Now the second man’s smile—frosty or pleasant or otherwise—was completely gone. “I am going to give you one last chance, little girl,” he said. “One last chance before we turn back to the methods of my associate.” In a swift gesture, the second man opened his coat—and though it was only open for an instant, Lenora glimpsed a deep darkness beneath it, like the view she had seen of outer space, but without the stars—and removed a sheet of paper. “I have here a list of books. Dangerous books. Books that will disturb young minds. Books you must remove from the library.”

“I’ll do no such thing,” said Lenora, crossing her arms on her chest. She could feel her heart pounding, but she kept herself steady.

The second man frowned toward the first. “It seems you were right,” he said.

The first man grinned vilely and held out his hand. The second man took it.

Lenora recoiled as the two hands seemed to melt into each other, until there was just one long arm. But the arm was getting shorter, and then the two men were melting together like candles, and in moments there were not two men, but one man, twice the size of either, towering over Lenora with one huge bowler hat on his head.

The giant grinned down at Lenora with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Lenora and the Light

Lenora broke for the exit. The giant man was partially blocking her, but if she ran she might make it—but then she realized guiltily that she had been on the verge of abandoning her patrons. She snatched up the nearest weapon she could find—a ruler—and raced out from behind the Help Desk. “Library emergency!” she cried, running from table to table and smacking the ruler against the tabletops. “Everyone evacuate this section immediately!” The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight, for she could feel the giant man lurking behind her, creeping closer as she ran about the tables. One by one, startled patrons came to life, suddenly noticing the giant man with very sharp teeth, and one by one they dropped everything and ran from the room.

As the last patron exited, the room darkened. Lenora looked up. The skylight no longer showed the light of day but instead showed an inky night with no stars, as though a heavy curtain had closed across the sky. Lights throughout the section flickered and went out. Everything was cloaked in darkness. Lenora could no longer see the exit. In fact, she could hardly see anything at all, because the only light left seemed to be a faint glow.

A glow that was somehow coming from Lenora herself.

She heard a rumbling growl to her left. She turned to face it, and her glow revealed the giant.

He was no longer a giant.