Devious Things (The In-Between Trilogy Book One)

12.

       "Micah!" I shout as I enter the large room, my eyes scanning down unoccupied aisles and rows of books. "Come on, Micah, I know you're in here!"

     I stop walking and wait, only to be met with more silence. 

     Why am I not surprised? Was I really expecting him to welcome me back with open arms after everything that happened?

     The slightest movement catches my eyes and I peer up, smirking at the man perched atop the bookshelf to my left. There is no ladder nearby but I know exactly how he got up there without making a sound. 

     Before being sentenced to work in the stacks, which is pretty much just a giant warehouse-like room where the DSA houses all of their books and contracts, Micah was their best fighter; putting even Peter and Jeremiah to shame. It doesn't shock me at all that, even after all of this time, he has found a way to retain his stealth. 

      He glares down at me, using one finger to push up the thick rims of his glasses. "What do you want, Eden? Make it quick, not of all us have the luxury of coming and going as we please. Some of us have real jobs to do and are punished if they aren't done in a timely manner."

       "Don't be like that."

      "Don't be like what?" He readjusts so that he is now sitting, his long legs dangling off the side of the shelf. "Don't act like I didn't spend the past year and a half wondering if my best friend was dead? Don't act like she returned but couldn't be bothered to come visit until she needed something? Don't act like I didn't hear it from Peter, of all people, that she had returned? What kind of bullshit is that?"

       "Micah, I-" I stop, finally getting a good look at him as he once again shifts in his seat. His once sun-kissed skin has lost most of its color, his gray eyes now even paler than before. His copper-colored hair juts out around his face, unkempt and unbrushed. Long pink scars run down his arms, their color offset by his dark shirt. It is the two scars under his eyes however, the ones that are so faded that they are now white, that gets my blood boiling in my veins. "Jeremiah sent me down here. I had a run-in with a Son last night and I overheard him interrogating some Ayngel about a pendant."

      Micah pushes himself away from the shelf, landing on his feet without issues. He scratches his head thoughtfully before heading off down the aisle, his long fingers brushing over the spines of century-old books as he walks. 

     Nothing in here is labeled but he seems to know where he is going. 

      He stops halfway down the third aisle we have ended up on, removing a book from the shelf before tucking it under his arm. "Since you were sent here and not told to hit the internet, I am assuming that Jeremiah doesn't believe the Son is after any old pendant. This book right here contains the information on any relic formed in any of the realms."

       With Micah leading the way through the maze-like stacks, we heard towards the room located in the back. I slide into the empty seat next to him as he sits down at a small table, opening the book so that his index finger can slide over the paged with quick determination. 

     He stops about a thousand pages in and smiles. "Ah, here it is; the Lyore Pendant."

      He motions to the picture printed on the yellowing page, the image that of something obviously ancient. 

     The pendant is large, hanging heavily at the base of a gold-linked chain. Markings cover the surface of the intricately designed pendant but they aren't written in any language I can read, which only eliminates all man-made languages and not ones written in other realms.