Life Reader

by Shea, K. M.

  “Ray-Ray,” Aron said, shaking his head again. “We broke into Daire’s office and read your file. Of course we already knew what level you were.”

  “Fine, if you were so intrigued why were you total jerks about it?” Raven asked, clenching her perfectly manicured hands into fists.

  “I already told you, we didn’t know what else to do! We’re not girl whisperers!”

  “You seem to have no problem talking to me now,” Raven said, jabbing a finger in his direction.

  Aron sourly sunk lower on his step. “This is why Asher likes you so much. Because you’re too freakin’ smart. Personally, I find it irritating,” he grumbled before turning to face Raven. “Look, I know we may have seemed mean and a lot of our actions could be misinterpreted. But try to think about the times that you saw us, really saw us. Like with the decayor. How did we treat you then?”

  Raven opened her mouth to give Aron a savage reply when she hesitated, remembering the experience. Asher had swept her up, and together the twins had rescued her like a pair of champions. Afterwards it was Raven who had responded negatively out of sheer panic—they had merely reacted to her.

  The time when they mocked her for reading… they hadn’t seemed malicious. It was more like she was a particularly interesting lab rat they wanted to further study.

  Raven snapped her fingers, recalling her first interaction with the Montamos twins that ignited her distrust of them. “What about the second day I worked? You guys trailed after me when we walked to work and wouldn’t let me stray even though my feet were killing me.”

  Aron blinked. “They what?”

  “My shoes were giving me blisters. They were miserable to walk in.”

  “Oh, really? You should have said something, Dad makes us carry around a first aid kit since our sense of self preservation is pretty low. And how were we supposed to know that? Also, why would you wear shoes that give you blisters?”

  “Don’t avoid the question, why wouldn’t you let me sneak off?”

  “It was a nice thing to do, wasn’t it? We were making sure you didn’t go the wrong way. If we had passed you and kept shouting out directions then it would have been super obvious to everyone that we were attempting to befriend you.”

  Raven carefully rubbed her temples. “Nice? I’m beginning to see what you meant about being awkward.”

  “Hey! We let you bully us into cleaning, didn’t we?” Aron said, folding his arms.

  Raven felt more unsure than ever of her precarious standing with the twins. Aron grinned when he caught her eye, and Raven scowled. “That’s still a crappy excuse. I won’t put up with being yelled at. I don’t do the verbally abusive friend thing.”

  “We won’t be,” Aron nodded. “We’ve played very nice with you, haven’t we? Asher might be socially backward, but once he knows he’s got you he’ll loosen up.”

  “And you aren’t socially awkward?” Raven pointedly asked.

  “I’m the twin that’s talking to you,” Aron said, pushing his eyebrows up. “Speaking of which I would appreciate if you didn’t mention this to Asher. Twin or not, he will kill me,” Aron said, sliding off his stair, groaning as he stood. “I just wanted you to know everything. To get the whole picture,” he said, nodding in satisfaction.

  “To complicate things,” Raven added, her face scrunched up.

  “Exactly!” Aron said with a sparkling smile. “But I’ve got to book it. Asher will get suspicious. I hope we hear from you soon, Ray!” Aron said, raising a hand in farewell before hurrying towards the kitchen.

  Raven flopped backwards and groaned for a moment. “I don’t need this. I just want to find the cauldron,” she muttered before popping up right. She grabbed her backpack and headed for the kitchen.

  In her locker was her buckle shoe—the one she whipped at Daire. She carefully tucked it inside her bag before heading back out to the computer area.

  Her original plans were to garner a few brownie points with Royce and take Brannon’s shift at the print out station, but Brannon was already there, tinkering with the insides of a desktop tower. Additionally, Royce was occupied with William, showing him the internet log in process. Instead it was Jeremiah posted at the sign in desk, beaming a sparkling smile at every female that strolled past him.

  Raven blinked before walking towards the stairs, deciding a day spent in the fiction area would perhaps be better spent. She was halfway up the spiraling staircase when she noticed Jeremiah was staring rather pointedly at her.

