Salem's Civil War (Book Five of The Silver Society)

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

By the middle of the second day of school, Jade felt something nagging at her. What the hell is wrong with me? She wondered. Something was pulling at her, urging her to...

"Penny for your thoughts?" Beth asked as she appeared next to Jade.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Jade asked as she suddenly realized what was bothering her.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you want to leave town for a couple of days?"

"When?" Beth asked in surprise.

"Right now," Jade replied.

"Um, Jade, we still have half a day of classes left before the weekend," Beth reminded her.

"I need to go back to New York for a couple of days."

Beth's eyes widened with shock. "Jade, you can't go back there... With everything the cult put you through... What if they try to hurt you again?"

"With what I did to my parents, the cult won't be crossing me anytime soon, Beth. There's just something that I need to take care of. I'd like to show you where I grew up, but if you'd rather stay here and sit through boring lectures, feel free..."

"It's not that, it's just... I've never cut class before."

Jade couldn't help but smile. "There's a first time for everything," she said.

"We could get caught," Beth replied nervously.

"We won't. I know every exit of this building, and I know where security is at any given moment."

"I don't know, Jade..."

"Beth, I promise we won't get arrested or expelled for cutting a couple of classes. I really do need to take care of a problem, so I've got to go with or without you."

Beth sighed. "Okay," she said at last. "I'm not letting you do this by yourself, so I guess that means I'm in."

"Great. We'll run home, pack a couple of essentials, and grab Joey from Clarissa before we go."

"You're bringing Joey?" Beth asked in surprise.

"He misses New York," Jade replied.

"Are you sure he'll be safe?"

"Yes. And if we run into any trouble, he can open a door back to Salem before anyone can get near him... So, are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"Good," Jade said. "Let's go."

~*~

There were only a limited number of things that Cierra Denton would say she was in love with. The first, of course, was Alex Paxton, her first real boyfriend and the man she hoped to spend the rest of her life with. A close second, however, was acquiring knowledge. The enormous library at her new college was definitely making its way onto the list.

It stood alone on campus, an entire building dedicated to books. The huge oak doors and several floors of tall, sturdy bookcases were old fashioned and gorgeous, and there were books on every subject one could possibly come up with. She had never seen a library quite this large. Even the Unit's library was only about a fourth of the size of this one.

When I die, this is what Heaven is going to look like, Cierra paused to think before losing herself in a row of books on science.

It seemed like only minutes, but four hours later, Cierra came across a locked door. An entire floor of books lay behind it, but the sign on the door said RESTRICTED. KEEP OUT.