Page 35 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
‘Bollocks,’ I whispered before lunging to try and catch the thing between my palms like a stray butterfly.
Only butterflies didn’t have teeth.
It nipped my finger, drawing a curse from my lips as it slapped its tiny leathery-paper wings and took off.
‘Stop !’ I snapped, watching it zoom over the top of the bookcase and through the library. First dust sprites and now miniature beasts from books I’d left unattended. It wove easily through the shelves with frightening speed. Clearly not its first escape.
‘Bloody little bastard !’ I seethed, rushing around another corner, only for an annoyed pair of crystalline eyes to be waiting for me.
Emrys. Sat at one of the library tables, clearly in the middle of working on something judging by the mess before him. His hair was in disarray as if he hadn’t slept, with a dark brow raised in expectation of an explanation.
‘Good afternoon to you too, Croinn,’ he said dryly.
I skidded to a halt, heart jumping into my throat. His jacket and vest were missing, and his shirt sleeves were rolled up to show his forearms. His scars catching the light as they curved around the muscle. Wrapped around his right forearm was a badly tied, clean bandage.
My lips parted as I fumbled for a lie, only for a tiny growl to stop me.
There, perched on his shoulder was the secmor, almost mocking me with the swishing of its tiny spiked tail.
‘I see you’ve foundthe 1664Compendium of Lost Beasts,’ he observed, reaching for the creature on his shoulder.
‘Be careful, it—’ I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence before the little beast had jumped into Emrys’s palm with the familiarity of a childhood pet.
The bookcase next to the table he sat at creaked, and then spat a book out. It skidded across the table, flipping open of its own accord to the page the beast had escaped from. With a growl of disappointment, the beast slipped back into the book, becoming nothing more than a picture before Emrys closed it. Sliding it aside, Emrys contemplated me once more.
‘I was looking for an extraction charm for valek scales,’ I offered weakly, still eyeing the book cautiously. ‘The method I used on the dried variety isn’t working the same.’
He nodded absently, pushing back his chair, getting to his feet and moving to the shelves across the room, his fingers barely brushing the spines as a maroon book shot out to greethim. He caught it effortlessly, despite its weighty appearance, and held it out to me.
‘Section five,’ he instructed as I hurried to take the offering, still trying to catch my breath.
He slipped his hands into his pockets, waiting patiently, which only made my movements clumsier. I turned the book over to see its label, but it didn’t have one. I opened it, scanning for section five, only for the title to confuse me further.
‘This is for blood extraction from mythical beasts,’ I pursed my lips, holding the book so he could see too, but he was still watching me, almost cautiously.
‘If the magic in the scale is fresh enough, it will work the same.’
‘I didn’t see magical healing remedies being one of your specialties.’ I frowned.
‘It isn’t. However, when you grow up with two healers, things rub off.’ He held out his hand. ‘Let me see your sample.’
I handed over the valek scale in question from the vial in my pocket.
His lips moved soundlessly, fingers radiating a sharp white light for a mere moment. The scale in the glass folded in on itself as if consumed by an invisible flame and left behind the liquid I needed.
‘I assume you have another to try?’ He offered me the new sample carefully. I stuffed it in my pocket and rooted for another. Following the words on the page, I repeated them in my mind.
I didn’t need to move my lips, letting the words whisper through my mind, feeling my magic coil and burn as it wrapped itself around my fingers, soft blue flames devouring the glass before slipping back beneath my skin as my scale turned into the same liquid as Emrys’s.
A small nod was the only evidence of his approval.
‘How did you find the Grand Library?’ he asked as he moved back to his table.
‘They didn’t have the records I needed. I was looking for extraction reports, or even pox records for the villages in the districts, but they didn’t seem to have any on fey illnesses.’ I still considered my new extract sample, the radiance of the liquid and all the help it could do.
‘The local fey district leaders would have ledgers.’
‘The Council won’t accept information that hasn’t been sealed by a registrar of the order. None of them are going to validate evidence for a pox study.’ Especially since fey illnesses didn’t impact mortals.
