Page 24 of Librarian

Pierce shoves me forward, but there’s nowhere for me to go with her surrounded like this. I settle for her feet, brushing my fingers to and fro across the soft skin of her ankle. The Carlton heir joins us, staring down at her as he takes her other side.

Kyrith moans.

Her eyes snap open, and a breath hisses through my teeth. Her irises are no longer a deep doe brown, but a brilliant, shining, almost-white. The colour of parchment.

Then the whole room quakes.

Eight

Kyrith

Iknow two things.

One, it’s imperative we leave the Arcanaeum rightnow.

And two, that I can no longer feel the foundations, which terrifies me.

The only thing grounding me is the six men holding onto me like I might die if they let go.

Another quake shakes the building, but I feel it in my bones, not my soul.

“No.” I gasp at the vaulted ceiling. “What have you done?”

“We’re saving you,” Lambert objects as dust rains down around us.

I wasn’t talking to him. I was talking to the Library.

Not that it matters. Someone releases my hand, and everything is black once again.

I’m cradledin a pair of strong arms, and my eyes are full of grit. The air is thick with magic, smoke, and the cracking of stone.

Dakari makes a noise of frustration. “He’s going to break through if we don’t get out of here.”

Lambert is on our left, pleading with the walls. “Arcanaeum, dude. Help us out. We need to go.”

A crackling smack echoes through the space, and I turn my head to watch as the door glows and blackens under the force of the magic being used to try to break in.

Leo’s hand is smashed into his grimoire as he stands shoulder to shoulder with Dakari and Pierce. The three of them are standing between the rest of us and the door, casting such a strong ward that the ozone scent of nullification magic coats my tongue.

Wait. Pierce? Leo? I open my mouth to warn them, but my tongue is numb.

“Feck.”

“There’s another door!” Lambert calls, and I crane my neck to look, but I can’t see him.

“I can’t go with you.” Pierce sounds strained. “There’s a tracking ensorcellment on my back. They’ll find us if I go.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you say so?” Jasper retorts. “Where?”

The Scot opens his own grimoire as Pierce reaches back and yanks up his shirt, revealing a small runeform at the base of his spine.

Tagged like a dog.

“Pierce Carlton, open this door!” Isidora’s voice is muffled but incandescent with fury.

Her son flinches, the mark on his cheek scrunching up in a grimace. But he doesn’t stop casting.

Mathias’s cold threat follows soon after. “Whatever you’re doing, boy, it won’t work. I control the Arcanaeum now.”