  When he knew he had her attention, Jeremiah looked up at the ceiling, indicating to the fiction section, before looking back at Raven and raising his eyebrows.

  You dare to go against him?

  Raven stayed blank faced for several long moments before pasting her fakest, brightest smile on her face and making an elegant, sweeping curtsey. When she straightened up, she continued up the stairs, making her steps as springy and cheerful as her shoes would allow.

  Duh.

  After popping up in the second floor, Raven made her way through the maze of bookshelves, mentally mapping out the area she would search.

  She snagged one of the rolling ladders and tugged it after her when she reached the edge of her new territory, doggedly rolling it to the correct start point of her grid box for the day.

  “At least today will be easy,” she said, wrestling the ladder across an aisle before reaching the book case she wanted. “It’s all bookshelves, no study nooks or decorations.”

  Searching shelves was easy. All she had to do was climb to the top and start working her way down—making sure there was nothing behind the books or any kind of hollow space.

  When there were desks, expensive vases the size of men, sculptures, and pillars to inspect the searching was exceedingly more difficult.

  Raven climbed to the top of the ladder, taking the last few rungs significantly slower, before she popped her head past the top of the bookshelf. Once again finding it suspiciously free of dust, Raven carefully felt across the surface for any invisible object—she wouldn’t put it past a librarian to hide the stupid cauldron in the open, but making it invisible so intruders couldn’t find it.

  After groping around the smooth surface with no luck, Raven took a step down and began her inspection of the top shelf of books—feeling behind them for any hidden object or latch before shifting the books to make sure they didn’t trigger anything.

  As she worked Raven mulled over her problem with the twins. “If I tell them everything they might be willing to help me look. Maybe they already know something about the cauldron,” Raven said, blindly feeling behind books as she looked past the handful of fairies that had already gathered.

  Today Raven’s cheerleaders sat on the top of the bookcases, occasionally hovering midair when they grew excited and franticly beat their dragonfly wings.

  Raven groaned, thunking her head against a polished shelf. “But if I tell them that throws my fake identity out the window,” she said, lowering her voice to such a soft volume even the fairies couldn’t hear her. “It doesn’t really make sense to reveal myself when my whole mission depends on secrecy,” she said, climbing down the ladder.

  “I could talk to Dad. It’s probably the best route, he would know what to do in this situation,” Raven said, dismounting the ladder so she could inspect the bottom shelves. “Although I’m still not sure if I should take their offer seriously. I mean they seem nice now…,” Raven trailed off and shook her head, looking up at her cheerleading section. “What do you think?” she asked the glittering fairies.

  The eight fairies cheered heartily, furiously clapping their hands and beating their wings as they chattered with much animation in their chiming voices.

  This would normally indicate they heartily approved of the plan, but they applauded just about everything she said. They were not a critical, much less discerning, crowd.

  Raven fluffed her skirt and moved onto the next bookshelf, rolling the ladder further down and locking it into place
before climbing it again.

  The fairies obligingly followed, fluttering a few feet after her, hovering midair as they waited for her to clear the top of the bookcase. When she finished her inspection they settled down, uncorking two miniature bottles to pass among them.

  Raven sighed and started her assessment of the top shelf. “Maybe I’ve been thinking the wrong way. Rather than judge the twins based on how they interact with me, I’ve disliked them based on what everyone else said. Now that I think about it, their profiles never mentioned that they were particularly evil or sadistic,” she said, recalling the oddly brief readouts about the twins. The Montamos brothers, even when combined, had the least amount of information in the file Gram had given her in preparation. Their folder hadn’t even mentioned the death of their mother.

  “Perhaps I was a little unfair,” Raven said, grunting as she twisted to properly shift a stack of books. When she finished she groaned. “This is sucks. I don’t enjoy all this doubt and secrecy. I am not cut out for this life.”

  Raven blinked when she realized one of the glowing fairies—a purple hued one—was fluttering in front of her. It was a girl fairy, and she held out one of the bottles, jabbering away while nodding at Raven before fixing her gaze on her small bottle.

