Page 35 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
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Nora stretched luxuriously,unable to remember the last time she had been woken by the sun instead of her blaring alarm. After rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she made her way down the hall to thank Adam for letting her stay the night. She found the door to his bedroom ajar, but when she pushed it open, the room was empty. The bed was made, and there was no trace of the man who’d slept there, other than the now familiar scent of chai and books.
She wondered where he could have been up and off to so early on a Sunday and suppressed the little bubble of hurt she felt that he hadn’t stayed to say good morning. Nora told herself his leaving had nothing to do with her presence.
Remembering what had brought her to the Sanctuary in the first place, she mentally kicked herself for not asking Adam where the library was. Now she was going to be back to square one with her search.
She started in the direction she had come from the night before, hoping she would at least be able to retrace her steps back to the entrance. As soon as she rounded the corner, though, she ran into something very warm and solid.
“Oh, there you are Ad—” The words died in Nora’s mouth as she looked up to find that she had not in fact run into Adam, for the figure was much too broad across the shoulders. Instead, she saw a curling beard and dark brown eyes, wide with surprise.
“Drew? What are you doing here?”
“Oh—well, umm…” Drew’s gaze darted around the hallway. “I was looking for…”
“Wait, were you looking for me?” Nora realized she had not told anybody where she was going when she’d left the day before. “Sorry if you called me. I don’t get cell service here. I should have let somebody know I was staying the night.”
“Oh no, that’s— What were you doing here overnight?”
“I came looking for the library to do some research. I guess I lost track of the time. Adam told me I could sleep in the room I’d stayed in before if I didn’t feel up to the journey home.”
The furrow between Drew’s brows smoothed. “I’m glad you didn’t have to go home by yourself at night.”
“Did Odelle ask you to check up on me? Sorry if she put you up to this. I haven’t told her about everything,” she gestured around the Sanctuary at large, “and she is too smart to not figure out when I’m hiding something from her. It’s made her get all worried about me.”
“No, Odelle hasn’t texted me. I didn’t know you would be here.” Drew rubbed the back of his neck.
“Oh,” Nora internally sighed in relief that her younger sister hadn’t resorted to involving her ex-boyfriend. She cocked her head. “So, wait—what are you doing here then?”
“Well…” Drew cleared his throat. “I asked Thad if he could explain to me some of the, ah, techniques he used while he was healing you. Being an ER doc, I was really interested in the science behind it. He agreed to teach me a few tricks that he has learned over the years. I’ve been coming here occasionally to see him.”
“That’s great!” Nora said, and she meant it. “I’ve been working in some weapons research with my combat training, too, so I’m glad we’ve both found a way to use this experience to our benefit.”
“I’m sorry if everybody ganged up on you to get you to train in self-defense.” Drew shifted from foot to foot as he spoke. “I’m just glad you’re going to be safer now.”
Nora waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. I needed some time to…reframe the situation.”
“Right. Did you say you were trying to find the library? Thad showed me where it was. I could take you to it if you’d like.”
“That’d be great,” Nora conceded. “I’ve wasted enough time trying to find it on my own.”
A few minutes later, Drew led Nora into a vast circular room that took her breath away. The library overflowed with golden light, streaming in from above. The distant ceiling was composed of a mosaic of glass panels held in place by a latticework of gold. Turning her attention back to the main room, Nora couldn’t help but find the bookshelves themselves to be one of the most impressive parts. Instead of being made of wood, the shelves were carved into the white stone walls themselves. They were packed haphazardly with books of every size and color, running in both directions, stacked on top of each other, and even shelved two-deep in some places.
Nora wove her way through a collection of stools and study tables to the center of the circle, which was clear of furniture. A bronze symbol emblazoned the pale floor. It was the shape of a sun, crossed by a sword and spear. The way the light danced through the glass above caught on the metal and made it shimmer, making it look more like the sun hanging in the sky than just a symbol on the floor.
Nora had been so enchanted by her surroundings that she had forgotten Drew was with her until he chuckled. “You look like you’ve died and gone to Heaven, although I can’t say I’m surprised. This suits you perfectly.”
“I have always loved books,” Nora breathed, still staring around in awe.
“True, but it’s not just that,” Drew continued, a wistful note in his deep voice. “This whole place, you just…fit here. You’ve always seemed like you belonged in a place like this, so full of art and history and knowledge.”
Nora cocked her head up at him, finding herself unsure how to respond to a comment that profound. She settled on a whispered, “Thank you.” A few moments passed before she asked, “Shouldn’t you be going to find Thad? If he’s expecting you, I wouldn’t want to be the reason you’re keeping him waiting.”
“What? Oh—Thad. Of course.” Drew reached out and gave her shoulder a squeeze before turning to go. “Have fun with your explorations. I’ll see you around.”
As Drew’s footsteps faded down the hallway, Nora turned back to the books in front of her, puzzling out where she should start. She stepped up to the nearest shelf and began to peruse, unable to stop herself from running her fingers along the spines of the books, seeing titles on dozens of topics from every age all mixed together in no particular order.
She paused when her finger brushed a particularly ancient looking tome titled The Birth of Shadows, Seraphina’s haughty voice playing in her mind, saying something about an agent of Shadow. Nora pulled the tome out and tucked it under her free arm before continuing to browse. There was no harm in doing some research on her potential enemy.
