Page 26 of Centaur Bolt

“Well, maybe these books can tell me more about what I can do.” I pushed two of them to her. “Look up Teleporters, and anything you can find on a Prince Barim.”

She regarded the books as though they were crawling with cockroaches. She preferred to stare, and then wink, at the male librarian pushing a cart of books. He immediately blushed.

When the young male Dire at the next table glared at him, he hurried off.

I kicked Kiko’s shin. Rather harder than I meant to.

“Ow!”

“Sorry.” I was, sort of. “This is important. If I can find Marcus…”

She lifted her chin. “I am only doing what Cara asked,” she stated. “And you have to see a place before you can Jump to it, so there is no way you can help him.”

“You don’t know that,” I insisted. “And flirting with those dudes isn’t the same as pumping them for information.”

She waggled her brows. “It’s when you’re pumping that you get the best information.”

I rubbed my temple and stayed on task. “I found a reference that some Jumpers use personal items to connect to their target.”

The Satyr’s eyes widened. “Those are stories told to children. Not the truth.”

Vali looked up from her book. “Who is Marcus?”

I wasn’t sure how much we should tell her, but when Kiko swore the Dragona to secrecy before launching into a full narrative on Marcus and what had happened to him, I left her to it. Cracked open my book and began my search.

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled Kiko’s assigned books out from under her crossed arms—she’d deviated into a discussion of Isobel’s crazy realm rescue mission while the Dragona provided monosyllabic replies—and searched through those too. Then I returned to the card index and tried again.

This time I focused on Prince Barim, and found a few references. When I carried them to the table, Kiko was no longer there.

“Where’s Kiko?” I asked Vali.

The Dragona looked up from her book and frowned. “She followed that librarian down the aisle.”

I sighed. I actually was growing quite fond of Kiko, but I was beginning to understand why she was here.

“Satyrs spend a lot of time either thinking about sex or engaging in it.” Vali’s expression spoke volumes.

“Dragons don’t think about it?” The question was out before I considered stopping it.

When she hesitated, I regretted not thinking before speaking. But then she said, “Only when we’re on cycle. And we take herbs to stop that.”

Her gaze dropped back to her book. She was reading a section entitled,Permanent and Semi-permanent Bonds Amid Dragons. I opened my mouth to ask, but when she studiously refused to look at me, I took the hint. Instead, I skimmed a section in my doorstop on Prince Barim’s more popular policies. Kiko was likely right about the Jumper thing. But researching it was something I could do, so I did it.

A half-hour later, I still hadn’t found any other references to psychic Jumpers. Prince Barim’s rescue seemed to be the only recorded and documented instance of it. No wonder most thought it was nothing but a fanciful children’s story.

I was running out of time if I was going to make the afternoon theory class. I wanted to ask the librarian for other possible references, but he’d vanished, and Kiko hadn’t reappeared either. As he seemed to be the only staff in the place, I rose and wandered, peering down the aisles.

With the scattering of students long since gone to lunch, the place was pretty deserted. I discovered an aisle labeledCryptid Powersand delved in, poking into a few books… Found three that mentioned Teleporters, and one that listed Barim in the index.

Someone groaned. Long and low and pretty damned distinctively male. I froze, just as I heard a familiar female chuckle, half-muffled as though she was consuming something.

She was. I peered around the corner, and there was Kiko. On her knees before the young librarian, her head bobbing in a rhythm that had his head lolling back on his neck. He was so absorbed he didn’t even notice me.

I ducked back and hustled down the aisle, clutching my heavy stack of books to my chest. But as I turned the corner—I almost ran into the young Dire shifter the Satyr had been chatting up.

His eyes glowed bronze at me, and his expression promised mayhem.

Crap.

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