by Casey White
“I wasn’t finished.”
Daniel stopped. Olivia had half-turned back to face him, eyes unreadable. “There was someone else,” she said quietly. “Another man. I don’t think they knew him very well. I don’t think he was part of their group.”
Leon snorted. “What, did they hire him special?”
The door to the bathroom creaked, just a little. Daniel looked up, spying James peering through the crack. When their eyes met, James pulled back—and the door clicked shut again. Daniel smothered a laugh. It’s not quite safe to come out yet. Stay hidden.
“I think they did,” Olivia said. “The others…” She licked her lips, her expression turning intense. “They weren’t exactly open, but I could figure out who they were. They’d at least talk to me. This guy?” She shook her head once, short and sharp. “He was all clammed up. Wouldn’t let even a peep slip out.”
“Helpful,” Leon muttered.
“But...he seemed important, and they wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t. They seemed to think he could lead them to us. To...To you.”
The feeling of eyes on his face burned across Daniel’s skin. Olivia was staring at him, wordless again.
Daniel only nodded. He didn’t even have to ask who she was talking about—he could still see that man, crouched in the grass. Glowering at him. “I think they have a tracker,” he said softly. “It’s probably the same guy. They shot me in the leg, after all. They weren’t exactly aiming to kill me, just…slow me down.” He swallowed. “And that guy was messing with my blood. Afterward.”
Leon stiffened, sitting up taller. “Wait. So you think he-”
“We drove for hours,” Olivia said. “They’d have been way behind us. There’s no way they-”
“I know,” Daniel said, raising a hand. “I know it’s improbable. But...we shouldn’t stay here too long. Just in case.”
Olivia fell back into a heap, collapsing onto one of the no-doubt infested chairs lining the edge of the room. “I guess,” she mumbled.
For a moment, silence reigned over the motel room. Daniel sat back, trying not to look as Leon finished tucking away scraps of cloth. Finally, with a last touch, Leon moved away.
And little by little, that silence grew oppressive.
“Where does this end?” Daniel heard Olivia whisper, once the quiet had dragged on long enough to be intolerable. “How do- How am I supposed to fix this?”
“You don’t,” he said, but it was weariness in his voice, not anger. “I don’t know that we can fix this, Olivia.”
“I-I refuse to accept that.”
“I can’t let them leave,” he said. Each word carried with it enough weight to shut Olivia up. “They know too much. They might’ve seen my face. Hell, they might already know my name. And…” He glanced to the side, to where he could still see James trying to not-so-subtly watch.
“I-I could convince them to stop,” Olivia said. “Destroy the information about your friends. T-They could leave, and go somewhere new, where Indira can’t-”
“I can’t risk it.” His heart pounded in his chest, harder and harder with every second that slipped past. Because he already knew where this was going. Where it had to go.
Allow no harm to come to those who walk these halls.
“I can’t let them leave,” Daniel said heavily. “Not Indira, not Rickard, and not their mages. None of them can be allowed to escape with knowledge like this. It would put all future Librarians in jeopardy.”
“So you’re going to kill them?” Olivia said, her voice tiny. “Is that your answer?”
Not a soul moved in that room. Not a soul breathed.
Finally, Daniel sighed. “I don’t know another way.”
“But- We could-”
“Olivia.” Daniel watched as she stiffened, going still. He smiled faintly. “They attacked us,” he said, as quietly as her. “They attacked innocents. They attacked me. The instant they called those mages, they locked us into this fight.”
“But surely we can-”
“And the instant you called me, you declared what side you were on.” He watched her face carefully, taking it all in. The way she flinched at his words. The desolate sadness lurking behind her eyes. “Not to be clichéd, but at this stage, it’s us or them. You picked your side. Do you intend on sticking to it?”
He counted down the seconds silently, watching the last of the color drain from her face. “Or do we have another problem?” he said, keeping himself motionless.
She turned in a whirl of hair, her expression stony. “No,” she said. “I understand. I won’t- I can’t argue. I won’t stop you.”
She reached for the door, but Leon made an irritated noise. “You shouldn’t go outside. We need to lay low until-”
“I get it,” she growled, spinning back with her hands upraised. “I’ll just be here, then. In the corner.”
She sat with a final, protesting moan, burying her face in her knees.
A hand closed around Daniel’s. He jumped.
“Doing okay?” Leon said. He wasn’t whispering, but his voice was low enough not to carry.
Daniel smiled thinly, but nodded. “I’ll live.”
“And the leg?” Leon cast another glance toward the bandage. “Is it-”
“It’s not going to fall off anytime soon.”
A smile creased Leon’s face. “H-Hey. Good. Just what I was afraid of.”
“If you were so worried, you could’ve magicked it better,” Daniel said, arching an eyebrow. “Since you’re the big, tough mage, now.”
Leon laughed, but the amusement in it was painfully brief. “I guess,” he mumbled.
“I...take it that means you haven’t figured anything out?” Daniel said. He didn’t really want to press Leon on it—he could tell his friend was probably more than a little sensitive on the matter right then—but if things had changed, he needed to know that.
