Chapter One

Meggie

The sun shone down onto Meggie's head and brought out the golden tones in her pale blond hair. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in sight and it made Meggie smile. She loved the way the sun's rays would fall on her skin and warm her from the inside out. It was days like this that Meggie couldn't help but think that she didn't have a care in the world and that she was free, but deep down she knew that was not the case. She always felt like a fugitive, which was not far from the truth. Every day she lived in terror that Capricorn and his men would catch up with her and carry her back to their village which she had visited once when she was just a 12 year old girl.

And at the moment that thought was brought to the front of her mind. She could almost feel Capricorn's colorless gaze boring into her back and Basta's knife pricking the sensitive skin of her throat. Shivering she pulled the pale green shawl that she was wearing closer around her thin shoulders and quickly pushed the thought away, continuing towards her job. Drop it Meggie. It's been 11 years. What are the chances that the Black Jackets are going to find you now? After changing your last name at Mo's insistence, moving to a different country and continent, and finding a job that's below the radar. Besides, they'd leave me alone once they realized that Mo was no longer here. She suddenly shifted her attention to anything and everything, not wanting to cry at the memories of her father.

She climbed the steps into the large Library where she worked as one of the head Librarians. She loved working here. What job could possibly better? She was surrounded by the things she loved, books. Her passion for books had not dimmed in the slightest from her childhood with her bookbinding Father, if anything it had grown.

The Library was large with lots of space and cozy furniture were scattered all around where patrons could sit and read comfortably. The floors were made of a rich colored wood and the bookshelves were made from the same kind of wood. In many ways this place reminded Meggie of a college library, although, all the picture books spoiled the image. At the front desk Meggie's friend Yolanda looked up from something she was cataloging. She smiled and her bright eyes crinkled around the corners although she did look a little sad. "Meggie? I thought you decided not to come today."

The woman was in her mid-fifties with short red hair that was as straight as a ruler and fell down to her chin, green eyes that always seemed to glitter and a small scattering of freckles along the bridge of her nose. Meggie just shook her head and headed behind the counter where only employees were allowed and set down her work bag and purse down where no sticky fingered teenagers could see it. "Nope, you know my rules about work Yolanda. I come in everyday to make sure there's no riff raff. Today is the same as any other."

Yolanda gave a weary sigh and ran a hand through her bright red hair that was beginning to streak with several strands of silver. "And here I was thinking I had finally convinced you to take a vacation. I should've known it was too good to be true. You are the biggest work-a-holic I have ever met."

Meggie just shrugged and got to work replacing books on the shelf or occasionally moving a book that had been put in the wrong place by someone who wasn't polite enough to put it back where it belonged. "I can't just sit around and do nothing all day. What would I do? I have to be doing something! It's just in my nature."

"I know, but you act as if it's a matter of life or death that you be here. I doubt that the Library would catch on fire or a meteoroid would come crashing down on the Library on the one day you're gone. Not that you could do much about it." She said with a laugh.

Meggie stiffened before regaining her composure and continued shelving. Yolanda's comment about it being a life or death situation had been precisely accurate and Meggie had feared that she had somehow figured out the one thing that she was hiding something from everyone. "Maybe not, but everyone that comes in here seems to like me, so why disappoint them with my absence?"

"Yes," the older woman said with an odd glint in her emerald green eyes. "Everyone does like you, especially the men."

Meggie gave a humph but didn't give her friend a second glance. She had heard this little speech at least a hundred and one times. I don't want to hear it today. I really don't. But the woman went on. Ignoring Meggie's humph as if it had never happened. "You can't ignore the way they look at you. You are a very pretty woman after all. Perhaps it's time that you actually started dating…"

Meggie held up a hand in an effort to silence her. "I already told you no. How many times must I say it in order to get it through that thick skull of yours?"

"At least one more, oh come on Meggie." She pleaded. "You're still young. And just the other day I say this really cute guy that would be perfect for you he seems really nice and…" Yolanda broke off at the glare Meggie had leveled on her.

"Yolanda," She said with a startlingly firm voice. "No, I have my reasons for not dating, and I wish you would respect my wishes a little more. If you knew about it you would understand. Just please, don't."

The red haired Librarian seemed surprised at the grim conviction in Meggie's tone. She had heard her say this before, but now the whole weight of her statement came crashing down on her. "Oh," She said quietly, and then said in an even quieter voice that Meggie had to strain to hear. "You don't have any kind of criminal record do you?"

At that the younger woman burst out in giggles. "No, I can assure you that is not the case. And in case you're wondering, I am a legal citizen, I am not running from the law, and I do not have some fatal disease."

A smile spread over Yolanda's face and her face turned a light shade of pink. "Sorry, my imagination got carried away, that's all."

Meggie just nodded in an effort to appear nonchalant. In truth, Yolanda wouldn't have been able to guess what it had been even in her wildest of dreams. "That's all right. I'm just surprised you waited this long to ask me."