Guardian by Jennifer Quintenz

Author:Jennifer Quintenz [Quintenz, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jennifer Quintenz

“If you put this much effort into all your classes, you would be valedictorian by graduation.” Cassie dropped into the seat beside Royal. We had taken up residence in one of the study rooms of the library, meeting here every day for the last few weeks. November had settled in and the sky outside was dark with building clouds. There was no snow promised in the forecast, but Mother Nature had taken us by surprise before.

Royal looked up from the smudged photocopy. He blinked, bleary-eyed. “What?”

“Nothing.” Cassie smiled at him, and shot me a concerned look. “So, how’s it going?”

“Slow. It’s going slow.” Royal sat back, setting his pen down. He ran both hands through his hair, scratching his scalp. He looked exhausted. “There’s a lot of stuff in here about the ritual. But it’s stuff we already know, because you lived through it. Only I’m afraid to skip over anything, just in case there’s something important I might miss.” Royal gestured at the spiral notebook already half-filled with his notes. “Also, I’m only sure about 80% of my translation. It’s… It’s not exactly conversational Latin.”

“Um… Is there any such thing as conversational Latin, it being a dead language and all?” Cassie tried to win a smile from Royal, but he was not amused. “Sorry.”

Royal sighed. “No, I’m sorry. I’m not the greatest company right now. I just can’t help but feel like there’s something in this book that we have to know, that we have to find out before the Guard does, and I’m the only one who reads Latin. So basically, if you’re in danger, I am the one who is responsible for keeping you safe…”

“Royal, that’s not…” Cassie put a hand on his shoulder. Royal closed his eyes, dropping his head forward in resignation. Cassie looked at me again, helpless. “I mean, you’re not the only one working on this book. The Guard has it too, right? Braedyn, have they learned anything?”

“I don’t know.” Tension spiraled through my back, as though my muscles had been coiled for weeks, waiting for an enemy to attack. “Clay assigned Sandra to this book, but she’s not exactly reporting her findings to me.”

“Is there a deadline?” Royal looked up at me, his face solemn. “I mean, it’s almost December…”

I bit my lip. No one had to say it out loud. The longest night of the year was also the night of greatest power for the Lilitu. If Lilith had a vulnerability, we would have to find it and exploit it before winter solstice. Cassie and Royal studied me in silence for a long moment. Then Cassie forced a chipper smile and shrugged.

“Well, let’s just assume no news is good news for the time being.” Cassie squeezed Royal’s shoulder a little harder. “And you better take it easy. You can’t translate twenty-four hours a day. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all my AP classes, it’s that you can’t force your brain to work on no sleep and no food.”

Royal shot Cassie a lopsided grin.

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