Dani scrubbed her hands over her face. She hadn’t even felt tired that afternoon. What had made her pass out like that? Could working with the rift be draining her energy in ways she hadn’t anticipated? She made a mental note to do a nice, restorative nap when she got back to the house. She couldn’t be dropping unconscious around town at random times. It was super inconvenient.

Shaking off the heaviness of fatigue, she stood, squinting in the dark so she could gather her notebooks and laptop into her bag. She was pretty sure she could find her way out of the labyrinth of shelves between her and the exit, but the doors were chained. Maybe there was a fire exit? Surely Miss Bardie wasn’t allowed to lock a fire exit. The town was run by supernatural beings, but there were still OSHA laws.

Miss Bardie didn’t have a cell phone to call. Should Dani call Jillian or Zed to come get her? Maybe she should just bunk down in the children’s section, where Miss Bardie had placed some awesome squashy green beanbags.

She pulled out her phone to use the flashlight function and figure out a path to the nearest fire exit. She was making good time, passing through the various sections, but a spiraling sense of dread crept up her spine. Though she’d spent time in some pretty eerie environments, the claustrophobic catacombs of Paris, the wild jungles of Peru, a particularly dodgy convenience store in Parsippany, New Jersey, the darkness definitely gave the usually cozy air of the library an edge. The bookshelves seemed to loom overhead, threatening to topple down on her.

In the dark, she heard a footstep.

Dani froze, craning her head to the right, where the noise had come from. She clicked off the flashlight. She bit down on the urge to call, “hello?” into the dark. That was how people died in horror movies. And if someone else was creeping around in the library, she didn’t want them to know where she was.

Dani shoved her phone into her back pocket and hauled ass through the geography section. She stopped at the end of the aisle, listening. A few breaths, silently inhaled, and she heard a board creak. Dani backed away, tears gathering in her eyes. The creak came from the other side of the book shelf.

Gloved hands reached through the shelves, grabbing for her.

Dani threw her weight back against the shelf. “Shit!”

The hands tossed books off the shelf, as if they could tunnel through and grab her. Dani sprinted down the aisle, listening for footsteps. Just as she reached the open space of the reading area, someone or something barreled into her side, knocking the wind out of her as she landed.