Unhallowed (Rath and Rune #1) - Jordan L. Hawk Page 0,12

mouth quirked. “You’d be surprised.” He turned to the door. “That concludes the tour. Unless you have any specific questions, I should return to my own duties.”

Ves had plenty of questions, beginning with, is everyone here insane? But that would only draw unwanted attention. “I look forward to working with you,” he said instead.

Rath glanced back over his shoulder, his hazel eyes cool. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he replied, rather than offer the same sentiment in return.

Prick.

Ves followed him silently back through the labyrinth. He’d wondered why Fagerlie went to all the trouble of hiring him to map out a floor plan of the library, but now he thought he understood.

Fagerlie must want the books of sorcery in the final room. He’d pose as a visiting scholar, perhaps bring a friend with him. They’d slip away into the stacks, find the restricted room, and pick the locks. Then they’d either smuggle a few selected books out under their coats, or one of them would hide until after closing, let a gang in through a side door, and make off with the entire lot.

Either way, it didn’t concern Ves. He and Noct would be away from Widdershins by then. Though it would have been amusing to see the look on Fagerlie’s face when he found out about the library bats.

Chapter 5

That evening after work, Sebastian took the trolley to Kelly’s apartment building. Or to what had been his apartment building, before he vanished.

No one else took Kelly’s departure seriously, but Sebastian had been uneasy from the start. He’d come here the day after Mr. Quinn announced he received Kelly’s resignation letter, hoping to talk some sense into the man. Kelly was already gone, though, and the landlady said his things were cleaned out and the key returned via the post. She hadn’t seemed particularly worried, and so Sebastian had left without asking further.

He should have come back again before now. Started looking into the disappearance on his own, instead of just hoping Kelly would send word, or maybe even reappear one day.

But now Kelly’s position had been given to someone else. Sebastian had waited too long.

The tour with Mr. Rune had left him uneasy. The fellow had been far too interested in the books in the restricted section. Possibly his curiosity was simply that of a man who professionally conserved old tomes…or he might not be as ignorant of the arcane arts as Sebastian and Irene had assumed.

This was what came of hiring outsiders. It was impossible to guess their motives.

The soft light of the stacks had flattered Rune. Brought out the glow of his olive skin and cast the shadows of his thick, long lashes over his cheekbones. His unoiled hair had looked soft, and Sebastian had felt a sudden impulse to run his hands through it.

His blood quickened, and Sebastian bit his lip, hoping a flash of pain would quell the beginnings of arousal. There was something about Rune that Sebastian couldn’t put his finger on, something beyond mere good looks, that drew him like an iron filing to a magnet. Which was absurd; he barely knew the fellow. Besides, Sebastian was going to find Kelly. Then Kelly would come back, and Rune would leave, and everything would be as normal as it could be.

God.

He climbed off the trolley at the corner of Merry Cat Lane, just before it reached the commercial district along River Street. The lane was lined with apartment buildings catering to families saving to buy their own houses, and bachelors whose salary was meant to support a wife and children. Kelly had lived in one of the newer buildings, constructed only two years previously in 1908, on the site of an older building destroyed during the Dark Days.

Yet another thing Rune wouldn’t understand. The world had nearly ended in 1902, and the force that meant to destroy it had converged on Widdershins. The librarians had been on the frontlines of the fight to save humanity.

Well, most of the librarians. Sebastian himself hadn’t. When he should have been fighting by the sides of his fellow librarians, he’d been healing from a broken leg in the basement of a house in Boston, bored out of his mind.

Sebastian entered the apartment building, pausing to hold the door open for a young woman whose hat was so large it barely fit through the entryway. Irene would be jealous.

His shoes tapped softly on the marble floor as he crossed the lobby, past the mailboxes and telephone, to the