Page 188 of Librarian

I also…no longer have a body. I can’t turn physical at all. Even the outline of me is incredibly faint. Logically, I know that’s a good thing. I’m no longer troubled by the pain in my leg. I’m obviously reconnected to the building, which means the dagger is gone. There’s no way for Mathias to control us anymore.

Leo and Dakari were within sight of the Library. They don’t need me to guide them back, providing they don’t focus on the fog.

Later, I’ll let myself fret about what my loss means for everything beyond the next few hours.

Right now, I have to take advantage of being able to dematerialise and reform in Botanical Hall.

Above me, I can see the others hefting crates of bombs over the motionless bodies of half a dozen revenants. They’ve clearlybeen in some kind of battle and won. More importantly, they’re all alive.

That’s good. The Arcanaeum hasn’t absorbed my bonded like I feared it would. I suppose my body was a magical construct. It was probably more efficient for the building to reabsorb that instead of assimilating six new souls.

I’m a ghost again, but they’re still alive. Okay. I can…I can accept that. We can still be companions. I had my fun?—

I shut off the thoughts threatening to spiral out of control and focus on them instead. Jasper and North set another crate down by the banister. Lambert and Eddy are already picking through a different one beside it, but none of them have noticed me yet.

The Library’s pain radiates through me on a soul-deep level, singing in the creak of the floorboards beneath their feet and the crunch of rust on the railing as Lambert leans against it. Once again, I can feel it like it’s my own body, but the awareness—the consciousness—is still missing.

Experimentally, I try to push the papers off a desk.

They rustle, but nothing more.

Anthea has destroyed the phylactery. My office, several rooms away, is drowning under the slick feeling of necromancy. There are corpses everywhere, and the dusty remnants of the jewel are spread across my desk.

When Isidora’s gem was broken, there was a small rush of power, but it damaged the dagger. I suppose channelling whatever was left of Mathias’s soul must’ve been too much for it.

I should’ve expected as much.

Now I’m reconnected to the Arcanaeum, but my form is so faint as to be almost invisible, and the two of us are powerless.

It’s not ideal.

Mathias must be drawing closer. His displeasure has stopped shaking the building, but the stone foundations are cracking and crumbling.

A door swings open to my left, and I whirl, expecting it to be him.

Pierce staggers through, wearing a shirt that definitely isn’t his. He’s clutching a collection of small vials against his chest, each full to the brim with a golden liquid.

“He lives!” Lambert crows, offering him a high five.

For a second, Pierce looks confused, then he rolls his eyes and shrugs the other man’s exuberance off.

“The McKinleys didn’t want me to come, but the drain stopped.” He chucks a potion at Lambert, then another at North. “Halinor sent these.”

Lambert glugs the liquid without hesitation.

“Restorative draughts,” he explains when North eyes his doubtfully. “Refills your magical well. We sometimes use them after games.”

Jasper’s lips pinch, but he throws the liquid back like a shot. Those are the very same potions that caused all the damage to his liver and kidneys while he was held captive by the Carltons. This one time shouldn’t cause any issues, but it can’t hold good memories.

I drift higher, only for Lambert’s eyes to slide right over me as I come to a stop beside him.

I glance down.Ican still see me. I’m faint, but I’m here.

Maybe it’s the lighting?

That doesn’t make sense. I’m usually easier to see in the dark…

Being stuck as a ghost again mutes the pulse of dread as I clear my throat. “Ahem.”