Page 13 of Librarian

“It’s not just over a woman. The Arcanaeum?—”

“Don’t bullshit me, boy.” Halinor’s voice cracks like a whip. “You don’t give three flying fucks about the Library.”

She’s wrong about that, because she doesn’t know—can’t ever know—that the building is sentient. In the last few months, it’s become a strange, silent friend.

“If I told you there was more that I couldnae tell you about, would you drop it?”

Halinor tips her head from side to side, turning back to the flames. “Aye. I’ll do one better.”

Getting up hurts her, and I discard Benny’s book to lift my grimoire from its holster, intent on numbing the pain deepening the furrow of her brows.

“I’m retiring.”

“What!?” I fumble my grimoire, dropping it. “That’s a terrible idea.”

Halinor stops in front of me, the tip of her stick pressing my book into the carpet. “A leader cannot lead with only half the facts, and an old goat like me can’t go to war. It’s becomeabundantly clear over these last few weeks that that’s where we’re heading. You six and that Librarian are at the centre of something that I havenae the strength nor the will to interfere with?—”

“But I’m not ready.”

“No one ever is. But it’s my time to step aside gracefully. You don’t need to come begging to me when you want permission to form an alliance with the Talcotts. Just do it.”

“I’m not a magister.”

Halinor waves my objection away and loses her balance in the process, then scowls at me when my arms automatically rise to catch her. “I said, retiring. Not retired. You’ll take the exams when you’re ready, but you’re already a master restorationist. They’re a formality. As far as the clan and I are concerned, it’s a done deal.”

She hobbles to the door, looking back one last time. “When I took the position from my mother, she told me the most important choice I could ever make was when to pass my torch. I told her she was wrong. That she was giving up too soon. I wanted to play magiball, not lead.” Her eyes flick to Lambert. “But she was right. She wasnae who we needed back then. I’m not who we need now.” She pauses, voice quiet as she continues. “I’m not sure I have been for some time, if all this was happening right under my nose.”

Then she’s gone, leaving me trapped in a room that’s suddenly suffocating.

“Congrats, Parriarch McKinley,” Lambert offers, but it falls flat.

I want to call Halinor back, to convince her that she’s made a mistake. But she’s so stubborn. I have to admit that, if it wasnaemewho was replacing her, I’d have expected her to retire a long time ago. Every time I see her, she gets more fragile.

Against my will, my eyes are drawn back to Leo, still unconscious on the couch. I dinnae think it’s a coincidence that the last time I saw him, he was on the floor of the Arcanaeum. And how did Eddy end up in a car with Dakari and Anthea when the last we knew, she was holed up in her room with a migraine?

We need more answers, but I’m afraid that even when we get them, we won’t be any closer to saving Kyrith.

If she’s even still alive.

Naw. She has to be. Someone who’s part ghost cannae die, surely?

“The boss just kicked us out,” Lambert murmurs, almost to himself. “We could’ve done something.”

North shakes his head. “Nah. I’ve been thinking about it. I think she knew we’d been outplayed. She wasn’t fighting. She was mitigating the damage. Getting everyone to safety and protecting her books.”

“She should’ve let us help,” I say, even though I understand why she didn’t.

Maybe if all six of us were there, fighting alongside Kyrith and the Library, we might’ve had a chance. Dakari and Pierce are the best at offensive magic, but they were both at that dinner. Leo and Kyrith together might’ve managed to out-think the lich, but he was busy fretting over his curse and being a fucking traitor. Lambert and North… Well, they’re strong, but neither of them is experienced.

I’m not a fighter. Never have been. Never hated that quite as much as I do now, either.

But we were separated. Divided.

Kyrith was right to do what she did, but…she shouldnae have had to make that call.

We fall into an uneasy silence until the door swings open a few minutes later, admitting an exhausted Dakari.

“Where’s my sister?” North demands, shoving away from the wall.