The Invisible Library (43 page)

Coppelia waited until Irene was almost at the door, before saying, ‘Your shoes are under the couch.’

‘Couldn’t you have said that earlier?’ Irene snapped, losing a lot of her gratitude. ‘Just a moment!’ she called to the door, then trotted back to the couch to sit
down and put the shoes on.

‘I’ll be expecting regular reports,’ Coppelia said, watching Irene fumble at the bootlaces with her bandaged fingers. ‘And don’t get too involved. Remember who you
are.’

‘I’m not likely to forget that,’ Irene said. She finished knotting the laces and sat back. ‘I’m a Librarian.’

‘So you are,’ Coppelia said. She didn’t speak again, but nodded in dismissal, and Irene could feel her eyes on her with every step that she took towards the door.

Kai was waiting on the other side.

Irene managed a few confident paces down the corridor, once the door had been safely shut between them and Coppelia, before her purposeful walk slowed to a halting stumble. Kai frowned, and
offered her his arm. Maybe he really thought she was that badly injured. Or possibly possessiveness was a characteristic of draconic affection. They were supposed to be hoarders, after all. Not so
different from Librarians.

But just for the moment – just for this single moment, on their way back to this alternate that was now her home – she could relax and appreciate what she’d been given. It was
all hers. Her territory, her open treasure-box of new books to read. A new world of great detectives, zeppelins, Fae and dragons. She wasn’t going to complain.

And she certainly wasn’t going to run away. She had questions to ask, and answers to find. She just hoped she lived long enough to enjoy it.

Genevieve Cogman started on Tolkien and Sherlock Holmes at an early age, and has never looked back. But on a perhaps more prosaic note, she has an M.Sc. in Statistics with
Medical Applications and has wielded this in an assortment of jobs: clinical coder, data analyst and classifications specialist. Although
The Invisible Library
is her debut novel, she has
also previously worked as a freelance roleplaying game writer. Genevieve Cogman’s hobbies include patchwork, beading, knitting and gaming, and she lives in the north of England.

Thank you to everyone who helped with this book. Thank you to my agent, Lucienne Diver, who is awesome and whom I still can’t quite believe I got as an agent, and my
editor, Bella Pagan, who is fantastic and turned this into a much better book than it was originally.

Thank you to all my readers, supporters, and friends, including but not limited to: Beth, Jeanne, April, Anne, Phyllis, Nora, Walter, Em, Jennifer, Stuart, Elaine, Lisa, Hazel, and Noelle. You
are all cool and awesome.

And thank you, now and always, to my parents.

First published 2015 by Tor

This electronic edition published 2015 by Tor

an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

Basingstoke and Oxford

Associated companies throughout the world

www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-5624-3

Copyright © Genevieve Cogman, 2015

Cover Images © Shutterstock

The right of Genevieve Cogman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Visit
www.panmacmillan.com
to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews
and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.