Chapter 26. Beneath the Teeth

The Academy Library had three levels.

The top floor was sunlit and quiet, filled with open study desks and books about pack law, shifting physiology, and the history of inter-pack treaties. The second floor held records—dull, tedious, vital.

But the third level didn’t officially exist.

There were no signs for it. No map in the front atrium. Just a locked iron grate behind a false bookshelf in the east wing. Aria wouldn’t have found it at all if Jules hadn’t known exactly which panel to push.

It slid open with a soft clunk.

Cold air rushed out like a breath held too long.

“Remind me again why this place smells like old murder?” Aria whispered.

“Because it probably is,” Jules muttered. “Now hurry. We’ve got maybe forty minutes before the librarian does her rounds.”

They descended narrow stairs into a chamber lit by dim, flickering blue flames trapped in glass spheres. The shelves down here weren’t neat. They looked alive—growing from the