Page 170 of Harbinger

“You look tired.” Shea assesses me, clutching Breccan by the shoulders to keep him from being trampled underfoot by the harried servants in the kitchen.

“It’s been a long day,” I say with a sigh.

She glances around at the turmoil masquerading as party preparations. “I can see that.” She bites her lip. “If I should take him—”

Before she can finish the offer, Lenora whirls around and gives Breccan a plate stacked so high with cookies he can’t see over the top. “Those are for you.” She pats him on the head, earning one of his gap-toothed smiles. “But I’m afraid the kitchen …”

“Don’t worry,” I say as much to her as to Shea. “I know where to take him.”

Shea plucks two cookies off Breccan’s plate as we steer him through the great room, earning her a “hey!”

“You can’t even see where you’re going.” She nods for me to help him out, and I gladly do.

“You’re lucky,” I tell Breccan around a bite. “Lenora has yelled when any of us try to take a cookie.”

He grins wider at this information, but when I lead him into the library, the smile slides from his face, replaced by slack-jawed awe.

I squat beside him, heat prickling my eyes at the sheer joy on his face. It will be worth it when Hadrian hands me my ass over this later. “I thought you might like to wait for us here.”

He bobs his head several times, nearly dropping his plate.

I take it from him and deposit it on one of the tables. “Let’s put these over here.”

“Good idea,” he says, squaring his shoulders like he understands the responsibility he has to the space.

Hadrian might not be happy, but I have no doubt that Breccan will take better care of the books here than any adult living in this house besides him.

“Okay, rules,” I say, biting back a grin when he straightens like a little soldier waiting for orders. “No writing in books. Keep the cookies away from the books.” I try to think of anything else that is likely to make Hadrian apoplectic. “Don’t fold any of the page corners.”

Breccan shrinks back like the mere suggestion horrifies him.

He’s going to get along just fine with Hadrian.

I take a step away, searching the upper stacks for the latter, but I can’t see him, so I call out, “We have a guest in the library. He knows the rules!”

Shea gives me an apprehensive look as I link arms with her, but she smiles down at her brother. “Be good. Follow Arden’s rules.”

“I will,” he promises with a solemn nod.

Footsteps clatter on the spiral staircase, and we all turn to find Hadrian descending, robes flying out behind him. When he makes it to the bottom, he stops dead in his tracks. “There’s a child in my library.”

“Well spotted.” I nod, urging Shea back a step. “This child loves books more than you do.”

But Hadrian is still staring at him when Shea and I reach the library door. I push her gently through it and make it one step out before Hadrian bellows, “Arden, there’s a child in my library!”

I turn to face him just as Breccan presses a finger to his lips, shakes his head, and whispers, “You’re supposed to be quiet in a library.”

Hadrian’s eyebrows bunch as he stares down at the strange creature I’ve deposited in his sacred space. But he looks up, mouth twisting into a curious grimace, and waves me away. “Off with you, then.”

I’m shaking with barely suppressed laughter as I close the door quietly behind us. But Shea lingers beside it. “Are you sure that we should leave?”

“It’s good for him. Hadrian spends too much time with books.”

We’re almost to the stairs when one of Bishop’s cousins steps in our path, carrying a plate of pickled sugar root and onions. The scent is so pungent that I start to cough. He tilts his head, studying us as he plucks a ruby-red strand of onion and pops it into his mouth. “So you’re the harbinger.”

I flinch, but he squints as though he’s trying to spot whatever ominous secret I’m hiding. He shrugs and looks at Shea. “And who are you? Another lovely omen?”

And I thought the vinegar was stomach-churning.