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She offered her an amused smile, flicking her eyebrows up.

“I’m sorry. I guess it was more than one. I apologize if I’m coming across as overzealous. My mind sometimes flits from one thing to another without me being able to control it. Uh, sorry, that sounded terrible. I can control it. I just–“

“No need to apologize. You remind me so much of her.”

Paige cocked her head at the statement as Veronica continued, ticking Paige’s questions off on her fingers as she answered. “You have level-eight security which is our top level. It means you have access to all areas and all the information within the library. And why do we have them? Well, there’s a very important reason for that.”

Paige raised her eyebrows, prompting Veronica to continue.

Veronica eyed her and pressed her lips together. “We handle many significant artifacts within the library’s archives. Things that, if they got out, could…well, end the world as we know it.”

Paige slow-blinked, parting her lips and pinching her brow while she stared at the woman in front of her. Her lower lip bobbed up and down after a moment as she tried to formulate a response. No words came for a full minute.

The corners of her lips turned up, and a giggle bubbled from deep within her. The chuckle turned into a full belly laugh, her shoulders shaking with laughter. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she doubled over.

“Ohhhhh,” she choked out between giggles, “Veronica, you’re too much.”

She eked out a few more chuckles, her bleary eyes focusing on the woman standing in front of her. She stood stick straight, her hands clasped in front of her, waiting patiently for Paige’s fit to end.

Paige sobered quickly and adjusted her glasses as she licked her lips. “Sorry, Ms. Lauren. I didn’t mean to be too familiar.”

“It’s all right. And please, call me Ronnie.”

“So, anyway, what’s the real reason there are so many security levels?”

Ronnie cocked her head. “I told you. The artifacts we handle must be kept safe at all costs and secret. The knowledge of their existence would prove too much for the world at large. And for the small cross section of the population who realize the extent of magic that exists right under our noses, well, they could bend them to their own purposes and destroy the current equilibrium.”

Paige scanned the hallway as she stumbled back a step and collapsed onto a bench under the portrait of a former librarian, Seymour Books. She sucked in breaths, her face scrunching as she tried to make sense of the words.

“Are you saying…” Her gaze cut to Ronnie’s calm features. “Are you… I’m sorry. I don’t even know what you’re saying.”

“I’m saying, Paige, that you are now a guardian of these secrets and of artifacts that can destroy the world around us.”

Paige sat speechless for another moment before she stood and smoothed her tunic. “I don’t understand–“ she began.

“It may be easier for me to show you–“

Paige cut her off, waving her hand in the air. “No, it’s not that. Well, wait…” She squeezed her eyes shut before she raised her gaze to Ronnie. “It is that. I still don’t get that, and yeah, you’ll have to show me. But that’s not where I was going with my question. I don’t understand why you picked me.”

Without a word, Ronnie grabbed Paige by the wrist and tugged her down the hall toward the door through which they’d just entered. Panic set in as Paige assumed she’d asked one too many questions.

Paige babbled as Ronnie dragged her along, attempting to salvage the situation. “It’s not that I’m not grateful, and it’s not like I won’t work my tail off. I just don’t understand why when you had Rhodes Scholars and people way more qualified than me that you picked me for what seems like a highly important job.”

Ronnie stopped in front of a large portrait a third of the way down the hall. A woman sat primly in a rail-straight, seated pose. A book sat on her lap. Her red hair, pulled into a braid, fell over her shoulder. Her full lips formed a slight smile.

Paige stared up at the painting, admiring the woman’s green plaid blazer, but not understanding the reason Ronnie showed her this particular painting. Her gaze fell to the brass plate underneath the painting.

“Why did you bring me to look at this portrait of Reed Moore?”

“Look closer, Paige.”

Paige fluttered her eyelashes in frustration and returned her gaze to the portrait. She licked her lips as she struggled to find an answer. With portraits both before and after this one, she could assume this was not the first librarian, nor the one immediately preceding her. Either could have provided a life lesson, but that was likely not the case.

She shook her head and sucked in a breath. Was it the similarity with the red hair? That was a stretch. Her mind struggled to connect the dots.

“Don’t make me sorry I hired you. Pay attention to the details and figure it out.”

She slid her eyes shut for a moment, letting her shoulders slump forward and breathing out a frustrated sigh.