James hadn’t been in a library since he was a kid, and even then, he hadn’t spent any more time there than he absolutely had to. He remembered white walls and flimsy shelves. He remembered stickers that indicated what “reading level” each book was, and he remembered the frustration that brought with it.

  James had never been much of a reader. He’d been an active kid, good at sports and bad at words. Most of the time it didn’t matter. He knew he was smart, was confident enough in his own intelligence. Yet, being in the library was like opening a forgotten wound and prodding at it. It made him feel small.

  This library, with its grand shelves and its leather chairs and its thick books that looked more like ancient textbooks than anything else— this library made him feel very small.

  It was a cool place, he didn’t mind admitting that. The chandeliers and dark wood made the place look as much like a vampire’s lair as a library, and he could appreciate that. All that was missing was a secret door. How extra cool would it be if one of these books was actually a lever, which spun a bookshelf around like in a movie, taking him to a secret room?

  That thought, at first no more than a private joke, solidified in his mind. He glanced around. Virgil was still engrossed in the ratty old journal he’d found on the desk, Inara was standing watch, and Desiree was reading the titles of books, clearly bored and doing her best to deal with it.

  “Hey! Psst. Desiree!” He waved the girl over.

  Glad to be doing anything besides flipping through textbooks, Desiree approached, a curious glint in her eyes. James crouched, and she leaned in.

  “What do you bet there’s a secret door?”

  Her eyes widened. “Ooh, there’s gotta be! Virgil obviously thinks this room is important, so if there was a secret room it would be here, wouldn’t it?”

  James grinned, glad she so quickly picked up what he was putting down.

  “Unless…” Desiree frowned. “Unless this is the secret room.” She looked around the cramped space with a grimace.

  James shook his head. “No way. That ratty old journal is clearly important to Virgil for some reason, but it’s not secret room level loot, not even close. There’s more here.” He tapped his finger to his lips, looking thoughtful. “A secret room in a library has got to be triggered by a book.”

  “What? How?”

  James grinned. He’d suspected, and now confirmed, that Desiree didn’t know the classic “secret bookshelf door” maneuver. What was cliche in his world was novel in hers.

  He lowered his voice like he was telling a secret “One of these books isn’t a book, it’s a lever,” he explained. “When you pull the right one, it’ll trigger a bookshelf that doubles as a door, which will then swing open.”

  Desiree’s eyes widened more and more as he spoke, then finally collapsed into skepticism. “No way,” she said.

  “Wanna bet?” James smirked. “One gold coin says there’s a bookshelf door in this room.”

  Desiree hesitated so long that James wondered if she should have said a copper instead. It was all monopoly money to him, but in retrospect a gold coin was probably a lot of money to her.

  But then her expression solidified into determination, and she shook his hand. “Deal. And I bet you another gold coin that I find it first!”

  James nodded, and Desiree took off. She started pulling books down from the shelves one after another, carelessly tossing them onto the floor.

  James chuckled.

  Inara, who had watched the exchange, approached. “I know my daughter doesn’t enjoy reading, but normally she takes it out on her tutors rather than the books themselves.” She quirked an eyebrow.

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  Warmth filled James’s chest; so much so that he found it difficult to speak. Inara had that effect on him, more and more as their journey continued. If anything, James griped to himself, it should have gone the other way. More exposure to the woman should have made him more confident, more casual.

  And yet, the reverse was true, as though every moment in her presence made him more aware of her strength and beauty, and just as aware of his own ignorance and weakness.

  With a truly heroic effort, James swallowed back his nerves.

  “I think there’s a secret room in here,” he explained.

  Inara nodded seriously and looked around the room with a critical eye. “And you think removing the books will reveal the door,” she said.

  James held back a laugh. “No. I think one of these books isn’t really a book, but a lever that will open the passage.” He shrugged. “It’s a trick that is fairly common in my world.”

  She gave him a sidelong look, amused for a moment, and then serious. “What is it like, to come to a new world?” she asked.