  Raven shifted on the ladder. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

  The fairy talked a little more before frowning and tucking the small bottle into the crook of her arm. She then pointed to the bottle with her free hand before violently fanning herself and sticking her tongue out. She then pointed to Raven before pantomiming shivers and chills.

  “The drink is warm?” Raven guessed.

  The fairy eagerly nodded.

  “I’m cold?”

  The fairy nodded again and wildly gestured to her bottle.

  “Oh, you want me to cool it off with my magic?” Raven asked

  The fairy beamed, glowing brighter with glee as she held the bottle out.

  “Right. That’s me, the cauldron hunting refrigerator,” Raven said, taking the bottle with resignation as the fairies cheered from above.

  Pinching the bottle between two fingers, Raven carefully pointed at it, summoning the smallest trace of her ice magic to her fingertips. The bottle quickly cooled, condensation appearing before dribbling down the sides. Raven carefully crafted a frost covering around the outside of the bottle, keeping the actual drink a liquid but sufficiently chilled.

  When finished, Raven handed the bottle to the fairy. She took it with great delight, bobbing up and down in thanks before returning to her cheering companions.

  Raven smiled and shook her hand, releasing her excess magic into the air. A few snowflakes fluttered around her, and her breath was misty for a few moments until the coolness mixed into the air.

  Behind Raven there was a mix of a growl and the sound of a squeaky rubber duck. Raven elegantly swung off the side of her ladder to see a dirty, bad tempered gnome shaking his fist at her. He ran in place—producing the squeaking noise—before attempting to throw a wad of dirt at Raven. His throw fell pitifully short, gently bonking the lowest rung of the ladder.

  The gnome puffed up, his bristly beard standing on end like a porcupine, and Raven smiled purely before flicking her fingers in the air. A snowball the size of her fist fell on the gnome, coating his clothes in white flakes.

  The gnome yodeled in protest and ran off, angrily yanking down his hat while his shoes squeaked with each step.

  Raven chuckled and started to lower herself down the ladder, which she noticed a book sticking out from the first shelf she had searched. She frowned as her obsessive traits from her page turner training kicked in. “I thought I had that shelf straightened,” she muttered, climbing back up the ladder before she started to reach for it.

  It was farther away than she thought, so Raven placed her hand on the top of the bookshelf as she leaned to stabilize herself. She shifted so her right foot hung in the air as she reached.

  Raven froze when she heard an unlatching noise, and shrieked when she realized the locks on the ladder had been undone. Raven’s left foot pushed the ladder away as she scrambled for a hand hold on the top of the bookcase. She managed to hold on, her feet dangling as she pathetically hung from the case.

  Raven peered past her shoulder to spy the dirty gnome gleefully giggling as he pushed the ladder farther and farther away from her. “Bring that back you little dirt bag!” Raven shouted before sucking air in between her teeth when her grip on the shelf started to slide. “Help!” she shouted, kicking in the air for a moment.

  The fairies descended on Raven, tugging up on her clothes as they tried to help. The purple fairy, who was apparently the smartest one of the bunch, nudged and pushed Raven’s right foot until it touched a shelf.

  The bookshelf, solid as it was, easily held Raven’s extra weight, but her position still made her uncomfortable. Raven resolved to climb down and started lowering herself when her right shoe skid on the polished shelf surface.

  Raven yelped and hauled herself back upright, her arms protesting the vigorous exercise. Raven clung to the bookshelf and shouted. “Alison? Can you hear me? I could use some help!” she shouted into the quiet library.

  Besides the fairies—who were now making a group effort to pull Raven up by her shirt and failing miserably—the only other noise in the quiet library was the faint squeaking of the bratty gnome’s shoes.

  Raven wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but her arms were already shaking, and she was at least five feet off the ground. Landing without twisting something would be difficult thanks to her stupid, fashionable shoes, but Raven didn’t know what else to do.

  “Alison! Mrs. Conners?” Raven tried.

