Bloodrage by Helen Harper Read Free Book Online Page B

drape over my body well enough to conceal its shape and I’d be able to sneak it out of the library and examine it in more detail later.  Assuming I didn’t have to move my arms very much of course, that was.  Another thought struck me, and I reached up and scooped out the dictionary that was still half hanging off the shelf above me and did the same, only this time shoving it under my other armpit.  Hopefully I wouldn’t sweat too much into the books.
    I stood up and smoothed the blue material down, trying to crane my neck around my body to see if the corners of the books were suspiciously poking out.  They see med to be hidden well enough from what I could judge.  Carefully squatting down so as not to disturb their positions, I grabbed my test answer sheet from the floor where it had fallen when I had initially been shoved against the shelves.  I tried not to think about whether that was a coincidence or not as well, and instead stiffly got myself back to standing position and walked back out into the main area of the library, keeping my arms firmly at my sides to hold the books in place.  I realised that the headache that had been bothering me so very much had now completely vanished.  It must have been psychosomatic, I told myself.  If not, then it had been a tension headache from the stress of having to take the stupid test in the first place.  It wasn’t that the book itself had given me the pain to alert me to its presence.  No.  That would be impossible because it was an inert object.  Not alive.  Nor could it have been reincarnated from a fire on the other side of the country.  Definitely not.
    “Now what the feck are you doing?” came a familiar ly gruff voice from behind me.
    I turned slowly, attempting to look natural.  “I was looking for yo u.  Here,” I said, uncomfortably bending my elbow at the joint in order to pass over my answer sheet to the librarian, without the books dropping from their precarious position under my robes, “these are my answers.  I think you’ll find they’re all in order.”
    Slim snatched them from me and scanned down the sheet, huffing as he did so.  He pursed his lips.  “Very well.  I suppose you’ve passed.”  He looked up from the sheet and stared at me, the wings at his back continuing to flap.  “Can’t say I think much of your fecking penmanship though.”
    I inclined my head slightly and muttered that I would work on it.  The floating gargoyle stared at me for a moment, and I could feel myself starting to sweat uncomfortably.  Then he blinked with what seemed to be some kind of dismissal and turned, flapping off in the other direction.
    I exhaled slowly.  I might just have made it.   Making an odd shuffling turn that would have looked bizarre to anyone who was watching, I maneuvered myself towards the library doors and stiffly walked out.
     

Chapter Five
     
    I felt considerably more confident once I’d left the library and began the hike back to my little attic garret.  Both books were tight under my arms and, although I had to take care to grip them tightly, I passed several mages who didn’t seem to notice anything peculiar.  Of course, they all veered considerably far out of my way when they saw me coming and averted their eyes to avoid meeting my gaze, and I knew that once I’d passed them they were all staring at me in wide-eyed fascination, safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t then be able to catch their eyes.  So far, however, no-one was shouting anything about the crazy bitch who wasn’t really a mage trying to steal things and hide them about her person though.
    I was particularly glad that the thumping headache was showing no sign s of returning, despite my muffled alarm that it really had been caused by the Fae book alerting me to its presence.  I kept whispering in my head that I was being ridiculous, but I didn’t really manage to fully convince myself.  However, I did feel a sense of churning nausea that