Page 80 of The Secret Keeper's Daughter

A man with the nose of a cat and hair like rain adjusts a bowtie. “It was completely ravaged. My cousin sent a message asking for supplies. His house is a pile of rubble.”

“Nobody could stop them?” asks a woman with shimmery skin like scales.

He shakes his head. “There were too many of them.”

The second man, who looks like an imp on steroids, crosses his arms. “It’s just like last week.”

All three of them nod knowingly.

I want to ask what happened last week, but they probably don’t know Harek and I can hear from this distance. Before, I always wondered why my hearing was so much better than others in Skoro, and now I know it’s because I’m a werewolf.

The three teachers discuss another fae town that was ruined by evildoers—and they blame the hunter. Apparently my father has been slacking lately, due to me coming into my powers, and because of this, the fae world is getting turned upside down.

Things are even more urgent than I imagined. Either my father and I need to work together to solve this issue, or one of us is going to have to kill the other.

I really hope Vivvi is wrong about that. There has to be another way.

But if there isn’t, the results could be catastrophic.

Harek and I exchange glances then hurry toward the library. My mind is racing so fast, I barely register the high shelves filled with books as far as the eye can see.

There’s so much destruction out there, and it’s only going to get worse if I don’t do something. But what? With all of these, it will be impossible to know where to even begin looking.

“Where do we start?” I ask.

“I think here.” He walks over to a screen and taps it.

It lights up, and words appear. He taps the image of a button, and more words appear. Harek interacts with the device like he’s been using it his whole life.

Maybe he has. Well, not this exact one but a similar one. He’s been familiar with all things fae his entire life.

Whereas everyone has hid it from me.

I try not to be bitter about that and attempt to lean into how helpful his knowledge will likely be. He can read the strange letters, whereas I cannot. He knows about magic, whereas all I seem able to do is absorb it and get sick.

If only we could simply find my father and have him explain everything—that would save so much time. We wouldn’t have to research where to find the books and then spend however much time reading them.

Harek returns to me. “We need to go to the third level.”

“That’s where the books are about my father?”

“It appears there are a few of them. We might find more in other places with a little digging.”

“Why is it so hard? Don’t they list all the books?”

“They do, but you have to know where to search. It’s a complex system that keeps outsiders from finding out too much.”

“Outsiders like us?”

“Technically, you belong here.”

I glance at the screen full of lettering I can’t understand. “How did you learn that language? Did your parents teach you?”

He nods. “You’ll pick it up quickly. It’s a similar system to the one we’re used to.”

“If you say so.”

“I’ll start teaching you as soon as we find the first book.”

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