Page 23 of Claiming Chaos
6
CHAOS
Donned in all black, Ash had tied her hair into a knot on top of her head and pulled a knit cap over it, concealing her blue locks. With her bag of spells slung over her shoulder, she crept down the road, her gaze bouncing this way and that, her muscles tensing more than I’d ever seen them before.
I walked beside her, resting my hand on her back and wishing I could send her a pulse of magic through my mark to calm her. But I’d made a promise never to use magic on her without permission, and I would uphold it. I would do anything for her.
“I understand that you’re saving your vim, but the amount of stress you’re feeling right now will deplete your energy as well.”
“It’s fine. We’re almost there.” A light indicated we could cross the six-lane thoroughfare, and Ash jogged to the opposite side. I followed, and after another block and then a right turn, the library came into view.
The multistory building had darkened windows, save for one on the bottom floor near the front entrance. Ash looked at it, scrunched her nose in an adorable way, and paced past the doors and around the side.
Stopping at a service entrance, she took my hand and pulled me into the shadows. “There’s probably a security guard in there. If he catches us, can you handle him without hurting him?”
“I will do my best.”
She tugged her lock-picking kit from her bag. “I’m serious. Just scramble his mind long enough for us to grab the book and make sure he doesn’t remember what we look like.”
Interesting. She’d gone from don’t use your magic under any circumstance to my power being her first line of defense. “I can’t guarantee he won’t destroy any books. I know you are particular about libraries.”
Her shoulders dropped with her hard exhale. “You’re right. Change of plans. We find the guard first. I’ll cast a binding spell, and we’ll haul ass upstairs, grab the book and get out before he knows what hit him.”
“That is an excellent plan.”
She slid two pieces of metal into the lock and moved them around until it clicked. The handle moved down when she pressed it, but the door didn’t budge. “Dammit. It’s deadbolted from the inside. I’ll have to use magic to unlock it.”
“Might there be an alarm system?”
“Might you have mentioned that concern before I tried to open the door?” She straightened and adjusted the knit cap on her head. “If there is one, the keypad to turn it off isn’t going to be here. There must be another door the employees enter through. Come on.”
We crept along the back of the library and turned up the left side. Another door with a light above it stood near the front corner. “Will you be able to disarm the alarm without the code?”
Her mouth screwed to one side as she took out her lock-picking tools. “I think so. If not, we’ll have to run. We’ve already put ourselves on the coven’s radar. We can’t risk getting into trouble with the law too.”
The law didn’t worry me in the slightest. Ash might not approve of the ways I could handle them, but she didn’t need to worry about the police. I was about to tell her as much when she opened the door, and an incessant beeping sounded in the entry.
She grabbed my arm, pulled me inside, and shined her phone’s light onto the wall. A panel with illuminated numbers screeched, and Ash held her hands over it, whispering a spell. It beeped three more times in quick succession before glorious silence filled the room.
“Whew. I am so glad that worked.” She paced across the room and pressed her back against the wall before peeking through the doorway. Waving her hand, she told me to move aside, so I joined her against the wall.
“What’s your plan?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“The security guard is coming this way.” She clutched a potion bottle in her hand and removed the cork. “Standing tall or on your knees, in the name of the goddess, I force you to freeze.” She tossed the potion at the guard, and he immediately stilled, his eyelids the only part of him that could move.
“How long will your spell last?” I asked as I followed her down the hall and toward a staircase.
“My vim is stronger since we got rid of Chrys’s hex on our house, so ten to fifteen minutes. Let’s grab the book and jet.”
I couldn’t help but smile as we ascended the stairs and Ash made a sharp left toward a doorway. “You know where to find the book. Your newfound power has grown exponentially.”
“It’s so weird.” She plucked a thick volume from the shelf and laid it on a table. “I hardly have to try anymore.”
She opened the book to the index and ran her finger down the page before tapping it and flipping through. “Thank the goddess this book is legit. Do those look right to you?”
She turned the book toward me and pointed to the entries about my brothers and me. Multiple paragraphs described our physical appearance and our place in the hierarchy. How in Hell’s name did humans know so much about us?
“The sigils do look correct.”