Page 187 of Librarian

More force slams into my back, the hinges protesting as the revenants throw themselves against the dooragain.

What happened, happened. I cannae stay here.

I should check to see if Anthea’s still alive, but given how shrivelled her arm is, I doubt it. Besides, there’s no time.

With my free hand, I knock on the door behind me.

Please let this work.

“Restoration Tower.”

I turn the handle and yank it open, raising my sword at the same time, only to lower it immediately. Thank fuck. My whole body sags in relief at the sight of the alchemy laboratory.

“Are you lot done yet?” I demand, panting, as the door closes behind me.

Lambert looks up from the cauldron in front of him, pausing midway through ladling out bright pink liquid into a bomb flask.

He’s wearing goggles that magnify his eyes to scary proportions, a bandage over his burnt arm, and an apron.

“Is that a sword?” North asks as I sheathe the weapon at my belt. “Nowthere’san idea.”

Lambert grins. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Nearly done,” Eddy interrupts, screwing the lids onto the flasks on the bench beside him and carefully adding them to a crate on the floor. North is on her other side, stirring something brown that reeks of burning. “Is everyone…?”

“Anthea is dead.” I wince as I say it. “She broke the phylactery. So maybe some magic was channelled into the building? But the spell did something…”

I’ve never seen someone get burnt to a crisp by their own magic before. Is it a necromancy thing?

“Oh.” Lambert’s face falls. “Man, that’s so sad. Pierce is going to?—”

“Not the time.” North cuts through the moment with the subtlety of a club.

“The last piece of the dagger broke. I tried to stop it, but—yeah. It’s gone.”

There’s a pause. A beat where I watch them all go through the same panic that I experienced. It doesnae take them long. Obviously, none of us have been absorbed into the building.

“Dude, it’s not like you did it on purpose,” Lambert eventually says. “Cut yourself some slack.”

North scoops out more potion, expression dark as he mutters, “Explains why the drain stopped.”

“That’s good, right?” Eddy says, screwing another lid into place. “That was the plan?”

With a sigh, I grab one of the bomb casings and start copying her. “No. The plan was to use it to funnel the rest of the power Mathias stole during his lifetime to the Arcanaeum. It broke too soon. Whatever magic was in his soul vessel probably wasnae enough to refill the building.”

There’s a very real chance we’re all now stuck in the Library for life. The heavy silence tells me we’re all aware of that. I dinnae want to be the first to test it.

Lambert tries for optimism. “At least we haven’t all been absorbed by the Arcanaeum.”

“Small mercies,” North says.

He sighs. “I just hope the boss is okay.”

Fifty-Two

Kyrith

I’m back in the Vault, but I have no memory of how I got here. My back rests just above the altar, the spire pointing down into my chest.