Page 209 of Librarian

It’s been a whole month since they started doing the rituals, ten weeks since Mathias’s downfall.

“Perhaps this could be the last time,” I begin, circling the altar as they lay their grimoires against it. “Maybe it’s better to make do with what we have, rather than draining you in the hope of more.”

Being visible and audible is enough,I tell myself sternly.

“The progress is unpredictable,” Leo reminds me, catching my hand, even though he simply passes through it. “Every time we do this and nothing happens, we’re still helping the Library.”

The almost touches comforted me at first, but now they’re driving me mad. I know why they’re doing it. They can feel the coldness of my skin, and it reassures them that I’m still here.

I still feel nothing.

I really, really wish the heat of him would permeate the chill that surrounds me. The closest I get is when their fingers glide over the furnishings.

I school my thoughts, refusing to hope for more, as I inch beneath the spire again.

“We want to do this, boss.” Lambert grins at me, already slicing through his hand with a wince. “Well, maybe not the bleeding part, but we have potions for that.”

“I will do this a hundred more times if it gives me the ability to hold you again,” Dakari says.

“Same.” North grips the knife next, then offers it to Jasper, who nods. “Besides, we’ve already started; might as well continue.”

“That’s the sunk cost fallacy,” I say.

Lambert and North blink blankly at me, not having heard of the term, but Leo shakes his head. “That’s love.”

Their hands drip blood through my ghostly body, the chant rising around me as I close my eyes and fight not to move.

Something changes.

A cracking, widening sensation begins in my ribcage. In the back of my mind, a vast knowledge shines through me for a fraction of a heartbeat, then it’s gone. Shut away.

Above my head, glowing golden words inscribe themselves in a ring around the spire at their eye level. Flashing with power in a desperate demand for attention.

DON’T STOP.

What?No! It could drain them.

I open my mouth to object, but the words die on my tongue. My jaw snaps shut, cutting off my pained screech as the Arcanaeum’s magical well starts to warp.

I’m frozen. Unable to move. The Library has woken up after months without a peep. Now it’s doingsomething. Immobilising me so I can’t counter its order.

Somewhere inside us, our immense—and mostly empty—magical well is splitting.

Is the Arcanaeum trying to sever me again? I don’t have a body. I’d just be an untethered ghost. My mind rebels, and I fight it, only to pause.

No. I’ve doubted it before. Every single time, the Library has been on my side.

Surrendering to whatever it’s doing goes against every basic survival urge I possess. Worse, my men’s faces are beginning to show the strain. They’re powerful. That doesn’t mean they’re notdigging deep into their reserves to answer the Library’s request. Even they can’t keep casting forever.

A minute passes. Two.

The golden letters flicker, dissipating on a spectral breeze.

As one, my bonded stop chanting. Leo’s knees give out. Lambert stumbles away from the stone, looking queasy. Dakari sways. Even Jasper and Pierce shut their eyes like they’re trying to hold themselves together.

“What was that?” North demands, panting.

I don’t know, but I can feel the building again.