Because one way or another, he was getting them out of this. All of them. Somewhere in the middle of Olivia’s rambling explanation, that fact had turned to concrete in his mind.
In his whole life, this was the first thing he’d built for himself, free of pretenses or obligations as the Librarian. This was his. And he’d be damned if he let Indira and this Madis bastard take it away.
“I’ve been trying,” Leon said, pulling Daniel back to the present. He waved a hand toward Daniel’s leg, his other creeping to where the pipe poked from his belt. “I keep...I don’t know. I want to heal this. If I’m magic, surely I can help somehow. I keep trying, like you showed me. Back in Alex.”
“Not getting anywhere?” Daniel asked, keeping his tone light.
Leon chuckled. His shoulders slumped lower. “All I’m getting is a damn headache.”
“Gotcha. Well, don’t push it too hard. We can try-”
An electronic screech split the air. Daniel stopped mid-sentence, blinking.
A ringtone. But...whose?
Olivia scrambled to her feet, her face ashen and her face downturned toward the phone clutched in her hands. “U-Uh,” she said. “U-Um, I t-think maybe-”
“Who is it?” Daniel snapped, sitting upright.
“It’s Indira.”
The words were enough to bring everyone up short. Leon’s hand closed around Daniel’s, tight enough to bruise.
Should they answer—or let it go to voicemail? If they answered, Indira might be able to use the connection somehow. There was no doubt in Daniel’s mind that she’d have ulterior motives in calling them.
But if they ignored her message, they might miss out on the opportunity to gather information. And now, with Daniel gunshot and their resources increasingly strained, they didn’t have a lot of wiggle room for missed opportunities.
His eyes met Olivia’s. For a moment, they stared at each other, mirror images of exhausted worry.
“Answer,” he said at last, with the ringtone still echoing through the room. “But keep it short.”
She flipped the phone open witho
ut another second of hesitation, pressing it to her ear. “Guildmaster,” she whispered.
The voice that came through the speaker was too quiet and too distorted for Daniel to make out, but only spoke a few words. Olivia froze, her eyes going wide.
And then she held the phone toward him.
“It’s for you.”
* * * * *
- Chapter Twenty- Three -
Daniel stared at the phone. His nerves sang, screaming for him to run. To grab the phone and hang up the call. To get out now, before the next thing went wrong.
It’s not surprising, he told himself. Indira would know Olivia defected by now. She’d know Olivia is here, with me.
But even still...a call with Indira wasn’t something he’d been prepared for.
Leon’s hand tightened around his. But Daniel eased back, extricating himself—and rose, wincing. His leg throbbed beneath him. They’d done their job well, though. He could walk. Mostly.
One limping step at a time, he shuffled across the motel room. Olivia’s eyes never left his face, her skin ashen. For a moment when he took the phone, their fingers met.
He turned away, leaning heavily on the bed, and pressed it to his ear.
What the hell did he say? How was he supposed to start this conversation? He hadn’t had the words when Olivia had called him, back at his house, and he didn’t have the words now—but he felt like he had to say something, lest he let Indira run this farce on her own terms.
And so he settled for mimicking Olivia. “...Guildmaster.”
“Librarian,” Indira said. He’d heard her speak many times before, if he stretched his memory, sounding everything from annoyed to ecstatic. He’d never quite heard her sound so defeated before.
He waited. His leg wobbled, on the verge of giving out, but he gritted his teeth and held.
The empty air stretched out longer than he’d thought it would. At last, Indira took a breath.
“It’s not too late,” she said, her voice hushed. Withdrawn. As though she was holding back tears. “I didn’t want it to come to this. I wanted...It doesn’t matter anymore.” Her words dipped on the last, growing quieter. “This is where we’re at. But we don’t have to stay here. Cooperate. Please. If you’ll see me, hear me out, we can-”
“Cooperate?” Daniel snapped. His fingers clenched around the phone. “We’re a bit beyond that, guildmaster. You want me to give up and come meekly along?”
He laughed hollowly, shaking his head. His leg wasn’t hurting anymore—or he couldn’t feel it, with adrenaline pumping through his veins. His hands quivered. “You involved innocents, Indira. How dare you?”
“I did only what-”
“You worked as guildmaster for the good of all. That was your job.” Daniel’s teeth locked together, his jaw tense as images flashed through his mind. Of a blonde man, and a young woman beside him, her eyes filled with tears. Her. “You were here to help people learn.”
“Yes, and-”
“But from the goddamn minute I started working with you, it’s been nothing but one lie after another. And now you’re hurting people? It’s all games.” Daniel sucked down a lungful of air, forcing himself to pause for a moment. To settle. “Alexandria is not your pawn. And for you to attack others? To threaten their lives for your own gain?”
The line went very, very quiet. The others were all staring at him, as silent as the phone. Leon’s eyes were round, his face white. Daniel waited, his own eyes narrowed, until at last Indira spoke.
