Page 37 of Flock Around and Find Out

“Not my fault your ass looks like that in those pants,” I called back.

He turned his head, dangling on the ladder in a way that would have made me nervous if it were anyone else.

If anyone could keep themselves steady there—or be just fine after a fall—it would be Ruben.

It wouldhaveto be Ruben, because I sure as fuck couldn’t drag him out of there. He was far too heavy.

“Do you always talk like that?” he asked, his tone more curious than scolding for once.

“Like what?”

“So forward? Are you like this with everyone? Do you actually mean any of the things you say, or is it merely a game to you?” He must have read my expression from that distance, because he added, “I’m not faulting you. I just want to know how to read the things you say, how to understand how seriously I should take them.”

I blew out a breath, thankful to have him so far away for this conversation. It felt easier to talk to him when he wasn’t quite as overwhelming.

And I could still see his ass, so that helped, too.

“I’ve never really seen a reason to be lady-like, okay? That whole play it coy thing, that never really was my thing. I never did it well. So, I prefer to just say what I think. If people don’t like it, well, they don’t really like me. I’d prefer to know that upfront.”

“So it isn’t just a joke?”

“I mean, I think I’m pretty funny a lot of the time, sure, but I’m not going to say things like that if I don’t mean them.”

He seemed to consider my words, to mull them over before descending the ladder and moving to the next without addressing it further.

I didn’t know if I’d given the answer he’d been looking for or not. His expression gave away so little, I couldn’t be sure. He at least didn’t seemlesshappy than he’d been to start with, so that was a good thing, right?

My legs ached from the up and down, and I figured this was one of those times when people had to do according to their skills. If we were talking about squeezing into a tiny space, well, me and my crow were absolutely the right choice. If we were talking endurance and brute strength, well, that was Ruben’s department.

However, after another twenty minutes, I figured I was as rested as I could hope for. Instead of climbing back up, though, I tried to take a general view of what was around us.

Left.Knot was always mysterious, rarely gave me exactly what I wanted, but usually gave me what I needed. He wouldn’t have sent me here if he didn’t think it would help.

Which meant he wouldn’t tell me to come here unless he knew the item I needed was here. So…where was it?

I thought back to his answers, to the way he phrased things, never direct, always slightly skewed. I’d assumed that left and on top meant the top left of the shelf, but what if it didn’t?

What if he’d intended something far less obvious?

“Do you have a section of books that are different from here?” I called up to Ruben.

“What do you mean?”

“Books that are either set to be destroyed or sent out or something. I don’t know—anything that makes them put aside?”

He darted his gaze away for a moment, then widened his eyes. “We have a section for unsorted books, ones that need to be gone through and categorized. We call them the Left Behind, since they are often taken from the archives of others.”

“Left,” I said with a chuckle as Ruben came down.

Leave it to Knot to tell me everything I need and still do it the most annoying way possible.

I followed Ruben past the shelves to a back room, only to find stacks of books on tables, in boxes, all over with no real discernable order. Dust covered many of them. “Guess you don’t go through these that much, huh?”

“We used to have a few Justices dedicated to this work, but over the years it fell out of fashion. I guess most decided that we didn’t need to worry about that, that we knew everything we needed to know. This has become a much less supported position for the past fifty years or so.”

Yellow.I peered around the space. Yellow and at the top meant it couldn’t have been at the bottom of a pile, right? Not tucked inside a box somewhere, hidden away.

In the corner, I saw a bright yellow book on the top of a precarious pile, the sort of pile that seemed to defy gravity. Still, it was the only yellow I spotted.

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