  The question startled him. “It’s like a video game,” he answered without thinking, then regretted it. But Inara only looked confused, so he had a moment to rephrase. The truth was, it didn’t feel like a video game anymore. Sure, it had all the trappings of one: a tutorial, an inventory, quests, loot and levels. But this place was as real as Earth had been. In some ways it felt even more real; back home he’d fallen into a comfortable routine of work, television, and sleep. Here, he felt more alive than ever. He was on a quest! With life or death stakes, and a beautiful woman at his side! There was a mystery to unravel, and lore to discover!

  “It’s like living a new life,” he said again. “I can be a better person than I was before.”

  Her eyes darkened with thoughtful melancholy. Softly, she said, “I would like to be a better person than I was before.”

  James swallowed. He so desperately wanted to ask about her past. What had happened with the previous Hero? But it was clearly a traumatic subject, and the bottom line was that it didn’t matter. He trusted her with his life, and she could keep her secrets if it meant she would stay by his side.

  “I trust your judgment,” James told her, his voice low. “If you went against the hero’s goals, it’s because his goals changed. If you betrayed him, it’s because he needed to be stopped.”

  “Thank you.” She swallowed hard, and when she lifted her gaze, her eyes were wet with tears. “When you told us your quests, your third implied that you would have to make a choice. To rule or to ruin. I think… I think every hero must make that choice.”

  James’s blood ran cold. He reread the description of his quest.

  To Rule or To Ruin

  The Demon King awaits, brooding on his big, evil chair. Defeat him in battle and bring peace to Grimora? Or maybe… that throne looks comfy? No judgment. (Okay, maybe a little judgment.)

  James shuddered. When he closed his eyes, he could still see the townspeople huddled together in fear as the Demon Lord chose who would be sacrificed to summon more demons for the Demon King’s army. He could still smell the sulfur and feel the heat.

  He couldn’t imagine joining that army, let alone leading it.

  But there was something there. Desiree had mentioned a cycle, that every time a Demon King came into power, a Hero was summoned to stop him. But what if, after stopping the Demon King, a Hero took the crown for himself? Immediately beginning the cycle anew?

  James shuddered at the thought. “Is the throne so tantalizing?” he asked. “I can’t understand how someone intent on ending a war would choose to perpetuate it instead.”

  Inara wiped her eyes. “I wouldn’t have believed it myself, had I not seen it with my own eyes. Malachai was a good man — I truly believe that. But something happened that changed the way he saw the world. Maybe, like you, he saw this world as a game. I don’t know.”

  Regret for his careless words churned in James’s belly. If he could go back in time, he would gladly waste the trip on taking back those words. At the same time, a new fear rose up. What could change a good man’s mind? Did the Demon King actually have a good reason to do what he did, or was there some king of mental magic at work? Was he going to wake up one day, transformed into some kind of murderhobo?

  James reached out to Inara, resting his hand on her shoulder. She met his gaze.

  “If I turn evil,” he said, “I want you to stop me.”

  Her mouth dropped open in soft surprise.

  “I’m serious,” James continued. “I can’t imagine that I would— that I could—.” He swallowed. “But if you see me starting to go down that path, I need you to do the same thing. Betray me if you must. Don’t let me repeat Malachai’s mistakes.”

  She nodded once, a sharp, jerking motion that told him everything he needed to know. She would do what was necessary, though she hoped she would not have to.

  Inara reached up and traced the line of James’s jaw with the tip of her finger. The sensation sent jolts of electricity through his body

  “I trust you, too,” she said. “I hope—”

  She was interrupted by a heavy thud and yelp. Across the room, Desiree had fallen into a pile of books. One massive tome, on a shelf nearly out of her reach, tilted at an unnatural angle. The determined young girl scrambled to her feet and jumped again, this time pulling the book all the way down to ninety degrees, at which point a loud click reverberated through the small room.

  And the bookshelf began to turn.