Chapter 335

Chapter 335
“Those two are having a grand time showing off,” Scarlette scoffs as she walks past me. “I am half glad Cooper is not here.” The way the women stare at them makes me wish Drix were not here either. I glower and stride over to join them.

“Teeny Mouse!” Jericho calls out yet another ridiculous name. He smiles widely, tucking his hand into his pocket. “You are late.”

“You are one to talk. Let’s go. We have already wasted enough time,” Scarlette says, pushing past him towards the bookshop door. Drix catches her arm and pulls her back gently. She throws him a sharp glare.

“Calm down. Jerry needs to use the key that will take us to the actual library, not this bookshop.”

Scarlette mutters an “Oh.” The gasps and murmurs from passers-by grow louder as Gillian jogs up to join us, empty-handed.

“Where is your cat?”

“I left her with the lady. I will collect her when we return.”

“You bought a cat?” Jericho asks, puzzled. “Are you trying to give Kira a new guinea pig? You know she will turn any animal into a science project.” Gillian smiles confidently and ignores him. Jericho shrugs, turns around, and pulls a Japanese talisman from his pocket. It gives off a strange aura that makes it almost invisible to normal eyes. Without my enhanced vision, I would never have spotted it.

He presses the talisman to the centre of the door. The telemagenta ink glows, and the carved lines on the door light up in the same vivid shade. I glance around, wondering if anyone else noticed. Jericho opens the door. Inside it still looks like an ordinary shop, and when he steps through, nothing seems to change.

Hendrix clasps my hand and pulls me in after him. A strange sensation passes through my body, and on the other side I find myself staring at a magnificent library. It is the first grand library I have ever entered. There is nothing overtly mystical about it—just a vast, normal-looking space filled with towering shelves—which feels oddly disappointing. I had expected something more shocking.

“Almond!” Jericho shouts, waving at a woman. She is Italian, with warm olive skin, thick dark waves of hair cascading past her shoulders, and striking brown eyes framed by strong, expressive brows. She snaps her head around and glares at him to shut up. “Oops,” he whispers.

“Is that her?” Scarlette asks as the woman approaches, still scowling.

“That is her friend, Bagel.”

“I thought you just called her Almond.”

Jericho shrugs. “I do not remember her name, but it is something brown or food-related.”

“My name is Hazel,” the woman says through gritted teeth, “and I will not be in charge of you lot while this dick is here. Aphrodite is on the second floor. Find her there.” There is another floor?

“No need.” Hazel turns around anyway and guides us forward. “I searched for them myself. There is nothing I cannot find in this library, yet I found almost nothing useful about Alpha Hiems Zales.”

My heart sinks. “What did you find?”

“Alpha Hiems Zales was the Alpha of Zenith. Where Zenith is or what it was, I could not uncover. He simply appeared one day and vanished just as quickly. There are no records of his ancestors or any descendants either.” Her tone stays serious.

“So what was the point of coming here if we cannot find anything?” Gillian laments. “If it is not here, then the knowledge is nowhere else.”

“There is one place left.” Hazel leads us up to the third floor and into a room with a heavy oak door. “The Chronicle of Shifters—a magical tool that automatically records everything that happens in the lives of shifters, especially those in packs. It has a mind of its own and may not answer your questions, but you can try. As Alpha Ajax, it might respond to you. It would have been better if a direct descendant of Zales asked, though I doubt any still exist.”

She walks ahead and does not see everyone else turn to look at me. Scarlette smirks, Jericho sniggers, and Gillian’s eyes shine with sudden hope. My own heart starts hammering harder. Hazel opens the door.

I gasp the moment we step inside. This is magical. Flying books drift between shelves while tiny pixies carry others through the air. Ten large orbs float in the centre of the room, aligned like planets, with a large glass staircase spiralling around them all the way up to the roof.

Each orb glows with a different colour. Hazel points to the second one—a brownish-gold sphere shot through with hues of white and silver. As she does, the orb pulses with energy, a gentle sonic wave that strikes only me.

It suddenly transforms into a world map. My vision zooms in on the planet. The world spins for a moment before my sight hurtles towards Asia. It keeps zooming, pinpointing a precise location, and then everything shifts.

I stand in the middle of a sunlit clearing, the wind moving through the grass in slow waves. The warmth feels familiar, like most of the visions I have had before. “Sapphire.” I spin round with a gasp. My father stands a short distance away, arms folded and his face grave. His bright red hair swaying with the wind. “You are finally here.”

“Where am I? What is going on?”

He turns and starts walking away. “Come.”

“Where? Where are you taking me?” He pauses and glances over his shoulder, sadness heavy in his eyes.

“To show you how I died.”