In Flames by Nicole Northwood

Author:Nicole Northwood [Northwood, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Midnight Tide Publishing
Published: 2022-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

The dusky, faded night conceals most of Lavender’s face, though I can practically see her ghostly cheeks turning red in the moonglow. “It’s after midnight. I thought—I guess I figured I’d find you somewhere related to being matched with two hockey players.” She looks toward Dario and Alexi, smirking a little as she flicks her gaze from one to the other.

Immediately, I’m panicking, wondering how long she’s been in the alcove, hidden among the unlit lightbulbs overhead. “Did you see—?”

Her glance whips back toward me. “No! No, I didn’t see anything! See what? What happened? I—are you okay? Are you all good?” She speaks so fast that I can hardly keep up with what she’s saying, even though the questions are empty and just trying to replace the awkwardness.

Dario coughs next to me, and Alexi shifts his weight before speaking. “So, you must be Lavender.”

Lavender nods, a smile creeping along her face; the amusement in her voice is not lost on me. “Alexi Bonneau, as I live and breathe. And Dario Accardi—as I… don’t.”

“How do you know who we are?” Dario’s voice is accented with a frown.

“There’s not much for a ghost to do at Kestral except learn who everyone is. Oh, and go through walls and scare people for fun. Lately, I’ve been focusing on keeping Sera on her toes. And she’s been focusing on getting me to sneak into places to try and figure out why the three of you are matched, and see if she’s made some kind of mistake.”

I suck in a breath, the cold air starting to take over since the enchanted fire has been snuffed out. “And? Is it a mistake? Did you find anything in the archives that might help us figure out what’s going on?”

“Well… I did find a couple of interesting things. Like that a book is missing from down there. I read through the card case and the library computer and it looks like it’s a fictional novel, Make Me a Match? When I looked up the summary on the records, it’s about—”

“I know what it’s about. I found it in the stacks in the main library. Had to climb a ladder to get to it, but it was there and it was searchable in the portal, so that’s a bit strange.”

“Could just be a glitch, a lack of an update, I don’t know.” Lavender shrugs. “There are a couple of different options. But it does seem like all the matchmaking and soulmate books are down there in the archives instead of on the shelves. They were scattered all over the tables in the research rooms, like someone’s been reading them recently.”

I furrow my brow. “Who would have access to the archives?”

“Not many,” Dario responds, his voice deep. “The librarian and the professors and maybe some graduate students working on special projects. Some of those books are so old, they’d probably disintegrate if you breathed on them wrong. They’re preserved with magic.”

Alexi nods, picking at his coat sleeve. “I don’t think we can just ask the librarian if we can go down there.

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