  There was no answer.

  Raven groaned. “What am I going to do?” she said before shrieking when large square of marble floor tile abruptly burst out of place, swinging on invisible hinges to reveal a darkened tunnel.

  Aron abruptly popped out of the tunnel, tossing a book onto the floor as he clung to a ladder, staring at the pages. “Here! She’s somewhere around here, the book’s got her dot a few feet away from us!”

  “Move it!” Asher barked from inside the tunnel, practically pushing his twin back down the darkened hole as he climbed out.

  “It’s been a while since she used her magic,” Aron said, righting himself on the ladder before climbing out of the tunnel as well. “If she’s—,”

  “Ray,” Asher said, his shoulders relaxing when he caught sight of her.

  Aron looked up and blinked. “What the heck are you doing?” he asked as Asher jogged towards her.

  “Help, I can’t climb down—AHH!” Raven shrieked when she lost her balance and fell backwards, falling through thin air.

  “Gotcha,” Asher grunted, catching her. Raven’s momentum sent them tumbling to the floor with a splat.

  Aron hurried to their side, squatting next to them. “Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?”

  Asher swatted his brother’s hand away. “We’re fine, what happened?” he asked boosting Raven up as she crawled off him, the fairies orbiting around her. “Did someone jump you?”

  “What? No!” Raven scoffed. Fussing with the curling edge of her skirt. “A stupid gnome stole my ladder.”

  “But you used your magic, weren’t you defending yourself?” Aron asked, cocking his head as he shut the dictionary sized book he was holding.

  “No. The fairies wanted their drink chilled,” Raven said, craning her head to try and inspect her back.

  Asher looked away as he reached out and tugged Raven’s skirt down, fixing it for her.

  “….the fairies wanted an ice cold drink so you cooled it for them,” Aron said, almost dropping his book in stupefaction.

  “Yeah. And I threw a snowball at that bratty gnome. That was all though.”

  Aron suspiciously eyed Raven. “I can see we’re going to have to make some adjustments to our tracker, Asher.”

  Asher shook
his head at his twin and stretched his arms above his head. “At least we came at a good time. Come on, let’s head back. Our show is going to be over.”

  Raven folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot on the floor. “No, no, no. Now you’ve interested me. Our tracker? Is that how you guys knew I was using magic?”

  Asher rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Way to go Aron. What was that you said? ‘She’ll never know! I’m far too clever to allude to it. Hah-hah’.”

  “Okay, I never laughed like that,” Aron said, releasing a huff of air. “Besides, the tracker was your idea.”

  “The idea was good. It’s the upkeep that’s a failure.”

  “Yeah? Well your momma—,”

  “Is your momma too.”

  “GUYS!”

  The Montamos twins repentantly turned to Raven, cringing slightly. Raven stabbed a finger at them. “Explain. Please. NOW.”

  “It was for your own safety,” Asher insisted.

  “Yeah. After we found that decayor in the library, we thought there was a chance you might stumble upon something else. Something… aggressive,” Aron said, his eyes following a pink fairy that was hovering closer and closer to his head.

  “We figured we could place a tracker seal on you. It would alert us whenever you used your magic,” Asher said. “We managed to find a particular seal that was area specific, so we were able to limit it to the library boundaries.”

  Raven slowly nodded. “When did you put it on me?”

  Asher avoided her gaze and mumbled at his shoes while Aron became engrossed with the ceiling.

  “Guys,” Raven said, her tone gruff and growling.

  “Ahh, it may or may not have been when we went to the art museum,” Asher said, shifting uncomfortably.

  “Maybe,” Aron said, still staring at the ceiling.

  Raven sighed and pinched her nose, recalling the day. “It’s anchored in my hair, isn’t it?”

  Asher played stone statue and Aron made noncommittal noises while shrugging. “I dunno. Who knows?”

  “ASHER AND ARON.”

  “Yes,” Aron immediately supplied, nodding emphatically.

  “That violates like… fifteen different privacy laws. Did you know that?”