Okay…Nick, when I found the book the last time it was behind the tapestry that made the most sense. This is just a picture of an angel; I don’t get how that would lead you to…”

He pressed his hands to different stones, until one of them went further inward, as if he was pressing a button. When the stone slid back far enough another stone close to it popped out. “This tapestry was designed with the highest executive in mind.”

I came up behind him, noticing that the stone was hollow on the inside. He reached inside to reveal a small book. There was nothing special about it. It was a leather-bound pocket-sized notebook with a plain leather strap that kept it bound. Nick swept his fingers over the front, tapping the bottom right corner. “Look.”

I grabbed the book from his hands and found the impression of initials. “Are these Jonah’s?”

Nick reclaimed the book from my hands and started to unravel the strap. “J. H. Z. Yeah, Jonah Henry Zuriel.” We both waited with bated breath when he opened the book. I had this thought that magic would come zooming out, or words would appear, but neither of those things happened. Nothing at all happened. Nick stared at the blank pages, flipping through over and over again as if he thought something new would happen.

“I don’t understand. I just…I have this feeling like this is it, this is where it is.”

I leaned against one of the tables. “Maybe there is some special way to release it from the book. Jonah didn’t seem like the type to just make it this easy. Or maybe it’s cheeky andknows you aren’t the one it’s meant for so it's hiding.” I poked his side, trying to be funny.

He let out an unamused laugh, closing the book and placing it in his back pocket. “As long as Ariel doesn’t get his hands on it, then I guess we’re good.”

“We can hand this off to Natalia to keep while we’re gone, maybe she can find a way to crack the code. She is the smart one.”

“Yeah…” He seemed distracted and a bit disheartened.

I slid my hands from his stomach to his chest. “Fix your face, Nicholas, you should still be proud that you found it. Now you have something to rub in Ariel’s face when we get back and you figure it all out. Dethrone him from his delusional place at the top.”

He didn’t look the least bit interested. I wanted to bring us back to the happy place we were in, especially since it wasn’t like his detour was a failure. It just didn’t end perfectly like he wanted; the answer required something more than just his good sleuthing skills. I huffed out a breath but chose to move my hands back down his stomach and closer to the button of his pants. “While we’re in here, we could continue our date,” I leaned up and kissed his neck. “You can’t tell me you haven’t considered what it would be like to do very inappropriate things in here.”

His hand covered my own and removed them from the top of his pants. He backed up a few feet. “I haven’t actually.”

I walked back up to him, letting my fingers slip under his shirt. “Oh, come on, you can’t tell me that it hasn’t crossed your mind to bend a very pretty girl over one of these tables?—”

“I think it’s probably best that we just get back to the others.” His voice was monotone and tired. I understood, I did, but I could still be upset all on my own.

I ruffled my curls, taking a few steps back. “Youwanted to take me out.Youwanted to give me a sense of happy freedom before I have to focus everything I have to lead all our friends into the literal unknown.Youderailed our time to come here, which I will say was for a solid reason, but now since every little piece of the fucking puzzle isn’t just falling into your hands, you’re just done. No thought about me, the girl who is still trying to have a good time with you.” I could have pulled my fucking hair out.

“Dani, it isn’t like…”

I shook my head and smacked my lips. “Oh, no, it’s alright. You’re not interested. You want to leave and just head off to fight, then okay cool. Thank you for making my time before, I could potentially fuck up everything and cause even

more chaos, a fantastic one.” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. “I’ll just go be horny over there and finish our date by myself.”

I turned around before he could say anything else, making my way over toward a row of bookshelves.

Iwas seething as I took note of all the books before me. Most of their spines were worn off but I’m sure the insides were legible enough if I gave a shit right now.

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