“Eulabeia.” He regarded the girl, then shook his head, clearly thinking of aborting this mission. “She’s the spirit and personification of fear, caution, avoidance, heedfulness, and vigilance.”

“What?” I repeated, this time with more shock than amusement. “That girl is a spirit?! How do you know? She looks like a normal girl to me.”

“There are things that only Royals and the Royal High Court residents are privy to.” His head nudged in the direction of the girl who paid no mind to us. “And that’s one of them.”

“Okay, so what? Is she going to stop us even if we have the access cards?” I asked. I had no clue who this Yew-la Bew-la Banana was, but I saw no reason why we couldn’t just carry on.

“She’s not going to stop me, but she will stop you. She can tell that you’re not—” Adrian paused, as if looking for the correct word. “Of royal blood.”

“I didn’t come this far to be stopped.” I ignored Adrian’s warning and marched straight up to the girl. Even when I stood right in front of her, she did not tear her eyes from the book. “I have to get inside there.” I simply stated my intention, throwing it out in the open and hoping she would just scoot her little behind a bit to the left so I could get past her.

“It’s been a long time,” the girl replied, her eyes still glued to the pages of her book, which I could now see was written in Greek.

“What’s been a long time?” I dared to ask, unable to squash my curiosity.

“Your kind.” The girl flipped the page and her eyes skimmed across the curvy letters written there. “It certainly has been a long while since the last one.” With no further explanation, she walked away, never looking up from her book as she did so.

What did she mean? My kind? What kind was that? The Regulars?

“If we were allowed to enter the Royal High Court, I’m sure more of my kind would come and visit your precious library,” I mumbled.

Adrian caught up to me and watched the girl leave with a look of incertitude on his face. “What just happened?”

I shrugged, pretending not to care. “No clue. Let’s go in.”