Special Chapter

Once again, Innis missed a discovery. The old pages resisted being turned, warping under her touch, and the paper had an icky smell, which made sense, considering how much time had passed since the book had last been opened.

Innis stumbled upon it by a complete accident, really. She had simply climbed up to check the upper bookshelf in the library and the book twitched right under fingers, making Innis freeze in place, barely holding onto the old ladder with her feet.

Something cracked, producing a nasty, annoying sound and, in a second, Innis was lying on the floor—a miracle, no doubt. Later, when she gathered her breath and climbed back up, she figured it out. One of the bookshelves was sawed out, turning it into something of a secret compartment.

Where is the best place to hide a book? A library, of course. But it was more than just a book—a thin booklet barely finger-wide and with a red binding, a color that she found creepily similar to dried blood. Fine. She didn’t actually thin