Page 32 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
11
The texton the screen of Nora’s laptop blurred as she tried to work, drafting a manuscript about the discoveries she had made from the sword and spear, frustrated that her findings didn’t sound as impressive as she had anticipated. Granted, she couldn’t exactly share the details she had learned with the general public, but she had agreed to train because she could get something out of it. So far, though, she hadn’t gotten any research done that she could apply to her work. All she had to show for her time was a tapestry of bruises, and her chest burned when she thought about how she had let the Eteria distract her from work so much. It was time to fix that, and she thought she knew just where to start.
A short while later, Nora marched up the path to the front doors of the Sanctuary, anxious to begin her search for the great library that Thad had mentioned once in passing. She wandered the vast halls for a few minutes, wondering if she should start looking near the training courts, or if she should attempt to find her way back over to the area where she had located the armory.
A commotion around the corner from where she had been walking distracted her from her thoughts. Curious, she followed the sounds and peeked around a pillar towards the source.
In the hallway gathered a small crowd of people, mostly dressed in green but with a flash of blue and purple here and there. She started in surprise at the sight, realizing that she hadn’t seen anybody else in the Sanctuary before. She had known that other people must live here, but she had only ever seen Thad and Ezra, as well as Adam, Antony, and Seraphina on that first day.
At the center of the group, she caught a glimpse of two men carrying a stretcher between them. There was a person on the stretcher wearing navy blue, and the men quickly carried it through an arch into what she assumed was one of the numerous bedrooms. As she watched, Nora recognized Thad following behind the stretcher.
Once the door was closed, Nora examined the other people in the dispersing group and recognized Seraphina. She was in a green peplos, as before, and despite the apparent gravity of the current situation, Nora couldn’t help but take a moment to admire the way the fabric effortlessly dripped off the woman, and she could just make out the tattoo encircling her left bicep in the image of a peacock feather. Seraphina had even braided a silver cord into her golden hair. She’d been rude to Nora when they’d first met, but Nora had to admit that the woman had style.
Nora stepped out from behind the pillar and waved to get Seraphina’s attention.
Seraphina sneered. “Oh, it’s you.” Although she stood a head shorter than Nora, she still somehow managed to look down her nose at her.
Ignoring the hostility in her voice, Nora asked, “What’s going on?”
Seraphina’s perfectly arched brows rose. “What’s going on? We are at war.”
“Oh,” Nora stammered, taken aback. She knew the Eteria fought the Shadow, but nobody had put it quite that bluntly.
“Another one of our Defenders was just injured trying to protect your city.” Seraphina made the statement sound accusatory, as if Nora was personally responsible for everything that happened in Chicago.
“Why so many Shadows in Chicago?” Nora asked. While she certainly admitted that she lived in a world-class city, it seemed odd to Nora that the Shadow would be so prevalent there. There must be other cities for the Shadow to terrorize.
“It seems that an agent of the Shadow has taken up residence there. Why, we don’t know.”
Nora made a mental note to look up what Seraphina meant by ‘agent of Shadow’ when she got to the library. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Seraphina had turned to leave, but now whirled back to face Nora, her chin raised like a commanding queen. “You can help by staying out of the way.” The words hit Nora like a punch to the gut, but Seraphina continued ruthlessly. “People like you, prancing around thinking they know everything and acting like they can save the world, are what get people like us killed. If you want to help, just go home and leave the world saving to the experts.”
Before Nora could gather her thoughts to respond, Seraphina had turned back around in an elegant swirl of green cloth and marched off down the hallway. The way she held her head as she strode away made it clear why she had chosen a peacock feather as her tattoo.
Nora was frozen in place for a few moments as she watched Seraphina turn down a side corridor. A slow heat started to pulse in her gut. It made her hands tremble and her heart pound in her ears until she couldn’t hear anything else.
How dare that woman imply that this was somehow Nora’s fault? Nora had been thrown into this after almost dying in an attack by the Shadows herself. And to suggest that Nora couldn’t help with all her expertise, when it was her city that was endangered… While Nora may not have thousands of years’ worth of experience, she was no cowering damsel, and she knew how to grit her teeth and get things done. Nora stomped off with renewed determination, looking for the library.
Turning another corner, Nora found herself staring at a surrealist painting she didn’t recognize. This was an area of the Sanctuary she hadn’t come across before. She made her way down the quiet hall and glanced through open doors she passed. As she peered through the last door in the hallway, she found a wall covered in bookshelves and sighed in relief.
Nora slid inside and was greeted by the scent of ginger and something warm that brought to her a fleeting image of her favorite cozy reading nook for late night research. As she took a few deep breathes, she glanced around and was struck by the realization that she was not, in fact, in a library, but in a rather eclectically decorated bedroom.
It had been easy to mistake it for a library, with two of the walls being completely covered in bookshelves, but the far wall was dominated by a gigantic four-poster bed with navy blue silk curtains. Nora squinted in curiosity as she spotted a cozy art-deco-style armchair, upholstered in brown leather situated next to the bed, as well as a white bearskin rug draped over the polished floor.
Nora told herself she shouldn’t be poking around in somebody else’s room, but the place just felt so full of personality that she drifted inside a few steps more. She made her way over to the bookshelves, interested in what a person who decorated their room like this might like to read. She found that while the shelves contained many books, they also housed a wide variety of knickknacks. She spotted a dagger on a small cushion, no longer than her hand and simple in its design. On another shelf, she spied a locket, it’s oval face covered in swirling engravings with the letter “C” at the center.
“May I help you?”
Nora jumped and spun around. Adam stood propped against the doorframe, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, his eyebrows raised. He had gotten his glasses replaced in the past week, and they sat crookedly on his face in a way that made her itch to straighten them out.
Nora shifted her weight from foot to foot. He had just caught her snooping in the Sanctuary for the second time in a week.
“I was just looking for the library,” she explained, although she was sure he could tell she was quite aware that this was not the library.
“And your search for the library led you to my bedroom?” Nora was relieved that his tone was teasing instead of angry, but then the content of what he’d said struck her.
“This is your bedroom?”
