Page 124 of Librarian

Is that a good sign? Only one way to find out.

I touch one hand to the stone and mumble an incantation.

The door reappears, exactly as it once was, swinging open to reveal…

“It’s still here.” My breath leaves me in a rush.

Sure, there’s a layer of dust covering everything, but the kitchen, table, and sofa are all exactly as they were. The stairs, too, are untouched.

“The Arcanaeum hid it,” Lambert guesses, pulling me over to our sofa and letting the others file into the living area.

Jasper, Dakari, and North instantly join us, collapsing into chairs with relieved sighs.

Pierce heads for the kitchen, dumping his bags and running a thoughtful hand over the worktops and the stove. Eddy alone races for the stairs, muttering about making sure the revenant didn’t mess with her stuff.

“Well, that’s one thing we don’t have to fix,” North says, letting his head fall back. “Thank fuck. Botanical Hall was hard enough.”

The Arcanaeum is massive. Even with their strength, it would take weeks for them to put it to rights.

We may have to reopen before the renovations are complete.

That thought sours a little of my relief, and Lambert notices.

“What’s wrong?”

I press my lips together and make a disgruntled noise. “It will likely be days before everything is back to how it was, but I don’t want to reopen while the Arcanaeum is still like this. Is that vain?”

“Yes.” Pierce’s bluntness is as expected as it is painful. “Leave it as it is. They need the reminder of what they almost lost.”

“ButIdon’t,” I retort. “If I’m going to be at the desk most of the time, I’d at least like to get the Rotunda and Botanical Hall back to normal.”

“Even then, having a few of the Arcanaeum’s scars on display might nae be the worst thing,” Jasper agrees. “Unless you plan to hide what happened?”

“I can’t.” I tug at my sleeves. “But once I open that can of worms… Once I make it clear that the Arcanaeum was under attack by Mathias, there’s every likelihood he’ll retaliate by divulging that the Library and I are the products of necromancy.”

That’s my greatest fear. The revelation that will turn enforcement and most of arcandom against me.

“It’s not, though, right?” Lambert says. “Not really.”

“Technically, it is.”

He shakes his head. “But it’s the good kind. Not the creepy, corpse-reanimating and killing-people stuff. Not anymore.”

Only Lambert could posit that there’s such a thing as ‘good’ necromancy.

“Regardless of whether it is or isn’t, revealing too much of what happened could put Kyrith at risk.” Dakari’s eyes flash, and he sits up straighter.

“I don’t think it will,” Pierce murmurs. “Mathias can’t let that happen. It would ruin his plans if enforcement wanted the place torn down. He’s created a situation where everyone is so terrified of necromancy that they’d torch the Library in a fearful mob. So he has to keep the secret if he wants control of the building, which he does.”

He might be right.

Mathias has reached a point of no return since becoming parriarch. He’s too far into his plans to give up now. It’s unlikely that will protect the Arcanaeum from slander, but now that he’s publicly claimed it and attempted to rebrand it as his own, any allegations of necromancy would blow back on him spectacularly.

I sigh, slipping from Lambert’s lap to the floor and laying my grimoire open on the coffee table. With a few murmured spells, the rest of the space is soon filled with maps of the Arcanaeum.

“Even if I don’t wait for everything to be returned to normal, the doors need sorting,” I mumble, starting a list on a fresh piece of paper. “Funnelling everyone in through the foyer was just asking for chaos. Honestly. Even back in my lifetime, there were alternate entrances. And…I need to be rebound to the Library.”

The silence that follows my proclamation is thick.