Page 55 of Fated to Monsters

I point to my chest. “Me?”

“Yes, you. Mind if I borrow her for a minute?” Willow asks Dash.

“Uh, sure, yeah. As long as she stays safe.”

His misplaced concern warms my chest. If anything, I’m the one worried about him going off on his own.

“Without question,” she tells him. “We won’t be far, just going to go down to the library.”

“I’m starving,” Deghan announces and latches onto Dash’s shoulder. “You hungry? We can raid the kitchen.” He tilts his head toward a set of closed doors at the far side of the dining area.

“I could eat.” Dash shoots me a wary look.

“I’ll be fine,” I tell him. “You be careful though.” I don’t enjoy the idea of leaving him behind, but I won’t be gone long, and Deghan doesn’t exactly come across as a threat. If anything, he’s the nicest out of Willow’s husbands, and that’s saying a lot considering Sydney has been nothing but gracious—outside of his initial interaction when he found us crashing at his place. And Cameron gave us two boxes of those delicious muffins and offered to bring us more.

Silas isn’t in the running, with the whole one word he spoke to me, but even still, I can’t imagine he would harm any of us either. Not unless we posed some threat to Willow, and that is something I would never do. She’s my family. Myonlyfamily. I would die for her.

Sydney reaches out to gently grasp Willow’s arm. “I’ll let you know when Walker arrives.”

“Thanks, Syd.” She steps toward him, standing a bit taller and pressing her lips to his cheek. “And you.” She turns toward Deghan. “Stay out of trouble.”

Deghan averts his gaze and feigns innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He throws his arm around Dash’s back and moves him toward the kitchen. He mumbles something to Dash, but I can’t quite make it out.

Dash laughs and I know with certainty that everything is going to be okay.

At least, right now, in the short term, it will.

“Follow me,” Willow says as she heads in the original direction we came.

Sydney comes with us, but takes a seat in the common area, pulling out his phone and poking the screen to life. “I have some emails to answer.”

“Evening, Professor,” a round-faced girl mumbles with her face buried in a book as she walks.

“Clara,” Sydney acknowledges.

Willow continues forward and walks us down a set of concrete stairs. "That's Clara. Second-year witch."

“Interesting.”

“She’s a bit of an overachiever, but I can’t say I blame her.”

We go through a doorway into a room that lights up upon our entry.

“Was that magic?” I whisper, unsure if there’s anyone else around.

Willow shakes her head. “No, just a motion sensor. It’s to preserve electricity.”

“Sounds like magic.”

“So, what you see here.” Willow extends her arm and motions to the shelves full of books lining the walls and the tables in the open area. “Is the human side of the library.” She continues through the space, walking around more tables and past a few rows of shelves. “But this…” She steps through a threshold that appears to be a dead-end to nowhere.

I trail her, but once I’m on the other side, a long, seemingly endless hallway with doors on both sides appears.

“This is magic.” She winks at me and goes in a bit farther. “This is the supernatural library, which houses a plethora of ancient and new text covering all things supernatural. There are sections for basic witchcraft, the origins of werewolves, history of most creatures, whatever you can think of, there is probably a book in heresomewherecovering the topic.”

My heart constricts in my chest at the idea that the answers I’ve been searching for my entire life are under one giant roof.

“It’s…incredible,” I whisper and press my fingers to the mark on my neck that seems to warm with the growing distance between me and Bo.

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