Page 175 of Librarian

Her revenant is still very similar to how she was in life, aside from the runeforms cut into her skin.

I should’ve expected Mathias would help himself to my mother’s collection of undead after he killed her. Any necromancer can take over a revenant once the corpse has been prepared. It’s even easier if the original puppet master is gone.

This is exactly the kind of warped strategy he revels in.

I don’t have the power to kill these two. Magic is literally trickling out of me like water.

Right now, only the sofa is between me and them.

They start rounding it from each side, so I force down the pain and vault over the hideous floral monstrosity. My shoulder screams at me to stop moving as I bolt for the door, but if I do that, I’m dead.

The ten paces between me and my goal feel like a mile.

I make it, and even manage to shut it behind me, bracing myself against the wood as I clutch the handle in a death grip to keep the undead inside.

Unfortunately, the situation out here is worse.

Mathias is on Leo’s front lawn, grimoire out and glowing with power.

He’s supposed to be in the Arcanaeum.

Leo’s shield is fading before my eyes, and Lambert’s stone skin is already patchy. Thankfully, neither of them makes the mistake of looking back at me as they hold their own against Mathias’s lethal barrage of electricity.

The air around them crackles.

Then it stops.

The lich has found a new focus.

Me.

His eyes gleam as he takes in the wound to my shoulder, the satisfaction in his expression telling me exactly how bad it is. He checks my hands, growing visibly smugger as he realises I don’t have the dagger.

“Foolish boy.” He shakes his head as Leo edges closer to me, dragging Lambert along. “Did you really think there was a ward strong enough to stop me from tracing my own soul? Or that you were talented enough to destroy it? Benny must’ve passed down his delusional tendencies. Hand. It. Over.”

He laces those words with lethal malice.

A part of me still can’t understand how he found us. We checked the phylactery for trackers a dozen times. The cottage was warded.

Apparently, not well enough.

Now we’re all about to die for that mistake.

Mathias lifts one hand, unleashing another wave of destruction magic. Leo’s barrier appears, flickers, then wavers like paper in the breeze. The lightning ends, and our shield breaks a half-second later.

Shit. One more and we’re done for.

My knuckles hit the door behind my back. “Ad Arcanaeum.”

We’re not supposed to be coming in hot.

Unfortunately, we’re running out of magic, and I don’t think we have a choice. Dizziness is setting in fast.

The wood supporting my back swings inward. I land hard on the tiled floor of the Rotunda, scrambling backwards on my elbows to get out of the way as Lambert and Leo dive after me.

The only remaining piece of the dagger is embedded in my flesh. Under no circumstances can Mathias realise that or be allowed to get his hands on it.

If he does, it’s over.