Dog-ear A Book Novels & Stories

I eye the two remaining books, one remarkably slender, the other easily twice the breadth of either of its predecessors. ‘Only one way to find out.’ I reach for the larger of the two and it takes both hands to lift it from the shelf. The first thing I notice is the detailed tooling of three wolves. The middle wolf sits, head tilted towards the moon, the other two either side of her, standing guard. I don’t know for sure that’s what the scene depicts, but that is what my mind makes of it. There is an uncanny resemblance to Justice, Max and Caleb.

"Wynn, come out of there, we're not allowed to play here." "Look, Gracy, the funny dog," was all she said. Dog? I wanted to see that too. I closed my hand tighter around my new ear studs and curiously pushed myself into the bushes next to Wynn until I crouched in front of our green fence. There really was an animal on the other side of the sidewalk, but I wasn't so sure if it was a dog. It was almost as tall as me and had a lion's mane with a long muzzle. And a goatee. And a very plush tail. It was gray and black with dark streaks on its face, but its eyes were very strange. As yellow as the inside of my breakfast egg this morning.

I’m sure it’ll happen one day. I realize that I haven’t made it past a single page of my book. Ironically, it’s about pup-bearing. Rose has read—and re-read—every book in the castle library on childbirth, and since I’m both guarding her and hoping to have pups of my own one day, I’m trying to catch up with her on the reading part just so I know everything she knows, so I’ve checked out a few books of my own.

I cough when it raises a puff of dust into the air on its way. “I gave you all the ones with more pictures,” Roger murmurs, closing his book and reaching for his next as well. “Wanted to make it easy on you.” My mouth drops open in a little outrage at his implication there but then I see the upturned corner of his lip. “Liar,” I say, smiling down at my book as I open the cover. The title page reads A Complete History of the Cults of the Dark God, 1862. “You just didn’t want to get your hands and clothes dusty touching all these old ones.” Passively, I gesture to my clothes – which are indeed covered in a light layer of grey library dust.

Distractedly, I left the book I wanted to pull behind and walked towards the table. Lily’s light scent of flowers hung in the air, and instinctively I just knew that was where she had been researching the day before. Curiously, I looked at the books on the table. One of them looked older than the rest. It’s pages were already yellowed and a corner looked burned off. With a frown, I held the thick back of the book and closed it to see the cover. FAE: The primals in human skin. Goosebumps rose along my arms and I shivered as I read the title.

She tilted her head, and looked over at him quizzically. “I didn’t realize dogs had their own written language…what are you reading about? The best howling techniques?” She laughed as she said it, but she kept examining the book. “I’m sorry hun, there are no pictures. I think they save those books for when there are children on board. I can read this to you if you’re interested.” “Do you two ever stop?” Luca said groggily. He turned in his seat and pulled the pillow over his head to drown out their noise.

I grunted. After hours of research, I was about to give up and turn in for the night when something caught my eye. A small blue-black book peeped from the corner behind the other book on the shelf. It looked a little older than the other books. I slipped it out and opened the first page. The first three words I saw were “THE RAVEN WOLVES.” My wolf and I howled for joy because we had been searching for hours for this tiny book. I opened the next page and started reading through it.

and I nodded. With one last smile, Leah headed out of the room and closed the door behind her. It didn’t close properly because it was broken, but at least it gave me the illusion of privacy. I settled down into my covers and closed my eyes. I felt move on the bed and opened my eyes to see the dog shuffling up closer to me. He licked my face again, and then settled down next to me. I reached over and stroked his head before practically burying my face into his fur. I soon fell asleep thinking that I hadn’t noticed it until now, but I swore I could smell old books and crackling fire.

He nodded slowly and before he could say anything more, the bedroom door swung open. Erick and Jess stood at the doorway; they were both breathless, so we knew they were running. Jess held one of the thickest books I had ever seen; it was a large brown book with golden decals swirled throughout the cover. In the front of the book, in a silvery oval was a white infinity symbol I didn’t quite recognize and then written in white above the symbol read: Book of Magic. “Woah…” I breathed, staring at the book. It was real.

Arlo gets off the couch, finally, and comes and sits between us and looks up at both of us with the one white ear and the amber eyes and the complete confidence of a dog who considers himself central to all important decisions. He is not wrong.