Page 113

Paige offered a smirk as she climbed from her seat at the table and wandered to a leather chair near Dewey, then she collapsed into it. “Okay, fine. What’s the plan?”

Dewey wiggled straighter in his seat. “Here’s what I think. We take the car they arranged for us to the library. And then we go inside.”

“Okay,” Paige said.

“Once we’re inside, we locate the hidden archive. And then we find a place to hide until people leave. Then we use the Seepy Sap and slip into the archive, steal the talisman, slip out, and head home.”

Paige narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s your plan?”

“I think it’s sound.”

“Yeah, as long as it all works. The last plan we had to get to this plane kind of went awry.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time. There should be no werewolves this round. Just a nasty Russian librarian. We should be fine.”

Paige pulled one corner of her lips back in a skeptical twist. “Famous last words.”

CHAPTER 28

Paige tugged her hood tighter around her, staring up at the gothic structure rising in front of them. She shivered as she jogged up the stone steps leading to the door. Dewey’s carrier bounced off her hip with every step.

“Can you please watch what you’re doing? I’m being bounced within an inch of my life!”

“Shh,” Paige said as she climbed the last few stone steps and pushed through the revolving door into the building.

She scanned the space. Muted lights lit the rows of desks extended from one end of the room to the other. On either side, large wooden bookcases rose from the floor to the ceiling. Steps led up to another level filled with more bookshelves.

Paige adjusted her glasses as she took in the space. Her jaw gaped, the corners of her open mouth turning up into a broad grin.

“Wow,” she whispered.

A voice hissed at her from her hip. “Stop gaping around and find the employees only area.”

Paige jiggled the case as she shook her head and wandered farther into the library, disappearing into the stacks.

“Where do you think it is?” she whispered.

“How should I know?” Dewey breathed. “Look around for a door marked Employees Only or something.”

“Well, that’s ridiculous because it would be in Russian, and I don’t read Russian.”

“Then look for a door that looks…suspicious.”

A man turned the corner, approaching them in the aisle.

Paige offered him a nervous smile as he passed by her, then hurried away from him. She reached the end of the aisle and swung her head back and forth in search of a direction.

“Nothing,” she murmured.

A woman’s voice sounded overhead, saying something unintelligible.

Paige shoved her glasses higher on her face. “What’s she saying?”

“I don’t know. I don’t speak Russian.”

Paige wrinkled her nose as she glanced down at the purple crystal dangling around her neck. “Would be nice if this worked on human language.”

She continued down along the stacks, searching for a secured door.