Page 180 of Librarian

Pierce’s silver scars are blatantly obvious without the illusion. They cover every inch of his chest exposed by his open shirt.

The others just stare. Their dumbfounded silence is almost painful.

“Stop gawking and get on with it,” Pierce growls, jolting Jasper into action, forcing him to the floor to poke at the wound in his shoulder. “The last piece of the dagger is in there somewhere.”

“Last piece!?” Leo scowls, glancing up from his examination of Lambert’s burnt arm. “What the feck happened in that cottage?”

“Turns out, Mathias can track his soul regardless of how many wards there are between them. I barely got started before he sent a whole bunch of revenants to attack me. Including my grandfather, my father, and my mother, so excuse me if things went sideways.” The curtness in Pierce’s tone is painful.

Stars. My heart hurts for him.

“My beloved baby brother disappointed everyone again.” Anthea rolls her eyes as she drops her invisibility spell. “Why am I not surprised?”

“What’sshedoing here?” Pierce grates, glaring at her. “Agh!”

Jasper has shoved two fingers into the wound, apparently without numbing it first.

“She came to help,” I explain, rifling through my own grimoire for the spell.

At the same time, Anthea says, “I came for revenge.” Everyone except Dakari and I tense, and she groans. “Against Mathias, obviously.”

“That wasn’t exactly how you phrased it earlier,” Dakari points out. “You apologised.”

Apologisedandpermitted me to cast a truth spell on her when I doubted her intentions. She really is here to fight Mathias.

That’s theonlyreason I told her the bare bones of our plan and allowed her to remain.

Pierce is staring at his sister with disbelief, but the expression is swiftly replaced with agony as Jasper pulls his fingers free, along with a shard of golden metal.

That tiny fragment is all that’s keeping them from being bound to the Library. It’s probably slowing the draw on our magic, turning it from a rush to a steady stream.

I can’t let it break. Not until the phylactery is dealt with.

Jasper drops it into my palm, then gets to work on healing Pierce as I flip it over in my hand.

The tip. An inch long triangle of metal is all that remains.

If it had broken, they would’ve all been drained immediately.

If Mathias had thought to cast the spell used at my sacrifice, then Pierce would most likely already be the next Librarian.

Worse, if the lich had obtained it, he would’ve regained the ability to subjugate all of us.

The key to everything is now a piece of metal no larger than my thumb.

I daren’t even use it to re-banish the lich and give us time to recover, for fear of damaging it.

“Fuck.” Jasper’s curse turns the air blue. “I cannae heal him. I dinnae have enough magic.”

Dakari winces. “I barely had enough to shut the door.”

Eddy pushes Jasper aside and starts pressing on the wound with both hands. “Someone get me a bandage.”

She must’ve come straight here rather than helping Blanche get the others to safety.

Behind them, Lambert’s skin shimmers metallic grey, then returns to normal.

North manages to conjure a bandage for his twin, which gives me hope, until I realise it’s the lowest level spell they’ve attempted.