Page 17 of Claiming Chaos
And the brute was back. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We don’t kill people…on purpose.”
“We should accidentally kill her.”
I laughed, but I doubted he was joking. Then it hit me. “Hold on.” I sat upright. “Magical beings would understand how dangerous summoning a Prince of Hell can be, but humans wouldn’t. Your sigils could be sitting in a book in the Salem library, right under our noses. Let me check.”
My fingers flew across the keys, my heart sprinting in my chest. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? It took a few different search strings to get it right, but ten minutes later, there it was. “The Complete Encyclopedia of Demonic Legionsas recorded by Father Timothy Carson.”
“Mortals keep an encyclopedia of my kind?” He leaned closer to the screen and read the description. “‘Explore the hierarchy of Hell from Lucifer down to the smallest fiends. Includes sigil artwork for each demon and summoning precautions.’ Hmm. Sounds promising.”
“It better be. It’s the only thing I can find that comes close to what we need, and there’s only one copy on record in all of North America.” I opened another tab and searched the title on the web. No hits returned for this continent, but one came back from France.
“Is it in Salem?”
“Sadly, no. It’s in New Orleans.” I returned to the library site and clicked the entry. “And it’s classified as a reference book, so we can’t get it through interlibrary loan.”
“Is New Orleans far?”
“Fifteen hundred miles. I’ll have to fly there.” I closed the laptop and shoved it into its case.
“You…” Chaos straightened, confusion pinching his features. “You have the ability to fly?”
“In an airplane, yeah.” I rose and paced to the stairs. “What? Did you think I meant on my broom?”
“Of course not.” He followed me up the steps. “But you made it sound as if you had an ability I was unaware of.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” I opened the door to find Ember and the others packing up to leave. “What’s going on?”
“Higgins called about another rift.” She handed me my bag. “What did you find?”
“There’s a demonic encyclopedia with sigil artwork in New Orleans.” I set my satchel on the counter. “It’s in the public library.”
“Is it legit?” Miles asked.
“I’ll have to go there to see. It’s in the reference section.”
“So they won’t let you check it out.” Ember tapped her foot. “You’ll have to steal it.”
My stomach clenched at the idea of stealing from a library, but she was right. If the book was legit, it needed to be held under lock and key, not sitting out available for anyone to play with.
“If Chrys hasn’t already taken it,” Shade said. “She’s smarter than you think.”
I rolled my eyes and swiped open my phone to bring up the New Orleans Public Library website. I clicked the number and pressed the speaker button.
It rang three times before someone answered. “New Orleans Public Library. How can I help you?”
“Hi. I’m calling about one of your reference books. It’s called The Complete Encyclopedia of Demonic Legionsas recorded by Father Timothy Carson. Do you still have that?”
The sounds of a keyboard clicking filled the silence. “Yes, ma’am. It’s in our catalog.”
“She could have stolen it already,” Shade whispered. “They might not know it’s gone.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I saw it there online, but would you mind checking to see if you still have it in your possession? I’m going to travel a long way to look at it, and I’d hate to make the trip if it was transferred to another building.”
“Hold please.” Jazz music blasted through the speaker, so I turned down the volume. Five minutes later, she returned to the line. “Yes, ma’am. It’s in the reference section on the second floor.”
“Thank you.” I pressed End and returned the phone to my pocket…without making a face at Shade, thank you very much.
“Good.” Ember grabbed her keys from the peg. “Take Chaos with you. We’ll hold down the fort until you get back.”