Page 196 of Librarian

I appreciate him saying ‘when’ and not ‘if’. It doesn’t do anything to ease the numbness creeping through me at the thought of an Arcanaeum without Kyrith.

Who would even run it?

She has to come back. She just has to.

When she does, I’m going to spank her ass for scaring the ever-loving shit out of me like this.

Fifty-Five

Kyrith

Idon’t know how long it takes for me to wake up again. The last thing I remember was watching Mathias die.

He’s gone. Dead.

I should feel relief, and I do, but it’s the cold, logical kind that accompanies being stuck in my ghost form.

I didn’t imagine that then.

I’m back in the Vault, lying on the altar once more, feeling the tread of hundreds of footsteps across my skin.

Every inch of me aches, but it’s not my body; it’s the Arcanaeum itself. I lay immobile, unable to summon the energy to throw myself from the stone like I want to. I exhausted everything I had trying to protect them. Holding the balcony up drained what paltry magic remained within the Library. When I passed out, watching Mathias fall from Jasper’s blade, I thought that was it.

The end.

Above me, a windowpane fuses back together in the Arcane History section.

There are people everywhere. I can feel them moving through the halls, the tiny sparks of their magic sinking into the floor as they repair the cracks in the tiles and the shattered shelves.

An enormous amount of power is being poured into the dome of the Rotunda.

Curiosity has me in a chokehold, but it takes hours to summon the energy to move. Floating shouldn’t take this much effort. I have no weight to hold me down.

This is worse than how I used to feel after my death reenactment.

I just want to know what’s going on.

Gliding through the spire, I stop to rest on the floor of the Rotunda, grimacing when someone immediately walks right through me.

I guess I’m still invisible.

“Is the Divination Tower done yet?” Leo asks.

My head whips around, and I find him standing before my desk, leaning over a piece of paper spread atop it. He’s cleaned up since I last saw him, wearing new clothes. How long has it been?

On either side of him there are…flowers.

Dozens of bouquets with tiny white cards poking out of them line the base of my desk.

“Aye.” Halinor leans heavily on her stick. “And the Transmutation Tower. The main halls need more work, but I reckon we can get the ground floor done by Monday.”

I drag myself towards the flowers, only to stop when I read the words on the cards closest to me.

The Library isn’t the same without you.

World’s Best Librarian.

Sorely missed by everyone at UAA.