“It worked,” she whispered.

The door opened upon a room she had never seen before. A rich, purple carpet wound a zigzag path through a huge space lined with columns, supporting a high, vaulted ceiling. Enormous, towering bookshelves lay everywhere around the room, stretching almost as tall as the ceiling.

Books were crammed into every available space, the shelves bulging from the weight of them all. Vix let her gaze wander among them, taking in every variety, from ...