The Librarian: A Remnants of Magic Novel (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 2)

by Casey White

  The pounding continued unabated.

  “Come on,” he whispered. His eyes bored into the fireplace, drawn by the dancing embers. Each slam of their limbs against the door rattled through his bones, yanking him back out of his reverie. And...they weren’t stopping.

  Alexandria had pointed him in this direction, hadn’t she? She’d steered him straight to the entrance, as though she wanted him to see whoever was knocking on their door. As though she was trying to tell him this was important.

  She was a damn building, Owl reminded himself. And he was the Librarian, a living, breathing human being. It wasn’t right that she liked to pull his strings back and forth so much. But...he sighed. As usual, his own feelings on the matter didn’t seem to be taken into account.

  He stood, stifling a groan, and turned toward the entryway.

  Every step he took was slow and long. The thought of going out there, of talking to...to whoever it was, somehow repulsed him to his core. His feelings on the matter hadn’t changed—it was like giving in. Giving up, letting Alexandria have her way for the thousandth time. He’d have to endure the conversation about guests yet again, and he just didn’t have the answers.

  Just once, it’d be nice if someone else would give him some damn answers.

  His hand lingered on the handle of the door. He hesitated, leaning his forehead against the wood. Was this really what he wanted to do?

  The pounding began anew, and he flinched. He’d expected for the sound to be...close. Right on the other side of the door. But there was still an odd distance to the noise that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Instinct took over in an instant—and he leaned into the door, pushing it open before him.

  Empty. The entryway was…empty. But-

  The door ahead of him shuddered, and he jumped. Someone was banging on the exterior door, the one directly at the front of the now-darkened room. Owl’s eyes tightened, and he crept forward. The door glowed from behind with the same light as always, but now...he could see a dark patch under the door. Feet. Someone was standing there, between Alexandria and the Edge.

  Well, shit. He was walking before he even realized it, hurrying across the room toward the door. He had his beef with Indira and the Booklenders, but that didn’t mean he wanted anyone to get hurt—and there was no telling what’d happen to someone caught outside of the Library. He’d wondered about the Edge, now and again. He’d even flicked bits of paper and wood into it. They’d simply...disappeared. Winked out of existence.

  He didn’t want that to happen to a person, even if he was upset.

  “Hold on,” he muttered under his breath, surging forward. His hand lifted, closing around the handle and-

  “Oh, come on!” a woman cried, from the other side of the door. “Let me in! It’s important!”

  Owl froze. He knew that woman.

  He just hadn’t expected Olivia to show up on his doorstep.

  She continued hammering away at his door without pause. She had to have one hell of an arm, the whispers in the back of his mind noted. And her hand had to be on fire.

  “Owl!” Olivia cried, between the knocks. “Owl, open the door! Please! I’m- I’m sorry. Just-”

  She was sorry? A low laugh slipped from his throat, in the same moment that his hand slipped from the handle.

  The door rattled as he released it. He stared, eyes narrowed. Alex. What the hell. Are you trying to-

  “Owl?” Olivia said. The pounding stopped. “You’re there, aren’t you?”

  He swallowed a sigh. So she’d noticed, then. She always had been observant. That was half the damn problem—her observing things she shouldn’t have been.

  “Please,” she said, and a weight hit the other side of the door. Not a fist, this time. He could almost hear her voice change, morphed by her nose pressing into the wood. “Please, Owl. I- I know you’re mad. I know you’re upset. You have every reason to be. I’m sorry.”

  Oh, now she was all apologetic, was she? Owl glared at the door, taking half a step back. That was all fine and dandy. She could have all the regrets she wanted. It wouldn’t make him change how he felt on things. He’d made his decision and-

  “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important,” Olivia said, her voice thin and tight-drawn. “You have to believe that. I...I know you want your space. I get it. I wouldn’t push. So…” Something squeaked against the wood, like fingers hard-pressed to it. “Please. Understand that if I’m here, it’s...it’s important.”

