Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
“In other words, you’re telling me this house granted me a wish?”
He doesn’t react to my smooth ability to be a smartass, remaining highly focused on his explanation. “The magic that resides in this house latched onto your own magic and helped you use it. And to be clear, if you had no magic, that wouldn’t have happened. By the time we leave here, using your assets will be as second nature as a simple conversation. You’ll use your assets that easily.” He motions behind him. “Want to see what’s behind the doors?”
“I worked to get here,” I say without hesitation, wanting to know what is so precious that it’s protected behind invisible walls. “I want to know why.”
His way-too-perfect mouth quirks at the edges. “But did you really?”
“I walked clear across the living room before the magic delivered me to you.”
He laughs, a deep chuckle I feel in my belly, and I have this nervous idea he might actually know how he affects me, he feels it even, and I don’t know how to stop it from happening. And do I want to stop it from happening? “Ah, yes,” he says. “I forget all the miles you walked through snow, with no shoes. Up a hill, no doubt.”
“You understand human jokes very well.”
“I’ve lived my lifetime with humans,” he says. “If I didn’t, how sad would that be?” He rotates to face the door.
I step to his side with an odd sense of belonging in this exact place that I do not understand. Knowledge is power, and at this point, I have none. I barely know him. In fact, I know little about him, and that needs to change, but for now, I focus on the mysterious room. The double doors tower before us and above us, the gold glistening much as the silver front doors had, but there’s an additional yellow glow, almost as if sunlight beams through the corners of a curtain, delivering the hues of a new day. They begin to slide open, and somehow, I know this isn’t by way of Micah and his magic.
It’s the house.
And the way it seems to live and breathe on its own really is creepy, and yet, somehow intriguing. I’m a contradiction these days. No, I think I’ve lived my life as a contradiction, and I didn’t even know it. I need to take control, and the only way I know to do that is the same way I did it in law school—with knowledge. I need to learn.
My adrenaline surges as the doors spread wide, and there is a silent invitation for our entry, though I cannot see beyond the threshold. Micah steps forward, and I’m right there with him, keeping pace and gasping as we bring a library into view, and it’s a spectacular space, like none I’ve ever seen. There’s mahogany-adorned seating lining textured walls decorated with expensive paintings, but it’s what is on my left that blows my mind, where well-filled bookshelves wrap like a cylinder that climbs up and down as far as my eye can see.
I rush to the shiny wooden railing, and my lips part incredulously. The structure, indeed climbs what feels like miles high and miles low, the spines of the many volumes of books, tightly filling every single row. Micah assumes the position next to me, and I rotate to face him. “Am I dreaming? How is this possible? I saw the outside of the house. There’s no way a library of this incredible magnitude fits in here.”
“We’re without the boundaries of Earth in Elysium.”
I blink, my lips parting and pressing together before I finally manage words. “I don’t quite know where to put that or how to process it.”
“Well, now you have the resources to understand what baffles you. In these books, you will learn everything you would have learned living among your own kind.”
“What is this place, aside from an obvious library? Why does it exist?”
“Each Overseer protects a portion of our chancery of knowledge.”
“How many Overseers are there again?”
“Eight of us and eight libraries, which assures no enemy ever obtains all of our knowledge, nor is all of our knowledge ever in danger. This is the Bastian Library, named after one of our great warriors, as are all of the eight libraries.” He motions to the tables against the walls. “As you can see, there’s plenty of space to get cozy and read. It gets chilly in here even when it’s warm outside.” The floating fireplace between the various tables flickers to life. “That should help. Pick your spot. And if you’d like, I can recommend the books to start with.”
“Can I just go get lost in the books and walk the aisles?”
“You can get lost here for as long as you wish. I certainly have, but then I’ve had my share of time to absorb it all.”