arm around her shoulders, supporting her. “Are you okay?”
She coughed, looking around the library, her brow furrowed. “I’m at the library?”
“Yes. I found you on the floor.”
“Oh.” She frowned, then clutched her stomach and doubled over, shuddering. “I feel awful.”
Fear spiked. I thought of the rat who had died after wandering into the mist. “What’s wrong?”
“My abdomen. Lungs.” She gasped, trying to breathe. Her gaze flashed up to mine, fear in the depths. “I remember now. I came to see you, but there was this mist at the back of the library.”
“Did it call to you?” In the same way it calls to me?
“Um . . . no.” She shook her head, glancing back toward the rear of the library.
My gaze followed hers, searching, though I knew the ghostly shadow was gone. I was attuned to its presence . . . unfortunately.
“It just looked weird, so I went to check it out,” she continued.
I hadn’t been friends with her long—I’d been following Nana’s advice all twenty-five years of my life—but that was one hundred percent Mac. Bold and brave, she was never one to back away from a challenge.
“Then what?” I asked.
“I felt lightheaded.” She touched her temple, her knuckles bruised and broken. Probably from a fight. She was a bartender at the Haunted Hound, a popular pub in town and one of the magical gates to human London. “Then I collapsed, I think.”
Her face turned pale and almost green as she bent over once more.
Worry tugged at me. “Come on. We need to go see Eve. You’re not well.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, good idea.”
I helped her to her feet, my own limbs trembling. Why couldn’t the ghostly shadow have gotten me?
It was me it wanted, after all. I could feel its desire, cold and hot at the same time. Why attack my friend?
Because she’d walked toward it, brave and bold, something I’d never even tried. I was too cowardly, too aware of Nana’s warnings. She’d taken me from Greece to hide me. Torn us out of our old lives. I’d respected that and hidden, just as she’d asked. Just as she’d trained me.
And this was the result.
I’m a coward.
“You can stay here and work,” Mac said, her voice thready. “I know you’re supposed to open soon.”
“Of course not. I’m taking you to Eve. You look like hell.”
She laughed, wrapping an arm around my shoulder for support. “Feel like it, too.”
We moved slowly toward the door, and I asked. “How did you get in, anyway?”
“It was unlocked. I thought you were open.”
“Damn it. I thought I locked it last night.” I was really losing it these days if I’d forgotten to lock up. That was a firing offense, and rightly so. The books in this library were beyond ancient. Beyond valuable. Not just because of their age and rarity, but because of the deadly spells some of them contained.
“You’ve been a bit odd, lately,” Mac said as we stopped in front of the door. “Distracted and . . . scared, almost. And you would never leave the door unlocked.”
“Maybe I would.”
“We haven’t known each other long, but I know that’s not true. What’s going on?”
I swallowed hard, wanting to tell her. But what would I say?
I’m being haunted by the terrifying shadowy ghost of a man that repels and attracts me all at once?
Nope. Because that was insane.
2
Seraphia
I helped Mac out onto the street, avoiding her gaze without answering the question.
But she didn’t press. I’d always been good at giving off an icy air that kept people from getting close, and it was working like a charm right now.
Finally, she said, “I’m here when you finally want to talk, you know.”
Tears pricked my eyes. I’d given her the true hedgehog treatment, spikes deployed, but she was still there for me.
But talk?
I couldn’t, of course. Feelings were my enemy. My terrible, wonky plant magic went out of control anytime I felt strong emotion. Trees died, vines grew seven hundred feet long, entire crops would wither.
Exactly as Nana had warned me it would happen. Exactly what I needed to avoid if I wanted to keep the shadowy ghost away.
So yeah, I needed to keep my distance. Caring for people was a surefire way to develop emotions, which was a surefire way to cause catastrophic damage to the natural world.
Hence, my reputation as a badass loner.
Well, maybe as a loner. The badass part was less likely.
Anyway, I’d already been growing too close to Mac, Carrow, Beatrix, and Eve, my four almost-friends. It was