Page 5 of Research with Rivals
When I’d worked at the Sandrin Records Office, the researchers had taken turns working the reception desk. That was where I’d been sitting when Gabriel walked in the day he offered me a job. He’d walked right up and spoken to me like he knew I was a researcher. Honestly, he’d spoken to me with more respect than the humans in the Records Office ever did. My colleagues there avoided me at best and gave me extra time at the reception desk when ignoring me didn’t work. To them, I was too other, too fae.
Too bad the fae didn’t believe that.
That day, the head librarian had shaken my hand and asked me about blood magic. He wanted to know what I had studied, what my methods included, and what my plans for the futurewere. The way his warm brown eyes searched the Records Office almost sadly said he knew I wasn’t allowed to conduct my tests there. He could have knocked me over with a feather when he then asked if I wanted to work for him at the Vesten Library.
It had taken everything within me not to grasp at the offer immediately, but I knew the opportunity wasn’t for me. It was for someone fully Vesten. When I’d told him I wasn’t, he tilted his head in question. I’d clarified my half-fae heritage. Saying that I was half-fae had kept me from every Vesten school I applied to. Gabriel had looked thoughtful, but then he repeated his offer.
I started working for him the following week.
The warm and relaxed head librarian was not quite the Gabriel we found when we entered his office.
His long blond hair was tied in a messy knot at the base of his neck. So many strands were slipping free that it was clear he’d spent the morning scratching his forehead. His clothes were rumpled, like maybe he’d been here all night.
Still, he managed a smile. “Ah, Evelyn, Ambrose, so glad you’re here.”
“Everything alright, sir?” Ambrose asked.
Gabriel waved him off. “Fine, fine. Have you seen Lord Arctos?”
“He said he’d meet us here,” I replied.
The office was small, but Gabriel had to stand to reach a tea service that looked fresh. “Wonderful. Would either of you care for something while we wait?”
I accepted, taking a seat in front of the desk as I tried to determine the problem. The office looked the same as it had for the last few months of my employment. The large wooden desk occupied half the space, and papers were scattered messily across it. A few shelves filled with books decorated the wallbehind Gabriel. Some appeared to be in review, lying open on the desk.
Ambrose took the chair next to me. Concern was evident in his furrowed brow, but he seemed to understand we wouldn’t get information until Gabriel decided to share. He ran his fingers through his auburn hair while we waited.
As another question formed on my lips, the familiar black bird flew into the office. He perched in the corner of the room and shifted so his fae form leaned against a small end table. Then he crossed his arms over his chest like he’d been waiting for us all this time.
Gabriel glanced at him, showing no surprise at the shift or positioning. He had a cup of tea ready and handed it to the god.
Lord Arctos gestured for Gabriel to proceed. “Please, let’s get started. Time is short.”
It struck me as an odd thing for a god to say. I was new to Vesten history, but I’d studied a lot in a short period. Lack of knowledge would not be the reason this position slipped through my fingers. All the texts indicated that the fae had been created hundreds of years ago. No records detailed how long the continent and humans had existed before that. All this to say, I assumed time was quite long for Lord Arctos, one of the continent’s four creators.
“Well.” Gabriel cleared his throat. “We have a project that I believe requires both of your expertise.”
“I’m sorry for the intrusion, dear, but I’m about to do something distasteful and decided you deserve a warning.”
The voice in my head somehow matched the piercing green eyes of the god staring at me from the corner of the room. It was wild and unpredictable, like an unexplored forest. I had no means of response. Gabriel was still speaking.
“I’m going to say some things about half-fae. Please know that I do not believe any of them. I need to test our friendhere”—he nodded at Ambrose—“before allowing him to work on this.”
Again, I had no way to object. I could have told him that Ambrose didn’t need testing. Ambrose was an academic through and through, no matter his family. He didn’t care about one’s lineage—he only cared about their intelligence and ideas. He didn’t dislike me because I was half-fae; he disliked me because of my methods and beliefs about blood magic. With no way to communicate such things, I shrugged.
Gabriel finished by impressing the secrecy of this project. “I know I can count on both of you, but just so there are no misunderstandings, only those in this room know the details of what you’ll be researching.”
“I can’t believe we don’t even have real fae researching information so critical to the fae courts,” Lord Arctos said as he took a sip of his tea.
He had warned me, but still, I flinched at the words. The animal in my mind roared to life at my discomfort. For years, half-fae or fae born of multiple courts had had to hide themselves. The new Norden Point, or water fae leader, had changed everything. She’d brought acceptance to the courts. However, there were plenty of fae who believed exactly what the god had voiced.
Ambrose noticed my reaction. To his credit, he didn’t hesitate. “Excuse me?—”
Lord Arctos continued. “Are you sure this is the correct team for this project, Gabriel?”
Gabriel rested his elbows on the desk, and his head fell into his hands, leaving me to wonder if he, too, received a warning about Lord Arctos’s behavior, which he was unable to challenge.
The chair beside me scraped the floor as it was hastily slid back. Ambrose was on his feet now. “You may be a god, but you are surprisingly uneducated about your creations.”
