Page 36 of Tempted Angel

Finding Gael.

The choice is easy.

Even though I accidentally found the library on my first day, I still pull up the school map to figure out the most direct path. As I'm zooming into the map, I tap on the library building icon. A moment later, a message pops up, asking me to confirm navigation.

Is it about to give me turn-by-turn directions? Why didn’t anyone tell me about this earlier? And then I see in written above the map.

Long press any building for turn-by-turn directions.

I pick my way through the crowd of students and follow the path laid out on my tablet. Before long, I’m standing in front of the wide double doors of the four-story building devoted entirely to information. There's no way I won't find what I need in here.

I enter the light-filled building with bookcases so high I have to stretch my neck to see the tops. This is where I've always been most at home. It’s why I've always done well in school. I love reading. Love collecting information and filing things away in a brain that holds whatever I put in it.

I’m extremely lucky the accident didn’t affect that part of my brain.

But it’s just another reason I'll never be good enough in my father’s eyes.

To him, my tutors provided me with an exemplary education. I should have spent my time outside of that training, not in dark libraries.

But what point was there in training went you’re the runt of your species?

I should have been taller, bigger, stronger. I should have been able to fight side-by-side with him when he conquered rival hosts.

According to him, at least.

I have no such qualms about it. Truth be told, I’m glad I’m small. Glad I can’t hold the flaming great sword Malachi uses to behead rival angels.

The last thing I want is to be perceived as is like my father. Everything he wanted for me, I raged against.

The marriage he’d arranged.

The school he wanted me to attend.

Even the colors he liked to see me in.

I rejected all of it.

And once I find Gael and we've completed the Rights, we can move to a different host. We won't have to be under my father's thumb any longer.

That thought, the idea that one day I might be free of Malachi’s control…

That finding Gael means I won’t be forced to perform the Rites with whichever Elder Malachi thinks will give him the most political advantage…

It’s all the motivation I need.

I search the library for an empty table, but every last one has at least one person at it already. I’ll have to share a table. Hopefully, they won’t expect small talk.

A familiar shaggy head of hair draws my gaze. I walk over to Austin, hunched over his tablet and a sheet of paper as he scribbles notes in barely legible chicken scratch.

“Hey, can I join you?”

He doesn’t glance up, only gives me a single nod.

Oh good. He doesn’t want to talk. I don’t either, but it’s nice not to have to sit at a table with a complete stranger. I take the seat across from him and retrieve my tablet from my bag.

A new app blinks on the home screen. The icon is a brown book and before I can think better of it, I open it.

Welcome to your Library Search App

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