  Owl might as well have been a statue. He stood there, fixed in place. Should he turn and go? Should he stay and listen to what she had to say? Would Alex even let him leave if he decided to?

  “Please,” Olivia whispered. “Please, Owl, let me in. Just for a minute. Let me...Let me tell you what I need to, and I’ll go. I promise. No tricks.”

  She wanted in? Owl snorted derisively, unable to hold the noise back. No. No, she was just trying to pull a hail-Mary attempt to get through the door again. Undoubtedly it was more of Indira’s meddling. She’d sent Olivia to mend bridges, to try and repair the damage that had been done to their relationship.

  No. He didn’t need that. He didn’t need her. He turned on his heel, drawing himself up a little taller. “Goodbye, Olivia,” he said.

  “It’s about James,” Olivia said.

  She couldn’t have startled him more completely if she’d jabbed him with a cattle prod. Owl froze in place, his limbs going rigid.

  It’s about James. She’d said it—he hadn’t misheard. He was quite sure that she’d said the name ‘James’.

  A name that he’d never, ever thought to hear on her lips.

  “And Leon,” she said in a rush. “A-And...uh. Maya.”

  All of them? The world dipped and spun beneath him. How? How did she know? He’d been careful. He’d never let anything slip.

  How had this happened?

  It had to be a bluff. The thought lanced through his mind, burning like a brand. It was a bluff, that was all. A ploy, to get him to confirm their identities. It was-

  He clamped down on the insidious notion. That was nonsense. They already knew the names, so something had clearly happened. This was no bluff.

  Now, he had to decide what to do next.

  And how to keep his friends from getting pulled straight into the middle of this feud.

  “Please,” Olivia whispered from the other side of the door. “Please, Owl. Just-”

  He pulled the door open. Not all the way—he still couldn’t shake the suspicion that she was still trying to pull something over on him. But far enough to peer out, blocking the space with his body. If she wanted to get in, she’d have to get through him.

  She smiled, though, the fog of the Edge roiling behind her. For a moment, Owl was taken aback at how…bad she looked. Her brown hair hung limp and lifeless around her face, tangled with snarls and knots. Her skin was paler than usual, with a dull grey cast to it. “Thank you,” she said. “Really, Owl. I...I know I-”

  “Talk,” he snapped. His hand tightened around the wood of the door. If she was going to try and string this along, he’d end it here. “Now.”

  “There’s not much time,” Olivia said, stepping closer. Every fiber of his being screamed to take a step back, to put more distance between the two of them, but Owl stood his ground. Only the Library was behind him, and damn it, he wouldn’t let her get any closer to Alexandria than she already was.

  Which...how had she even gotten here? And why was she outside the door? Owl lifted his chin, eyeing her sharply. “Why?” he said. “Why the hurry? What’s-”

  “Indira’s coming.”

  For the second time in as many minutes, Owl rocked back on his heels like he’d been slapped. “Excuse me?” he managed.

  Olivia’s lips tightened. “Those names I said before. They mean something to you. Don’t they?”

  Damn it. He could deny it, but...what he said now didn’t really matter. They’d already made the connection. It was too late. “Olivia,
” he snapped instead. “If your business is so important, hurry up and-”

  “They know.” Olivia turned away, lifting her hands to rake through the mess of her hair. “God, Owl. They know. I...we…” She shook her head. “Indira knows there have been other people in the Library. People not part of the guild.”

  “What did you do?” he whispered. “Olivia, what the hell did you-”

  “It wasn’t me,” she said, whirling back to face him. “Or- I wasn’t- She had her suspicions,” she finished lamely. “She knew something was going on. There was too much. Strange stories from guests, about voices deep in the wings. Footsteps. Figures that’d appear and disappear, that didn’t seem there at all. She-”

  Olivia shook her head, licking her lips. She kept tearing at her hair, pressing her hands to her temples. “She wanted me to win you over,” she whispered. “Yeah. It was wrong, and I’m sorry, but...on top of that...Will.”

