SOLEIL's POV

My room is the first one down the hall. I could swear I didn't pick this one on purpose, but it seems that this room was really meant for me. The curtains were made of detailed, flowery lace. The soft, comfy bed was clad in ornate patterns, just like the walls. In the closet beside my bed were piles and piles of pretty pastel-colored dresses made out of delicate, thin cloth. Clearly, whoever owned this must be a very pensive and dreamy person. I wonder what happened to her, could she be dead? Soul-less perhaps?

Under my creaky mattress, I found a couple of romance novels which I read before going to sleep each night. Not only did it clear my thoughts, it helped me think of a much more different and sweet situation than we are all in right now. Of course I would have preferred a different genre, but it was all I had. Across my bed was a dusty grand piano which I have been trying to learn how to play these past days.

"If I earned a flower for everytime I thought of you," said Ophelia, with her auburn hair flowing in the light breeze. "I could walk for days in my garden."

Hector smiled and held her close as tightly as he could, desperate to touch every inch of her whole body, desperate to breathe the same air she did. "I would walk for a lifetime in mine,"

I close the book and lean back on the wall, stretching my legs out on the bed. It reminded me of something I didn't want to be reminded of. A day's passed and still my cheeks heat up whenever I remember what I'd said to Millard.

Yes. I meant what I said; I really thought his intellectual side was adorable. But I hadn't meant to blurt it out like that and make things so awkward between us. Luckily though, I had this talent of masking my true emotions so I just kept smiling and talking about other things. Hopefully he didn't notice. Hopefully.

I turn and lie flat on my stomach, screaming my head off in a pillow. If I can't let loose by distraction, then let's just hope at least screaming will help me.

A knock on my door makes me jump up, turn, and due to much hurry, fall off the bed. I land on my buttocks and I groan in pain.

"Oh my bird, did I startle you? Goodness, I apologize!" Bare feet slap against the cold floor towards me as I hide my red face hastily in my hands.

I rushed to end the conversation immediately and be alone again. This is already too much embarrassment. "Apology accepted! Now what do you need?" I peek through my fingers and see nothing at all in front of me – again.

I feel Millard's breath and it seems like he's kneeled facing me. I hide my face even more. "Nevermind that. Are you alright? I deeply apologize, I'm so sorry Soleil..."

I sigh and peek again. "Yes, I'm fine." A small crack in my voice proves otherwise though. Yes, it was that painful. Damn these emotions.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm alright. What were you going to tell me?"

"Should I ask help from the others?"

"No need. I said I'm okay, now answer my question."

"Do you need help standing up?"

Frustration overcomes me so I put down my hands on the floor and puff out. "I said I'm fine so can you just please answer my question now?"

When he replies, I can hear the big grin in his voice. "I'm sorry, I was just messing with you,"

I hold up a particular finger as Millard chuckles. "I didn't know that existed in your time,"

"I didn't know I could learn anything from a prick like Yuan." I said with a slight giggle, the embarrassment fading out of me. "So what was it you were going to tell me?"

"Come on,"

Millard practically drags me to the end of the hall in Miss Condor's study. He knocks as if to check if anyone's gotten in there before us and with a satisfied sigh, opens it and proceeds inside. I follow closely behind him.

"Take the lamp, that one on the desk," I do as he says but not before giving him – or his coat – a questioning look.

The lamp's handle was cold against my fingers, which made the hairs on my skin stand up. With a slight jerk of my hand, I pull it up.

"Oh. I didn't see that coming," I mutter. Millard chuckles in excitement as he trudges over to me. "I know right?"

I was still staring at the coin-sized black button staring right up at me as if it dared me to press it and reveal something I was not ready to know. It seemed to scream of terrible things yet important secrets. But then again, it just might be my paranoia.

"Go push it," Millard nudges me from behind.

I turn and give him a strange look. "Have you pressed it already? Do you know what it could trigger?"

"Um..." Millard inhales and shrugs his shoulders. "I wanted you to find out,"

Striding away from the desk and letting the lamp drop on the floor, I gasp out. "Are you insane? This could be a bomb or something! Th-this could obliterate our entire species for all we know!"

"Why would an ymbryne store a volatile material inside a house full of peculiar children?" he replies.

"How do you even know it's an ymbryne who had this put up in her house? The wights came here, so they could've... Put some of their stuff in here, I don't know. Even if it was Miss Condor's, if the wights have found out about it then surely they've set some traps or something there."

