Page 8 of Monster's Pet

“Good day, Darragh,” I returned. My heart twisted at the thought of leaving him behind when I graduated.

Why was I thinking about all the things I’d miss when I left?

Where was that girl who couldn’t wait to get out into the world?

“Do you know of anything that would cause all the familiars to act out at once?”

Darragh’s bushy eyebrows snapped up in surprise. “No, but my grandfather was a specialist in the care of magical creatures. You could ask him.”

“Umm, you know that he’s probably dead, right?” Aiden said cautiously.

“I might be dead, but my mind isn’t gone, boy.” Darragh glared. “He wrote textbooks on all sorts of magical creatures and their behaviors.”

“Right,” Aiden mumbled, his cheeks flushing.

“Perfect. Where would we find those?” I asked.

Darragh pointed at the overflowing bookshelves behind us. “That would be a good place to start. You’ll be looking for Callum Doyle.”

I crossed to the bookcases, which had helped me with my research in the past, and started examining the shelves. When I had first discovered this place, I had taken the time to organize the shelves in order by subject, since alphabetical and date published made no sense, as all the books present were written by either Doyles or their spouses. The magical creatures books were under ‘M’, and I found Callum’s section easily. Unfortunately, he seemed to have been prolific in his lifetime, and there were twelve massive volumes.

“That’s going to take longer than,” Aiden glanced at his watch, “the two hours we have before dinner.”

I winced. “We’d better get started. Any we don’t finish, we can bring with us to dinner and the others can help.”

“You’ll bring the books back, right?” Darragh asked sternly.

“Of course,” I reassured him.

“You’re not supposed to take the books out of the room, but I’ll let it slide this once, since it’s an emergency,” the portrait said.

“How would you stop us?” Aiden asked curiously.

Bushy brows furrowed in a scowl. “You don’t want to test me, boy.”

“I thought he liked me?” Aiden whispered to me.

I covered my chuckle with a hand and a cough. “I think he’s in a bad mood because you insulted him.”

“Sorry,” Aiden said.

“Hmph.” The man in the portrait crossed his arms and shifted on his stool. “Maybe if you polished my frame, I’ll forgive you.Afterthe emergency is over.”

“Yes, sir,” Aiden said with a little bow.

“Well…” I said with a sigh, pulling out the first volume. “We’d better get started.”

CHAPTER 3

Something was shaking my shoulder.I batted it away with a groan, feeling like death warmed over.

The shaking started again, and I heard Aiden’s voice, “Come on, babe, we’ve got to go. Breakfast will be over in ten minutes and classes start in thirty.”

“Wha?” I mumbled, lifting my head. My back protested and I had a pounding headache behind my eyes. “Why do I feel like shit?” I complained.

“Probably because you fell asleep sitting up while going over those textbooks,” Aiden pointed out, pulling on a shirt.

I pouted as his sculpted body disappeared under the material.

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