Libra Ascending: An Epic Urban Fantasy Romance (Zodiac Guardians Book 1) by Tamar Sloan (adult books to read .TXT) 📗

back on the right, behind the Social Sciences section. Brielle goes down the first row, scanning the spines for last names starting with H. She goes up one side and down the other, names going from A to F. Must be in the next row.

Brielle rounds the shelf and—

Suki is frantically running her finger over spines at the end.

No, she can’t be…

More hastily now, Brielle scours the names, her eyes breezing over the Fs, the Gs, ah, H! She’s getting closer to Suki, who glances sideways at her with the same urgency. Hallaway, Handler, Hopper, Humphrey…

Just as Brielle spots Huff, the book is snatched off the shelf. Suki straightens and steps back, hugging the book. “Not what I came for but it’ll do.”

“Give me that book,” Brielle insists, her anger at a sudden peak.

Suki rotates her torso and the book away from Brielle. “No, I need it for my Civil War paper. And I found it first.”

“You didn’t even want it until you heard him tell me about it.” Brielle tries her best to keep her tone down, to stay respectful of the fact that they’re in a library, but every muscle in her body clenches with the desire to throw a fit.

Suki shrugs. “You should have been quicker.” She flicks her straight black hair and walks up the row, bumping Brielle’s shoulder as she passes and heads to the checkout counter.

Brielle stands still, a storm raging inside her. She had made herself a promise to stay out of the way of others, to not put herself into any compromising situations. But does that mean she can’t stand up for herself? Let people walk all over her? Turn the other cheek?

She knows she should let it go. It’s just a book. Brielle can find sources online.

But it’s not just about the book. It’s everything. Cassandra and Suki, everyone, they all treat her like crap. Tristan may be a weirdo, but he’s one of the few people who’s ever shown her respect, like she was more than some unwanted peasant. She doesn’t deserve to be treated this way, and they won’t stop if she never stands up to them.

Gathering her courage, she follows Suki to the counter.

“I’m not letting you take that book, Suki,” she asserts when she closes in.

“Oh yeah?” Suki rests the book on her opposite hip and narrows her almond-shaped eyes. “What are you going to do about it?”

As swiftly as she can move, Brielle reaches across Suki’s petite body to snatch the book, but Suki is just a split-second faster and swings it up out of Brielle’s grasp.

She laughs, her eyes wide and mouth open. “You actually thought you could take it from me?” She laughs harder. “Little Orphan Annie is getting brave.”

That word is like a red hot poker stoking the fire of rage inside her. “Enough with the orphan jokes! Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

“No.” Suki flashes a wicked smile, and Brielle has had it.

The desire to hurt Suki is overwhelming. But rather than lashing out with a shove, a different instinctual response triggers.

Brielle doesn’t know how she does it, how she taps into the curse that usually has a mind of its own. Just like hundreds of times in the past, her world blurs and the vision pulls her in, but this time, she’s not an unwilling witness. This time, she has the wheel.

From Suki’s eyes, she sees her making out with Kevin Carr, the scrawny and nerdy captain of the Audio Visual club. Under the bleachers at school, on various beds and couches, in her car. And every incident is followed by a flash of a lie she tells her boyfriend Zayn about where she’s at, and the guilt she feels when she’s with him.

The vision fades quickly, for once without the usual sense of disorientation or lightheadedness. Suki’s guilt saturates her, but it doesn’t feel like such a burden.

Brielle is struck by the fact that she’s never been able to turn on the visions before. They usually only come on when the other person is thinking of what they feel guilty about, or something in the present triggers a memory. This is the first time she’s ever been able to invite a vision in.

But she has bigger fish to fry. Suki is cheating on the captain of the lacrosse team with arguably the biggest nerd in the school! If her friends ever found out, she’d be humiliated. And if Zayn found out…

Maybe this curse could be useful after all.

“I wonder what Zayn would say if he found out about your stolen rendezvous with Kevin,” Brielle says, unsure if she’s mastered a threatening tone.

Suki’s jeering expression falls harder than the stock market. The hand that holds the book at arm’s length drops to her side. She leans closer and whispers with horror in her eyes, “Wh—bu—who told you?”

Brielle shrugs, trying to keep her face as cool as possible. She’s not comfortable with extortion, and she’s fairly certain she would never actually tell anyone Suki’s dirty secret. But finally not being the underdog feels so liberating!

“And I doubt Cassandra would be too happy to hear about it. She and Zayn are friends after all.”

Suki releases the book and it bounces on its corners before landing flat on its face. “You wouldn’t.” Her words are barely a hiss.

Suki’s right, but she doesn’t need to know that. “Why shouldn’t I?” She feels oddly like Cassandra, and the sensation is both thrilling and repulsive.

While Suki’s frozen in place, Brielle goes around her and picks the book up off the linoleum floor, then motions toward the checkout counter, acting cool as ice despite the elevated heart rate that has her fingers trembling.

“You have to tell me how you found out,” Suki urges in a hoarse whisper. “No one knew. No one but me and Kevin. Did you see us? Did Kevin tell you?” What was fear a moment ago morphs into suspicion as she leans in on Brielle.

Brielle has no qualms with Kevin. He’s nice. She