Grimoires and Where to Find Them by Raconteur, Honor (ebook reader for laptop .txt) 📕

“I’ll ride herd on him,” Jamie promised soothingly, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “Trust me, I’ll make sure people keep up a good clip and help out here. Why don’t you guys take all of these books to the station, yeah?”

“Station’s Evidence Locker doesn’t have room for all of this,” I protested.

“Uh. Ooh, good point. Um…palace Evidence Locker?”

Gibson spoke up from the vehicle behind me. “That should have enough room for this first round. And we can call in people to help us offload. Jere Mortimer’s truck, especially, as he’s got more grimoires than the rest of us in those staging boxes and we’ll need to take the boxes out entirely.”

Excellent. I did appreciate delegation in moments like this.

Jamie turned to see the people in both directions. “Then, do we have a game plan? Cool. I’ll call Jules. Gibs, you call some more kingsmen in.”

“Done,” he assured her.

Smart of her to call Jules Felix herself instead of having Seaton do it. Felix was far more likely to respond positively to the request if she was the one asking.

If we were moving, then I needed to switch to the driver’s side. It was too much effort to get out and walk around, so I slid over, grunting as I did so. I could hear Jamie speaking to Felix as I moved.

“Hey, Jules. I’m pulling you in for an emergency. No, I’m serious, it’s an actual emergency. How does a room full of unprotected grimoires leaking into each other sound to you?”

I couldn’t hear much of his response, but there was a high-pitched note, like a tea kettle going off.

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s that bad. We’ve already had one round of people in here trying to mitigate the damage and clear the apartment, and after four hours, they are exhausted. I need you to come in, now, and take over. No worries, Gibson is calling in other kingsmen to help, but trust me when I say, it’s taking an RM’s power to keep the building from caving in. That’s how bad this is looking. It’s on Denton Street, you know where that is? Yeah? Awesome, see you in a few.”

Of course Jules Felix came running when she called. I shook my head, amused but not surprised.

Jamie jogged over to the driver’s side, opening the door and leaning in a little. “What do I need to tell the people coming in, anything?”

“We’ve had to do repair work to the floor every thirty minutes,” I relayed to her, the memory of almost falling through the wood replaying in my head. “The floorboards are so fragile they’re either warping or breaking.”

“Ouch. No wonder you guys are drained, if you’re fighting both building and books at the same time. Uh…I kinda told the landlady this could be fixed. Did I lie to her?”

An excellent question. I didn’t have a ready answer for it. “Anything can be fixed. This might take more effort than usual.”

“Got it. Okay, go, go. And go straight home afterwards, you’ve earned the rest of the day off.” She leaned in quick to give me a chaste kiss. “I’ll check on you later. Maybe pick up dinner on the way in.”

“I look forward to it.” The idea was, in fact, quite appealing.

“Good, go.” She bounced back out—because, of course, she had energy to spare—and was already off, back to working on the logistics of it all.

Because I did not trust myself, I focused solely on starting up the car and following Gibson. I didn’t know where precisely to go, he did, so follow Gibson. Just follow.

I might have zoned out a little during the drive. I had no memory of it, at least. I blinked and suddenly realized we’d stopped. And we were on palace grounds. I hadn’t been challenged at the gate—Gibson’s doing? I had to assume so.

It took willpower and mental bribes, but I managed to pull myself out of the vehicle. Then I stayed there, feeling a little light-headed for a moment. Oh dear, I really had overdone it.

A hand landed on my shoulder, and Gibson peered at me intently, brow furrowed. “Davenforth. I think you’re done.”

“We have to unload the grimoires,” I protested. I didn’t actually want to unload them. It was the responsible part of me speaking.

“No, you’re done,” Gibson repeated with a firm shake of the head. The line of his mouth brooked no disagreement. “You and Colette are both swaying and barely keeping your head up, you’re so exhausted. I’m glad Jamie interrupted us when she did. I should have been keeping a better eye on both of you. Just hold tight for a moment longer. I’ll have someone drive you home.”

He gave me no room to protest, just spun on his heel and was off, calling out to people.

I looked around myself, trying to gain my bearings, but nothing looked familiar. Had I been in this section of the palace grounds before? Even while working on the wards here, I hadn’t visited the whole place. I did see a flag flying above one of the buildings, though, and it was the kingsmen red. We must be near their compound, or on it.

Colette came over and leaned against me and the car, using us both to prop herself up. Since she was not an insignificant woman in size, I felt my own muscles strain to keep us both up. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing deeply as if she were honestly attempting to sleep while upright.

“Colette.” I put force into her name. “Do not sleep on me.”

She made a noise of disagreement, a sort of growl-slash-whine. “People can sleep standing up. There’ve been studies.”

“And you are not going to validate those studies. Gibson is fetching someone to take us home.”

Her displeasure lifted, and she gave a smile. “Oh, I do like him.”

“He’s a good sort,” I agreed.

A young kingsman came jogging up to us, looking unfairly awake and sprightly. “Doctor Davenforth, Doctor Harper? I’m to take you