  “Will?” Owl said, his brow furrowing. “What do you mean-”

  Will. Will, who’d spent his days alone in the study. Who’d always been left behind while Olivia and Owl wandered off for her carefully-orchestrated encounters. Damn it, he’d known Will had been up to something.

  He should have wiped both of them blank before he ever let them leave, his morality be damned. There, with a flickering twinge of unease, he understood for the first time his predecessor’s rationale for erasing his child self.

  “What did Will do.” Even to his own ears, his voice sounded flat. Cold. “Damn it, Olivia, what did you-”

  “He caught a glimpse,” Olivia said, her eyes darkening further. “A look. He saw them.” She drooped. “He was looking, and, well, he found it.”

  A knot settled around Owl’s heart. “And you-”

  “We were just trying to- to help Indira!” Olivia said, her voice rising. “That’s all. I thought, if you were keeping secrets from everyone, then...then fair was fair.”

  “How.”

  She smiled bitterly. “You burned our notes. But…” She raised a hand, waggling her fingers. “We’re artists. Will and I both. We’d been practicing for days. Memorizing the faces he drew.”

  Again, Owl was left staring, his mind in an uproar. They were artists, yes—which was another confirmation that Indira had been very, very intentional with her choices.

  She might not have known what she’d find, but she’d definitely cast her lines looking for something.

  And she’d found Leon, along with the others. Owl took a deep breath. What was he supposed to do now? How was he going to make this okay? “Olivia, I don’t know what to say. How dare the lot of you come here and-”

  “She’s coming,” Olivia said, more insistently. Owl’s mind screeched to a halt again. There it was. Panic, lurking within her gaze. Actual fear. “I told you. She’s coming. I don’t- I don’t know what to do. But maybe- surely you can do something.”

  “Coming?” Owl whispered. “Olivia, what do you mean, she’s coming?”

  “It was just supposed to be...a bit of information,” she said, cringing away again. “We’d figure out the names that these faces matched with. We’d find out more about them. And we’d have that information...just in case.” She bit her lip, her fists balling up at her sides. Behind her, the Edge roiled, dangerously close. “And then she told us we were leaving. We were going to find them, she said.”

  His heart pounded faster. “And, what. Now, you’re coming to me out of the goodness of your heart?”

  “I heard her,” she said, and her voice was so quiet now he almost didn’t hear. “Talking with...with them.”

  “Olivia, I have no idea who you’re talking about.”

  She waved a hand through the air, her eyes downcast. “Them. The old guild.” Her eyes flicked up to meet Owl’s. “She had me pull contact information for...for people the Booklenders haven’t talked to in ages. She found them again. Owl, they’re not nice people.”

  Something else began to scream in the back of his mind. A warning. A whisper that something wasn’t quite right here. Someone else? Someone the guild had contact with?

  “Shit,” he whispered. The pieces were starting to settle into place. The Library was a magical creation. And that meant the people who knew of its existence, who interacted with it, had to have some sort of connection to the magic of the world. No matter how far back that connection went.

  Leon and the others were in more trouble than he’d thought.

  “How soon?” he said, turning back to Olivia sharply.

  Her eyes were starting to mist, though, and she pressed a hand to her face. “I...I love Indira. I do. But...They had guns, Owl. And the things she had me pack...I can’t- I never wanted to hurt people.”

  Owl ground his teeth together. In a single motion, he released the door, lunging forward. She stiffened, her eyes going wide as he grabbed her shoulder. “Olivia, grow the fuck up,” he snapped. “Panic all you want, but do it later. Where are they going?” A tremor wracked his frame. “Who...who are they going after? How long until-”

  “I don’t know,” Olivia whispered. A tear rolled from her eye, cascading down her cheek. “I don’t- I don’t know. Indira just...she was still looking at the map when we left. When we started driving.” She wiped at her face, shaking her head furiously. “I’m...once we started rolling, I took a nap. I thought- I didn’t know, but I figured, Alexandria would hear me. She’d let me in. She’d-”

  “You need to leave,” Owl said.

  Olivia looked up, her eyes still glistening. “W-What?”

