Page 147 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

I tune back in to the audiobook still playing in my ears and resume my patrol, fingers crossed the incident wasn’t strong enough to raise any alarms with Hoc.

I can’t really afford any more fuckups.

Not after Ibarelymanaged to avoid getting thrown out for the last one.

So, I keep strolling, putting one foot in front of the otherwhile I imagine the hands of a deliciously muscled blue alien running all over my body.

A shifter—as evidenced by her golden gaze—steps into the aisle and looks up. She mouths something, but I can’t hear her. She repeats?—

“Sorry!” I pull one of my earbuds out.

“No biggie,” she says easily. Her blonde hair is long and braided over her shoulder. When she smiles, I get the sense that she’s new to the library. Mainly because the smile doesn’t reach her eyes, and it’s not hard to sense her uneasiness here. She’s not the only one. Most of our guests don’t realize how alive this place truly is until they experience it for themselves.

“Can I help you?” I ask.

“Yes. Please. I’m trying to find some history on shifters. Books detailing what comes first in terms of creation. A real chicken or the egg type of situation.” She laughs.

I return her humor, deciding that, if I were going to make a friend outside of this place, she could be one of them. “Yes. We have quite a lot of reference material about shifters in the non-fiction section. Unless, of course, you want a spelled fictional story.”

“No, thanks,” she says with a shudder. “I’ve had enough dealings with spells to last a lifetime.”

“Well—”

“Serenity,” she offers.

“Serenity,” I continue, “You can find the non-fiction down the hall and toward the back. There’s a sign over it, though it might not be lit yet.”Damn gnomes. They hadonejob this morning.

“Great. Thanks so much?—”

“Paige,” I say.

“Paige. Great name.” She grins, but after so many years of jokes, the humor doesn’t hit me in the same way anymore.

“Thanks, it’s fitting,I suppose.”

“Very. Have a great day!” She waves and turns. Normally, supernaturals are escorted through the more volatile sections of the library. The ones who need keeper or intern status to enter. For what Serenity is looking for, though, she shouldn’t run into any issues.

Unless, of course, she tries to break into the restricted areas. But, as far as I know, that’s never happened. The library’s magic is too strong for that. It sees everything.

I continue my perusal, re-shelving books as needed and checking through the areas to make sure no one has wandered where they shouldn’t be, and by the time I surface again, I realize that the entire morning has passed without much incident.

Winning!My stomach growls, and I become aware I’ve very nearly missed lunch, thanks to my audiobook as a pleasant distraction. The story is about a human woman who crash-lands on an alien planet only to be saved by a large, muscled creature with two dicks.Two!Her dream come true.

If only.

I snort, enjoying the spicy scenes and the fiction of it all. Humans write the best fairy tales. This place? It’s full of stories that are much too real to be enjoyed.

On my way back to the break room, I reach the witch section. There’s a title called Midnight Falls something-or-other, and my fingers brush over the spine as I try to imagine what a place like that would look like. The spine moves beneath my hands, and I jerk away again, scowling at how unsettled it leaves me.

A noise ahead snags my attention. Grunting. And then a heave of breath and acrack!

The sound of a weapon wielded has me running toward it.

Rounding the corner, I pull up short. Blossom, a female keeper not much older than me with stark white hair is standing over a body that’s currently oozing blackened bloodinto the carpets. Blossom has a severed troll head clutched in one hand and a blood-tipped axe in the other.

She looks up at me, her sharp gaze mildly annoyed at seeing me here. “He a friend of yours?”

“What happened?” I ask, eyes wide.

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