“He’s not harming me.” I continued on my way to the town archives. “I’d tell you to get it through your thick skull, but since you don’t have one at the moment…”
“Funny.”
“Seriously, though. Don’t do that again.”
“I make no promises.”
“Of course you don’t. You’re a demon.”
“Exactly.”
My face pinched, no doubt making me look like a sour kangaroo, but whatever. I had two annoying men battling for my last nerve and a daunting quest that seemed damn near impossible to complete. A nap and a stiff drink would do me good, but I didn’t have time for either.
A sense of calm washed over me as I approached the three-story brown brick building. I ascended the stone steps toward the entrance, a set of wooden double doors with columns on both sides holding up a small portico, and rested my hand against the textured concrete pillar.
“No matter what we find, who we see, or what happens in here, you are not, under any circumstances, to take over and make me or anyone else tear this place apart.”
“Again, I make no promises.”
Not good enough. I curled my hand into a fist. “I mean it, Chaos. Libraries are sacred spaces that deserve our respect. They’re the only public buildings you can go to and just be. No one expects you to buy anything. You don’t have to have a reason to be there. I need you to promise me you won’t cause trouble in here. You’ve damaged enough libraries.”
He grunted. “I won’t apologize for stopping the golem from killing you, but I do regret making Shade damage your belongings.”
“Promise me.”
A mother and her small daughter exited the building, the girl’s arms full of picture books, a smile brightening her face. The mom looked at me quizzically as she passed. Crap. I’d absently returned the phone to my pocket, so I looked like I was talking to myself.
“Chaos…” I fished my earbuds from my bag and put one in before tucking my hair behind my ear so it would show.
Silence for one beat. Two. “I promise I will try.”
That would have to suffice. “Okay. Let’s do this.” I stepped over the threshold and took a deep breath. Ahhh… Books.
A curved staircase led up to the third floor, and I had to force myself not to climb it two steps at a time. On the top floor, the city archives room stood in the back of the building. I passed row after row of reference books, all shelved in their proper places, and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.
“You enjoy this place?”
“I’m a librarian,” I whispered. “Of course I do.” Especially the reference section. Books were my jam.
Lucky for me, no one else needed to look up Salem’s history today. I had the room to myself. Dropping my bag on the table, I strode to the computer kiosk on the far wall. At least their card catalog went digital. A quick search pointed me to a volume detailing the layout of sixteen hundreds Salem and the surrounding area.
“See how easy it is to locate things when they’re organized?” I found the book on the third shelf, right where it was supposed to be, and set it on the table.
“Some thrive in chaotic environments.”
I opened it to the table of contents. “Do they really, though? I mean, you’re a demon called ‘Chaos,’ and your brothers are ‘Discord’ and ‘Mayhem.’ Are there any princes of Hell called ‘Order’ or ‘Organization?’ If so, I don’t see how they could possibly be scary.”
“Not all demons are meant to instill fear. Some gain trust before unleashing their wrath.”
“Uh-huh. But are there any demons whose power is organization?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought.” The table of contents wasn’t nearly detailed enough for a five-inch-thick book, so I flipped to the index to find the right page. “Here we go. The oldest map of Salem.”
I tugged the pentagram map from my bag to compare the two. Sure enough, the squiggly lines did indicate water, which helped me line it up. The cross was the church Miles thought it was. Damn. If I could get him away from Shade for long enough, he might be able to help figure out exactly where the points on the pentagram indicated. I doubted these were drawn to precise scale considering their age.
I snapped a picture of the map with my phone. I’d have to blow it up to make it the same size as Isabel’s. As I shoved my phone into my pocket, the energy in the room shifted and Chaos growled.
“Do you sense it?”
I focused on the sensation, a faint disturbance in the vibration, so low I would have never detected it if Chaos hadn’t taught me what to look for.
“Demon,” I whispered and snapped my head from side to side. The room appeared empty, but there was no mistaking the low vibration in my bones. “Where?”
“Another rift has opened. It senses me.”
“A rift inside the library?” Oh no. I could not allow a demon to wreak havoc on this archive. I grabbed a bottled perimeter location spell, closed the door for privacy, and blew the dust into the air.
The cloud billowed, collecting around a teeny tiny tear in the veil, no bigger than the palm of my hand. I could seal that before the beastie even made it through. Uncorking the bottle of veil-mending magic, I prepared to toss it on the opening, but a set of spindly fingers with suction cups on the ends like a frog grabbed the sides of the tear and ripped it open.
A one-foot-tall troll-looking creature hopped through, sneered at me, and headed straight for the marble bust of the city’s founder, Roger Conant, standing on a dais in the corner. It climbed the statue, bared its pointy teeth, and bit into old Conant’s head.
“What the hell is that?”
“An imp. A low-level demon incapable of speech or rational thought.”
“Great.” I set the veil healing spell on the table. “How do I vanquish it?”