  His pulse thundered in his ears. They were already moving. How far away were they? How much of a lead did they have? It didn’t matter, he decided. He’d make it in time. He had to. “I have work to do,” he said. “And you’ve done enough damage. I’ll handle it from here.”

  Somehow.

  She was still staring when he stepped back and slammed the door shut again. He could hear her calling as he turned, stalking from the room. Her words faded out to nothing as the entryway disappeared behind him.

  Faster. His feet flew, carrying him across time-worn wood and plush carpets. His mind was in uproar. How had it come to this? If something went wrong...if they caught him out…

  He didn’t have a choice, though. Even if he’d been willing to abandon them to Indira’s minstrations—which he wasn’t—they’d been in Alexandria for long enough to learn about him. About her, too.

  So many vulnerabilities. So many openings he’d left exposed.

  The door to his quarters opened in a blur. He hurled himself onto his bed, going limp as soon as he hit it. Please, he willed. Please, Alex. Let me out. I need to-

  Like dropping a blanket over his head, like flipping a switch, the world went dark.

  - Chapter Seven -

  Daniel’s eyes snapped open.

  He lay flat, blinking away the last dregs of sleep. They dragged at his mind, refusing to let go. It was like he’d been dragged from the very middle of a dream, the sort that left him feeling dead and heavy.

  And the room was...dark. The windows showed only darkness, peeking out to the night beyond. Daniel stared out through one, still hearing his heart pound in his ears. It was still night. Slowly, his movements sluggish, he rolled onto his side, reaching for his phone.

  Two. It was two in the morning. He stared at the numbers, his brow starting to furrow. Why? Why was he awake? The last time Alexandria had spat him out at an hour like this, he’d awoken to the scream of the smoke detector and a burned-out kitchen appliance. He couldn’t hear anything. He couldn’t smell anything. So why-

  Leon. Daniel sat bolt upright, ice coursing through his veins. In an instant, it all flooded back.

  Indira. Her letters to him.

  Olivia. Pounding on his door. Demanding to see him.

  Her words. And the plan her employer had set into motion.

  His heart thrummed in his chest, beating faster by the second. That was it. That was why Alex had cast him out before his shift wa
s supposed to end. He had to-

  What?

  Still swathed in blankets, Daniel reeled, his fists clenched around the fabric. What the hell was he supposed to do? Leon was in trouble. Because of him. It was his fault—and not just Leon, either. James and Maya would get sucked into the middle of it right along with their friend. All because he’d made such an utter mess of things.

  He shook his head furiously, pressing a hand to his face. No. He refused to let this swamp him. He’d handle it. Think, Daniel. How? How will you-

  The phone. He lunged out of the bed, tripping headlong over himself as the sheets caught at his legs. At the last, he caught himself, digging in the bedstand for the burner phone he knew was there.

  And then he stared at it, clutched in shaking fingers.

  He could still remember that day—the night when he’d passed Leon a slip of paper with his phone number scrawled on it.

  Take it, he’d said. He’d held his arm out, unflinching, until Leon finally took it. And he’d smiled. Just in case.

  Leon had grabbed for a scrap of paper, then, scribbling down his own number. And he’d thrust it right back at Owl.

  He’d tried to argue. He’d tried to say that he didn’t need the protection. He was Owl, after all. Librarian of Alexandria. Master of the fucking fount of human knowledge. What danger could he possibly find himself in that Leon could save him from?

  He’d been an idiot.

  His fingers flew across the phone’s keyboard, calling up the contact list—and the short selection of names waiting there. For a moment, he hesitated, his thumb hovering over the button.

  A phone call. In the outside world. With Leon.

  Even a single day ago, he’d have thought something like this was...an impossibility. Something that would never in a thousand years come to pass.

  But here they were. Before he could lose his will, he jabbed the button, closing his eyes and lifting the phone to his ear.

  It rang. The seconds ticked past.

  It rang again.

  And again.

  “Hey!” a familiar voice said, painfully cheerful.