Page 112 of Librarian

Pierce says nothing.

Oof. Yeah, we wanted her dead, but the bloke was essentially just orphaned in the space of five minutes. Maybe our delivery could’ve been a little smoother?

Then again, I’ve never been subtle, and Dakari isn’t looking so great, either. There are deep lines of strain around his mouth, and his eyes are half closed.

“Are you okay?” I ask again.

I thought he was just winded before, but he should’ve recovered by now, right?

“It’s not bad,” he denies.

Shit. Now that I’m looking for it, what I thought was just the black fabric of his shirt is actually the scorched and charred flesh of his side.

“Sit down,” Lambert orders, noticing the same thing. “Leo, do you know any restoration magic?”

His brother’s lips twist, his expression inscrutable. “I can manage the basic shite, yeah. Or, at least, I can make it hurt less until Kyrith sorts him.”

“Kyrie,” the Librarian murmurs under her breath, barely lifting her focus from her work on Jasper. “I preferred it when you called meKyrie.”

She doesn’t look at him, casting spell after spell as she traces her fingers over the lines on the Scot’s skin, but Leo can’t stop staring at her.

“Kyrie.” He mouths it like a prayer.

I smirk. Guess he’s one step closer to being back in her good books.

“Get on with it.” Dakari breaks the silence as he slumps onto his ass on the floor beside Jasper.

Leo thumbs through the pages of his grimoire, brows creased.

He’s not fast enough. Dakari’s eyes roll back in his skull a moment later, and I have to dive for his head to stop it cracking against the floor.

“‘Not bad’ my arse,” Leo says. “Well, I guess he doesn’t need the numbing spell if he’s passed out from blood loss.”

Kyrith is decidedly less chill. “Can you?—?”

“Relax. I can deal with this.” A pause, then he mutters, “At least, I can stop him bleeding out before you get to him.”

I fall back on my heels, watching as the two of them get to work.

Thirty-Two

Kyrith

It takes an hour. A whole hour where I’m consumed by healing first Jasper and then finishing off what Leo started with Dakari. The Ó Rinn heir might not be qualified in restoration, but he managed to stop the bleeding. Small mercies.

It’s also a whole hour where I wait for the door to open again. For Mathias to come through, or a stubborn patron to stumble in and give me hell for keeping the Library closed for so long.

When neither of those things happen, my hope rises.

Because surely Mathiasistrying to enter. Surely, he rescinded his banishment the moment he was able to. So logically, that must mean that someone has control of the building, and someone is keeping him—and everyone else—out.

Maybe the Arcanaeum isn’t as gone as it seems.

But when I look up, tearing my gaze from the neat scar decorating Dakari’s ribs, my heart falls.

There’s no cart waiting to take them upstairs.

No whisper of books in the air, or gentle humming through my soul.