Page 57 of The Healing Dragon
I nod, and he turns to face the bookshelf. I turn in Matias’ direction. “We should use the same time frame to look at family trees. If we find the full names of Klause’s family, we will connect his research easier.”
Matias looks up at the shelf with a sour expression. “This is going to take us weeks.”
“I got it,” Santiago says.
He gestures for us to move away and takes the spot in front of the bookshelf. He extends his hand forward and a blue light glows out of his palm towards the books. The glow grows as one by one more books join in the light. The light is not strong enough to grab the attention of the people in the main sitting area.
With one hand up, palm facing the shelf, Santiago uses his other hand to write the year gap we are searching. A section of books slides out of the bookshelf into mid air. It slowly floats down into the floor in front of Santiago.
“That’s still a lot.” Matias rubs his brows.
“We don’t need to get through them tonight,” I say, shoving him forward to help me carry the books to the table. We fill our arms and do a second trip to carry everything. “Let’s do as much as we can, then pick up tomorrow.”
Santiago carries his own pile of books to his side of the table. The stack he has is twice the size of ours and consists of various sized journals.
“We can switch between piles,” I offer.
Santiago gives me the first side smile. “I would appreciate that.”
Matias cracks his knuckles. “Let’s do this.”
The only tracker of time becomes the candlelight in the library. Every hour the flames flicker announcing the time change. Santiago has to get up and help people a few times, but other than that we power through a big chunk of books.
A whistling sound distracts me from my work ahead. I look around, trying to place the noise, but my eyes are tired and I feel disoriented.
“It's Matias,” Santiago says between a yawn.
“What?” I look next to me at the man in question. “He’s sleeping.”
“For someone who needs tea to sleep, he sure seems to snooze hard.”
The chuckle that bubbles out of my chest is loud in the quiet space. I shouldn't laugh. It's mean but ironic. Matias jumps up at the noise, which causes Santiago and me to burst into laughter.
“I think that is enough for tonight,” Matias says, stretching. “Good work everyone.”
Santiago and I share an amused look at the statement coming from the person who had been sleeping.
“Let's all meet tomorrow during lunch at the clearing.” Matias gestures to the back of the castle over his shoulder.
Santiago’s expression falls, and I fight the smirk on my face. He needs to get used to the idea of Calaca. I have a feeling it’s not going anywhere. We all will see more of it with time.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
JESSE
My eyes alternate between looking at the clock on the wall and the closed door. The papers before me are long forgotten since Janelle didn’t show up to bed at a reasonable hour. I didn’t look for her in the dining hall, but her absence was noticed by a few guards at both lunch and dinner. She should be in her bed by now.
I saw Isabel during dinner and know they’re certainly not tied up by some plant emergency. What am I thinking? The idea that there could be a plant emergency is stupid.
The echo of soft footsteps sound behind the door. I pick up a piece of paper and pretend to scan the list of names between sheets. The front door of the shared space creeks as it opens. I wait until it shuts to look up and meet Janelle’s tired expression. I can’t help but be glad to see that whatever she was doing wasn’t fun. A very selfish part of me would have hated to see her walking in happy with laughter trailing after. It would’ve cut me.
“Long day?” I ask before I can stop myself.
She joins me in the sitting area, taking a seat across from me. “You are talking to me again,” she says.
“Did I ever stop?”
Do you even care?
