Page 160 of Librarian

I’ve been annotating as I go, but really, it’s all the same. Mathias is quietly removing public service positions, destroyingthe small amount of oversight that governed what the parriarchs could and couldn’t do. In one long proclamation, he’s removed all forms of independent accountability from enforcement.

The idea of reading more makes my gut churn, but I have to. When I’m done, I’ll keep it and my notes safe, so we know exactly what needs to be changed back.

The one good thing about all of this is that Mathias’s edicts are new. That should make them easier to repeal.

“No. I’ve adjusted my illusion.” I tap my bracelet, throat going thick as my skin turns blue with a familiar crack running through my arm and sleeve. “I want to work. Besides, I should be seen like this, to further the impression of the Library failing.”

Leo and Pierce appear to my left, and I check the clock.

Opening time.

I reach for the dagger, sending the tiniest burst of power in its direction, and?—

Crack.

Heat flashes over my skin. My heart skips a beat. I draw my palm away like I’ve been burned, searching…

One of the paper strips binding the blade has disintegrated. Beneath it, a fresh crack bisects the golden metal.

Oh magic. No. Not a crack. Acanyon. The metal has split apart again.

My knees go weak. If not for Jasper reaching out to wrap his arms around my waist, I might’ve buckled.

This isn’t supposed to happen. I’m using the tiniest bit of magic. Barely enough to open some doors…

“I made an error,” I whisper to myself. “Or maybe I just…No. I can’t have. It shouldn’t be happening like this.”

Worse, the patrons are already arriving, shuffling through those same doors. If my men are touching me and they see, it will soon be abundantly clear that I’m not a ghost.

“North and Lambert are gone,” Leo notes. “Could that have altered things?”

His mind has moved straight past the catastrophe and into cold logic, and I accept the anchor in the storm he provides.

“I…don’t know.”

Suddenly our plan seems less like a plan and more like a prayer. We’re playing with magic I barely understand. Whatever the Arcanaeum did was done hastily, and now the spell is failing.

“Take it to the Clock Tower,” Jasper suggests, letting me slip free of his embrace. “We’ll keep watch on things here.”

“You can figure this out,” Dakari says, his dark gaze holding me captive. “Don’t panic.”

How can he be so calm?

I’m shaking as I gather the pieces of metal carefully in my hands and flee up the stairs, ignoring the stares of the patrons. When I get to our space, I lay the blade on the kitchen island, staring at it.

“I need you to come back,” I say to the silent building. “I need you to tell me what to do, because I can’t risk them becoming stuck here and hating me for it.”

“Wouldn’t happen.” I didn’t even realise Dakari had followed me until his deep voice soothes over my fragile nerves like a balm. “There’s nothing in this world that could make me hate you, baby girl.”

I turn, and sure enough, there he is. All solid comfort and surety.

“You could be stuck inside the building. Absorbed into the Arcanaeum’s consciousness. Stars. It might not evenhavea consciousness anymore. You could die, and all that would remain of you would be your magic.”

His hand cups my face, and he presses his forehead to mine. “If it gave you back the Library and kept you safe from Mathias, I could live with that.”

“I wouldn’t. Icouldn’t.” I shake my head. “It would destroy me. I can’t go back to living alone.”

Not now that I’ve lived with them. Touched them. Been held by them. I endured the loneliness before because I didn’t know any other way.