Page 26 of Librarian

“You got her?” Jasper asks, as a warm body jostles the mattress, settling behind me.

“Yeah. Set the timer and get some rest.” Dakari’s arm bands around my waist.

“She’s getting her colour back. Might be a better idea to wake the others.”

A pair of lips presses a kiss to the curve of my neck, and I melt. I’m not quite free of that sleepy place between unconsciousness and wakefulness. Maybe that’s why it takes me a second to realise that these aren’t my sheets.

There are gulls cawing outside.

There aren’t any birds in the Library.

I jolt upright like I’ve been electrocuted.

“The Arcanaeum!”

Dakari pulls me back down against his chest. “Keep touching me and healing, and I’ll tell you everything we know.”

“I’ll get the others.” Jasper leans down to press a rough kiss to my lips. “Fuck, I’m so glad you’re not dead.”

“Keep Leo out,” Dakari mutters, but the door thuds closed with no indication that Jasper heard him.

The noise draws my eyes away from his glower and around the large, old-fashioned room. It looks like we’re in a castle, but I have no way of knowing where.

“Fort McKinley,” Dakari explains, as I spot the white ball of fur on a chair across the room.

Westley. Oh, thank magic he’s okay.

“Everyone is here, including Eddy. We made her go get some sleep an hour ago. She took what happened pretty hard. She’s barely left your side for the last few days.”

It’s been days?I tense in his arms, but he soothes a hand over my hair.

“What about the Library?”

“Closed the moment we got you out. All of the patrons were evicted, including Isidora and Mathias.”

“I can’t feel it anymore. Is it?—?”

“It’s…shut. No one can get in.” He pauses, letting me absorb the news.

“That shouldn’t be possible.” Mathias has the dagger, and with it, ultimate control of the building’s magic. Unless…there’s no magic left.

My memories of the time after Mathias stabbed me are foggy, but I remember meeting the other librarians. I remember how drained the building was. Mathias drew on our energy constantly to heal himself, and then took more and more as he redecorated…

He must’ve used more magic in those few days than I normally did in decades.

I’m still exhausted.

“You’re pulling energy from us,” Dakari says. “It’s slowed since yesterday, but?—”

“My magical well is depleted.” I’m becoming painfully aware of the gasping cavern in my chest that’s slowly filling with warm, syrupy energy. “But…I share the Arcanaeum’s. I shouldn’t have one.”

Dakari remains silent; he doesn’t have any answers for me. As for me, I turn my search inward, to the well that shouldn’t be there.

No part of my magic is connected to the Library anymore. We’re separate. Our bond has beensevered.

That final word reverberates in my mind, haunting me.

I’m still connected to the heirs and the dagger. I can see the dark, withered strand of magic that leads to my grimoire. That’s it. The hundreds of grimoires in the Vault are gone. I still have all my power, but I can’t cast without them.