Millard sighs. "If they've uncovered this, how come the lamp is still intact in its place? How come the dust on it's as thick as the skin of your toes? They would've at least dusted it off. Besides, don't you trust me? Have I ever been incorrect in my studies?"

Damn,I think. This boy knows how to argue.

He's right though. The dust colored the whole top of the desk with gray, the only clear spots being where the two of us touched the lamp and the circular spot where it had been. Clearly, it hadn't been touched for years. But I still won't press the button. "I'm scared, Mill."

"I assure you, there's nothing there to be afraid of."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

Before my mind can create more inane visions and scenes of us getting blown up to pieces, I take a deep breath and slam my fist hard on the button.

The room shakes a little bit, making me run and lean to the wall nearest to me. Millard follows and stands next to me. "Honestly, I'm starting to have doubts about this," his voice was shaky due to the shuddering of the room but it remained calm, though I'm sure he was far from calm. I curse both him and myself.

The wall across us cracks and for a moment there, I thought it was going to fall on us and squish us both alive. But of course it didn't. Instead, it detaches completely from the ceiling and starts jerkily and dustily sinking down to an unseen space below the floor. When it is no longer to be seen, the room stops shaking immediately, throwing us out of our feet and covering our surroundings with dust.

I cough and look up where the wall had been. It was all a foggy cloud of dust but beyond it, I'm sure I'm seeing dozens and dozens of bookshelves, each one stacked with its own sets of books. The shelves were at least seven feet in height.

Millard coughs. "Is this what I think it is?"

I smile to myself and stare at the library before us. "It's a library,"

He laughs and gets up, helping me on my feet as well. He stood there, gaping at the shelves of books we are yet to read. We tiptoed towards them, afraid that we might step on the wrong place and open up another secret fort in there or cause the creaky floorboards to break and fall in. Gladly it didn't. We reached the shelves safely.

Millard laughs out as he pulls one of the books out from its place in the shelf. "Why, this one's all about invisibility!"

I peer next to him and sure enough, on the cover was the title of the book – "The Wonders of Invisibility". The letters were carved on the fine, brown leather of the book, each one of them drawn in gold.

I pick another one from the same shelf. This one was red but the letters on its title were golden too – Duplication. I smile because I thought there was never such a thing.

"Duplication! That is one of the rarest and hardest to find peculiar abilities of all. Only one of fifty people would have that," said Millard.

I look over to where his coat and the book float in midair and ask. "Do you think they'll have one for my ability too?"

Millard sighs. "I'd like to think so, but I'm afraid this ability of yours is really, really exceptional, unusual and uncommon. You might even be one in a million,"

On normal occasions, I would've been disappointed – who wouldn't want to know more about herself? – but this whole thing had me overwhelmed that all I can think of is how many of these I could read in one day and how much these would help us – or my friends – in discovering our – or their – capabilities.

"Woah," Hugh stands in the doorway, gaping at the place we'd just discovered. "Is this for real?"

Millard chuckles. "That's the question I've also been asking,"

Hugh motions outside and soon enough, the other peculiars come in too, asking us how it got here. The others, not having put two and two together yet, were more worried about the "earthquake" that they felt just moments ago. I gladly explained to them about the lamp and the button and this library, as Millard was having too much fun choosing which books to read. Occasionally he'd call out and report what he'd just seen like, "They have a Map of Days too!" or "This book's about Healing!"

By the time I was done speaking, he came back with a stack of books in his arms. He could barely even keep balance. "I'm afraid I won't be getting any sleep tonight," he mutters.

"Nonsense. Just because we've uncovered a whole library doesn't mean you stop staying healthy. You said so yourself that we need all the rest we can get in case we bump into trouble, didn't you?" I take a few of his books from him and give him a warm smile.

"I suppose I did," he replied.

Author's Note: Hi guys! I swear I would've updated this a day after the previous chapter, but my laptop had some problems and got locked for a few days. I had to wait before it got fixed. Sorry! Hope you still enjoyed this anyways.

Lord Voldy: They ain't Jacob after all. HEHEHEHEHEHE
But you should write something too. If you ain't inspired then think about our PMs and do it as an act of revenge on me. xD Luv yaaa :*

Imaguest101: I'm so sorry for keeping you hanging! T.T But anyways, Chapter 13's here and I hope I met your expectations somehow. :3 There's more to come, I promise. ;) I can't say anything about Fiona and Claire though, I don't want to spoil anyone. :P

xXxChasingDreamsxXx: I DEFINITELY AGREE.