Library Fun

'How the hell do you even have access to the library?!' I half whisper-yelled at Kieran, who was a few feet in front of me and sweating buckets from nervousness.

'My dad,' He started then cringed when from the volume of his voice. Even though I was sure that mine was higher than his, he still lowered his voice by a notch so I had to practically strain my ears to hear him. Which was saying a lot considering demons have super hearing.

'He wants me to study,' He finished with a shrug.

I spit out a laugh and Kieran snapped his head toward me, glaring at me so harshly that I had to cover it up with a cough. But when he continued glaring at me, I swallowed my coughs and almost choked to death.

'Study?' I got out when I felt like I could breathe again.

'That is so weird,' I snorted and Kieran elbowed me in a sort of signal to shut up. I rolled my eyes and considered allowing one of my shadows to possess him but then decided against it.

I hated sneaking around. I liked the attention whenever I swept into a room, but there was no way for me to get access to the library without everyone knowing my business.

This was something that me, Kieran and Maeve had to figure out ourselves, at least for now. So I really didn't want Azrael to find out. Besides, she would say know in a second if I told her I wanted to read up a bit more on the lost souls and possibly find a way to turn them back to demons. That is if what Kieran said about the council knowing about the lost souls was true.

Luckily, Kieran had access somehow. I didn't really believe his story about his dad wanting him to study but I would find out soon enough.

We reached the supernatural creatures aisle and didn't have to duck anymore. But Kieran was still nervous as his eyes kept drifting to each end of the aisle we were standing in.

I had been to the library only once before. Azrael mainly focused on making me fight and use my power to become stronger, never on education.

Mostly because she believed that she knew everything- if not more than these books. So according to Azrael, sending me to a library was a waste of time when she could educate me herself.

The one time I had been here was because of Beelzebub. He was a book nerd and always brought me books to study. I had to keep them hidden most of the time of course.

But, one day, he insisted that the demon master wanted to see me. I was quite young at the time. Luckily, Azrael was not around so it was easy sneaking into the library. He used to keep a check on me for at least the first fifty years of my life.

But I had my ways of sneaking past him since I was a rebellious child. We had had a lot of fights as a result of that, most of them were screaming matches that ended with one of us throwing something at the other.

There have been times when we full out started fighting because our tempers got too out of hand.

'Náli..' Kieran whispered, and I blinked, realizing that I was standing in the library.

I turned toward Kieran and saw him holding a think book toward me. It was tiny and withered as if the pages would fall at the slightest touch so I was careful while holding it.

The title wasn't really visible. I tried squinting but I was unable to make out the words. Apparently, Kieran noticed my squinting because he said, 'The Lost Souls Of Verdalis.'

My eyes widened at the name as I slowly took the book from Kieran and flipped it open carefully, saying, 'Verdalis?'

Each of the seven heavens had a name, and Verdalis was the name of the third heaven. It also happened to be the old name of Hell. Not many demons knew this because we were naturally selfish creatures and did not care about anything else unless it concerned us directly.

Unfortunately, the content of the book was written in Verdalian- the old language of Hell. Only the older, immortal demons could speak the language so I was unable to understand anything, and I said as much to Kieran.

'This is in Verdalian..' I looked up at him and saw him frowning at the text.

He took the book from my hands and squinted at the text for a few minute before shaking his head in frustration, saying, 'No, I can't read this either.'

But the clogs in my head were already turning in my head as I said, 'But someone might..'

'You don't mean her, do you?' My head snapped up to meet Kieran's skeptical gaze and he got the answer as soon as he started shaking his head, 'She'd never do it.'

'Unless we have something on her.'