Page 193 of Librarian

I grab the sword still at my hip, slipping it free soundlessly, though I doubt it really matters, given the noise.

I’ve never stabbed a man in the back before. It takes more force than I expected.

Mathias makes an odd wee sound, like a wet and breathless gasp. His blood rushes free, splattering onto my hands.

I’m so close to him that it’s not hard to lean forward and tell him, “That’s for Kyrith.”

He’s still moving. Trying to turn to face me.

Eddy loses her control over the invisibility spell as she flinches back, but I’ve got him.

I twist the blade.

Everything else stops. The bolts of ice. The fireballs. Leo’s chanting.

“No fire in the Arcanaeum,” I growl, kicking the lich forward.

The blade draws free with a slick noise I want to erase from my memory, and Mathias clutches at his chest for a second, dropping to his knees.

His grimoires drop to the floor by his side as he slumps, face-first, onto the floor.

I drop, fingers finding his wrist. Waiting as his pulse slows, then stops.

Dead.

He was already disgusting after his phylactery was destroyed. Now it’s like his body is aging at lightning speed, withering andblackening. I drop his hand with a grimace, wiping the mess on my jeans.

Pierce moves closer, footsteps crunching in the broken glass, but there’s nothing he can do. We have no dagger to funnel all of that stolen magic back at the Arcanaeum.

Even Mathias’s death is wasted.

He’s gone. It’s over.

It sinks into my chest like a weight. I’ve killed the man who drained me of magic for over ten years. A decade of bad memories, cut down with one single, underhanded thrust of a hastily conjured sword.

And the only thought in my head is,where’s my girl?

Fifty-Four

Northcliff

There’s something wrong with the Arcanaeum.

It’s not just the flames Dakari is hastily smothering with magic. Or the pile of corpses that dropped to the ground the second Mathias took his last breath. Or even the very noticeable absence of our Librarian.

It’s something deeper.

I can feel it.

Eddy slams into me with the force of a hurricane, hugging the shit out of me. The contact makes every cut and bruise flare bright for a second, but my arms wrap around her anyway.

There’s blood streaming down her face, but the cut looks shallow. She’s mostly unhurt, thank God.

“Are you okay? Is everyone alive?” Her words are so fast they fall over one another. “I can’t believe that invisibility spell idea worked. Holy shit. I thought we were going to die.”

I scoff at the last. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Jasper shakes his head. “Fuck, we almostdiddie. But that was a good idea.”