Page 114 of Librarian

My bond to the book has been growing apace, but I sensibly prioritised destruction and nullification when I began to fill the pages. Thankfully, I only need one or two new spells for this, and they’re simple enough.

“Crieti.” I conjure four double bedframes in a line. “Crieti.” Thick mattresses appear atop them.

I don’t have the energy for a bed each, or anything more than plain cotton sheets, but it will do. One night of sharing won’t kill any of us.

When I’m done, I cast a quick cleansing spell over Dakari and Jasper, transmuting their clothes into soft pyjamas before levitating them into the nearest bed.

And then, because I simplycannotstand to exist in this bland corporate hell one moment longer, I change the walls back to their wainscoted glory, switching white paint for a soft peach. Another incantation erases the linoleum nightmare that is the floor, replacing it with familiar black marble. A third rids us of those ghastly spotlights.

Something in my chest settles as the Arcanaeum’s motto scrolls across the foyer in familiar silver. I bend down, touching my fingers to the metal as my chest pangs. Absolute truth may be more dangerous than absolute power, but what ‘truths’ Mathias and Isidora have been spewing will not remain absolute for long.

I intend to counter the slew of misinformation I’ve been seeing outside of these walls with everything I have.

Lambert jogs back into the room, grinning. “The showers are still there, boss. And the door to the Clock Tower is gone. Doyou reckon the Arcanaeum hid it to protect your stuff? It made a whole secret room to hide your body.”

It did?

I press my hand harder against the cold letters in the floor, trying in vain to feel something. Anything. A hint of my friend.

Nothing. Not even a whisper.

Worse, I can’t feel the rooms above. Can’t tell if the Clock Tower is safe or in ruins. I thought I felt the building while Mathias was using the dagger, but the blade is almost completely ruined.

Thankfully, I don’t need to break it further to confirm my suspicion that the lich’s banishment has been restored. A simple brush of my fingers over the broken blade is enough to tell me as much.

Was that the last thing the building managed before it shut down?

My throat swells, but I lock the emotion away. Things need to get done. People need caring for.

“Good. Everyone needs to get cleaned up.”

They’re already moving, motivated by the promise of washing away the lingering scents of blood and destruction magic still clinging to all of us like a smoky second skin.

Everyone except…

“Pierce.”

He doesn’t look at me. He’s slumped heavily against the wall, like his grandfather’s death has robbed him of the strength to stand.

“Pierce,” I repeat, a little louder.

Finally, his head snaps up, but his eyes are flat.

“Go and shower,” I say, softer. “Get some fresh clothes. Then come back here.”

He looks around, as if only just noticing that the others have all gone. “Someone should stay with you.”

“I—” I cut off as I consider that maybe this is less about his concern for my safety and more that he simply…doesn’t wish to be alone. “Very well. I intended to shower once someone else could keep an eye on them.”

I trace the rise and fall of Dakari’s chest with my eyes as I stand and brush aside a wayward lock of brown hair from Jasper’s forehead. Neither of them is likely to wake any time soon, so I drift in the Carlton heir’s direction.

He doesn’t tug me against him like one of the others might, so I simply wind my arms around his waist and sink into his body, offering comfort and hoping he takes it.

He’s cold. I go to raise the temperature…only to realise I can’t do that anymore.

I suppose I’ll have to settle for words instead.

“Benny was a good man. He should never have been subjected to that.”