Page 77 of Wings of Ashes
She searched again. “Female safety techniques.”
The result appeared as, “You have searched a restricted topic at the academy. Your search has been logged. Please refrain from searching similar topics.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she growled and typed, “What topics are not restricted by the academy, motherfucker?”
The screen replied, “The use of profanity by a female student is prohibited at the academy. Your search has been logged.”
Nix gaped at her phone. “How do you know I am a female student?” she typed.
“Your gender is logged in our systems. May we suggest a few topics? How to tell if an alpha is attracted to you, weddings and mating expectations, academy dress code…”
Had Nix ever gotten a “this is a restricted topic” result in her past? She racked her memory.
Back then, in her previous life at the academy, she had never looked up such topics as she did now. The past Nix had searched for ways to catch an alpha’s eye or strategies to please an alpha once she “snagged” one.
If websites or articles on self-defense were blocked by the academy, then Nix would go looking elsewhere.
“I would like to check out a book on fighting, please. Self-defense moves or some kind of skills or tricks—you get what I mean. Where could I find a book on that?” Nix asked the front desk worker in the dusty academy library.
Nix would not bewaitingto learn how to protect herself. If she had to find a book on it instead of learning it in-person or online, so be it.
Dark, gothic architectural arches, dim lighting from emerald glass lamps, and ceiling-to-floor black bookshelves added to the intimidating and dark appearance of the library. Hardly any students sat at the study tables, creating an eerie and lonely quiet.
“Um…we do not have books available for you…on that, uh, subject,” a nervous male student, working at the front desk of the grand library, told her.
Nix blinked, stunned for a moment. “What do you mean? This library has thousands of books. There is absolutely one about the art of combat. We have combat classes available at the academy. There must beonebook here that speaks to fighting skills.”
The glasses-wearing young man looked like a second-year student with the confidence level of a first-year. He swallowed, throat bobbing at the act, and he mumbled, “That subject is not…available to you.”
Nix stared at him, completely expressionless as she read his strained expression. “Excuse me?”
“Books containing violence are stored in a special, closed-off area of the library.”
So, the booksdidexist. “So, I have to read them while I’m here or something? I can’t check it out to take with me?”
“No.” The male bit his lip. “You don’t seem to understand.”
“Enlighten me then,” Nix said.
“Very few students have access to the restricted section of the library,” the library worker whispered to her while nervously fingering his glasses. “You do not have the approvals required for that section. Maybe I could interest you in some magazines?”
There were books in the library that were banned for certain students?
“And what special approvals do the books require, huh?” Nix snapped. “A penis?” She wondered if she had gone too far with her guess, but the anxious twitch of the worker’s eye made her think she had assumed correctly. “Males can read the books on violence, but female students can’t?”
“Only certain males can read them,” the jittery worker explained. “Not all. That makes you feel better, yes?”
“What books do I have access to?” she asked in a voice so sharp that it could cause as many papercuts as the books in the grand library. “And if you mention magazines or anything about how to please alphas, I will find your favorite manuscript in this dusty library and rip out every page.”
He gasped. “That is needlessly violent. I am not responsible for the rules.”
“Who is?” Nix asked earnestly.
“The dean enforces the rules.”
“Enforces,” Nix echoed. “But who creates them?”
“I think you should leave, Miss Oadess,” the worker spoke timidly.
