Page 68 of Assisting the Alpha
I cast a quick camouflage spell over us just in case. It’s the kind of spell that’s impossible to maintain while moving but works well on anything stationary. Right now, we’re still enough that it should be effective.
I soon hear Lola’s voice getting closer.
“… doesn’t care. I’m well aware we didn’t follow normal operating procedures but I triple-checked. Every single aspect was within the bounds of BSG law and the parameters of the task force…” Lola seems to be listening to whoever she’s talking to as she walks past the corridor we’re in, mage-light in the hand she’s not holding her phone with, as she heads towards the kitchens. “Are you honestly surprised?… Well then deal with it! That’s what…”
Her voice fades to the point I can’t hear her anymore and I let out the breath I was holding. As soon as Ethan signals for us to move, I drop the camouflage spell and hurry after him.
The manor library is eerie with night vision. The usually mahogany shelves become black, the rows upon rows of ancient books bound in varying colours of leather with elaborate gold decorations turn shades of grey, and the small, high windows are dark voids to the moonless night. It’s not my first time in here while everyone else is sleeping, but it never fails to impress on me the necessity of silence.
Ethan gestures me forward. I don’t think anyone outside of the coven has ever entered the library before, but only the Muroyi family have ever seen the next area. Even so, I don’t hesitate. I trust these men with my life and my secrets.
I walk around a protruding section of wall that splits the library mostly in half and head straight to the furthest corner. Crouching down, I locate the book on the second-to-bottom shelf, three from the left, and press it in. The action is definitely smoother than I remember it being, but the last time I did this was a few months after Mum and Dad died, so I’m a lot bigger now.
Or it could be that someone has been accessing this space regularly. Who could have seen Nyoka do it? Lola, definitely. One of the task force, possibly. Right now, my money is on Lola. She doesn’t like a lot of people—basically anyone she considers beneath her—and absolutely loathes me. She wouldn’t have hesitated to attack me in that alley behind Love Bites.
Admittedly, I don’t know what her motivation could be, but that’s something I can talk through with Ethan and the team later. First, we need to borrow the grimoires and determine whether my theory, or memory, is correct.
Both Ethan’s and Raj’s eyes glow with their animals as the wall in front of me slides backwards a foot, then to the side,recessing into the wall and revealing a short, windowless stone corridor. I usher them in, then once inside I press a low stone in one of the walls which houses a hidden mechanism that slides the bookcase wall closed behind us.
“This space is warded. We’re safe to talk.” The ward here is unusual in that it’s embedded into the stone of the room and corridor, not tied to a living magic-user. All I have to do is feed it a little power while we’re in here and it’ll alert me to any outside danger.
“This is awesome,” Raj breathes. “I’ve always wanted to live somewhere with a secret room. Jet is going to be so jealous he missed this.”
I kept this part secret from them until now, only telling them the grimoires are in a section of the library that needs a key to access, not where exactly.
Ethan smirks. “This is seriously cool. But you don’t have to rub it in that we got to do this and Jet didn’t.”
Raj looks at him like he’s crazy as he hands me the keys. “Of course I do.”
I shake my head as I search for the right key on Nyoka’s keyring and head for the door at the end of the corridor. “You two need to just fuck already.”
Raj makes a retching sound. “Incest isnotmy kink.”
I know they’re not related by blood, so it’s cute that he sees Jet as a brother. I decide there’s no harm in winding Raj up a bit as I locate the right key, put it in the lock, and turn it. “I thought that’s what all these pranks were building up to. A bit of hate sex? No?”
Raj looks horrified. “No. Just… no. Absolutely not.”
I try not to snicker. “Okay, cross all your fingers and toes that the grimoire we need isn’t missing.”
I open the door and step inside a very familiar room decorated in vibrant red and gold. My magic flares as Ipass through a ward that definitely didn’t used to be here. I immediately spin and hold up a hand to stop Ethan or Raj from crossing the threshold. “Shit, don’t move. A ward’s been added.”
How did I not sense it before I passed through it? Fuck. If I’ve set off this ward and ruined everything, I’ll never forgive myself.
Chapter Nineteen
ETHAN
Every muscle in my body tenses while Raj spins towards the secret bookcase-door we’ve just entered, protecting our backs. “Have you set it off?”
I don’t blame Ayo for not realising there was another ward. He’s not trained to double-check everything like we are, and he’s clearly comfortable in the spooky library as well as in this secret room.
He’s quiet for a few very long moments while he gets that slightly unnerving vacant look he always has when examining or working on wards, then blinks back to life. “No, it’s a family-only ward, I think. I’ve not seen one like this before but I did read about them. Nyoka must have discovered someone accessed this space and set it up afterwards. I’m fine to be in here, but you two definitely aren’t.”
“Can you adjust it like the others?” Raj asks.
Ayo does the blank-stare thing again. “Maybe, if I can convince it you’re both family. It might be quicker to just get what we’re here for and leave.”
I clench my fists to stop myself from reaching out and just grabbing him. I’ve hated every single time we’ve been separated by a ward, but knowing this is one he’s potentially not going to let us through? My wolf isnothappy.
