Anna brings the twins to the library to help the next day, which I quickly learn is because she absolutely hates reading, and especially research. It’s Sunday, which is supposed to be one of their days off from chores too, now that Roy and Elaine are here, so I feel extra guilty asking for help and start to wish I’d just done it all myself.

We tell the twins the truth, since there’s no hiding it from Kara, but she promises not to tell Nora so long as we agree to take over feeding Max for a month.

Then we spread out through the library, save Kara, who plops down on the couch with her laptop. Rose, Anna, and I stack books on the tables; everything we can find that might tell us what the Triskelion represents and who the man from my vision is.

Some of the books are ones Elaine already assigned to me to study. Apparently training to become a Raven is a lot more than just perfecting punches and learning how to throw knives. The journal is full of information, but even it isn’t all-knowing, so Elaine gave me a list that covers the basics of everything from common supernatural creatures and magical objects to herbology.

As we pore through our respective books, I keep getting caught up reading about how kelpies drown their victims and the dangers of fae deals, before remembering I’m looking for something. It doesn’t help that some of the books have magically moving pictures, and others re-create scenes in my head when I touch them.

Magic might have unsettled me when I first discovered it, but now I can’t get enough of it. Liam always said I was meant to be a professor or a scientist with the way I consume facts, and surrounded by a magical library, I think that might not be too bad. I want to stay here forever.

No sooner do I have the thought than a fresh wave of guilt comes after. Eventually, Liam is going to find me, and when all this is over, he and I will live together. I can still visit Ravenfall, but it isn’t my home, and I owe it to Liam to remember that.

The house brings us mugs of hot chocolate and maple sugar cookies while we work, and Max alternates between lying on our books and knocking our pens off the table. A fire springs up in the hearth to ward off the morning chill, and my energy fades with the cold. I feel a lot better than I did last night, but it’s still like someone zapped me dry.