“What I have done, I do for my guild,” she said, but there was no real strength to the statement. “For their sake, I-”
“Bullshit,” he snapped, his rage flaring again in an instant. “Another lie, Indira? Just like that? You attacked people, people who have nothing to do with you, for yourself. For your own damn gain. And now-”
The speaker screeched, grating as though something was rubbing against the microphone. Daniel winced, yanking it away for a moment, but hesitated. Something was still coming through, too soft to make out. Voices—that didn’t belong to Indira.
“Good evening,” a man said, and his words came through all too clearly. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think it’s best you and I talk directly, now.”
A younger voice, almost as young as Daniel himself—and with a faint European accent. Russian? Finnish? He couldn’t quite tell, not from that, but it gave him all the tools he’d need to make an educated guess.
“Rickard.”
“Ah,” the man said with a laugh. “You know my name, already? You are quite well informed.”
“It’s my job,” Daniel hissed.
“Just so. Indeed. You are correct, my friend. And I suppose you must be Owl, then?”
A chuckle burst from Daniel’s throat. “You’re pretty well informed yourself.”
“My colleague has...filled me in.” Rickard paused, as though mulling something over. Daniel waited, glancing around the room. James and Maya had slipped from the bathroom at last, watching him with growing confusion. Leon scurried over to them, whispering something he couldn’t hear. “There are things I don’t know yet, of course.”
Daniel blinked, coming back to reality, and scowled. “Google it.”
“Hilarious,” Rickard said, and for a moment, he almost sounded like he meant it. “But unhelpful, I’m afraid. I’d like to know more about you, you see.”
“I’m sure you would.”
“Calling you ‘Owl’ is so...cold. So formal. Surely, there’s something else-”
“Go to hell.”
His pulse thundered in his ears, almost deafening, but he heard Rickard sigh. The sound shifted, drawing away, as though he was pinching the bridge of his nose. “I understand,” Rickard said. “I can only imagine the strain you’re under right now, Librarian. And I apologize for putting you in this position.”
Daniel chuckled again, sinking to the foot of the bed. From the corners of his vision, he could see Leon and Olivia drawing closer again. He couldn’t blame them for wanting to eavesdrop, not now. “Bet you’re not sorry enough to leave us alone, though.”
“Your friend Indira did say you were wise.”
“She’s not my friend.”
“This is a difficult time, Librarian,” Rickard said, and the tone of his voice had changed. There was still a light, cheerful tenor to it, but it hardened. “As I’ve said. I do understand the difficult situation you are in.”
“Then-”
“But you are a very important person, as I’m sure you’re aware. This is not something that can be so easily put aside.” Again, Rickard paused. “There is...a choice before you.”
Not one he would like, probably. “Go on.”
“Option one,” Rickard said, the cheer returning to his words. “You allow us to meet you. We provide medical treatment for your wound. Your friends will be allowed to leave in peace.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “And?”
“And you return with my colleagues and I as...a partner, of sorts.”
He couldn’t help but scoff at that. “A prisoner.”
“Librarian,” Rickard sighed. “It does not have to be so. Your actions have put me in a difficult position, you see. You have killed men I’m responsible for.”
“They were trying to kill me.”
“They were not.” That steel returned in the blink of an eye. “They were merely-”
“I’m sorry,” Daniel snapped. “I should’ve realized those were friendly bullets.”
“You are making this difficult,” Rickard mumbled. “Why must this be difficult?”
“Go to-”
“You have put me in a position where you cannot be fully trusted,” Rickard said, slowly. As though he was explaining to a child. “But we can be civilized. You would be afforded a measure of independence, and your stay with us would be of the utmost comfort.”
“Right,” Daniel muttered. “It sounds lovely.”
“There is also option two,” Rickard said. “You will
find it substantially less comfortable.”
The flames of Daniel’s anger were starting to ebb, fading with every word Rickard spoke. It flared back to life in an instant. “I don’t appreciate threats.”
“If you continue in this fight, we will find you,” Rickard said. He hardly seemed to notice Daniel had spoken. “It seems your focus’s magic is...limited. You do not have the tools to evade us.”
“Try me.” Daniel glanced to the others, though. It was true—he didn’t have any of the powers these mages seemed to, and even if Leon had gained magic of his own, it didn’t do a damn thing for them if he didn’t know how to use it.
“I am not saying it to brag, Librarian,” Rickard said, and now, he just sounded sad. “It is inevitable.”
“Then-”
“We will find you, and your friends will die,” Rickard said. “I don’t wish it on them, but we can’t afford threats. And then you will return with us, as before, however unwillingly. And you will no longer be entitled to our goodwill on the matter.”
Daniel sucked in a breath, ready to reply, but forced himself to stop. Snapping back in the heat of the moment didn’t help anyone. Not his friends, and not himself.
“Your options suck,” he said at last. He couldn’t agree to either of Rickard’s offers. He was the Librarian. His predecessors were already rolling in their graves at the mess he’d made of this—if he turned himself over to mages willingly, he wouldn’t put it past them to reach out of the grave and throttle him where he stood.
No. He owed it to their memories to keep the secrets. He owed it to Alexandria.
Do you? The thought was a tiny, traitorous whisper, lurking in the back of his mind where fear rose hot and fast. Why? You didn’t agree to this. She’s only used you, just like the rest of them.
Unbidden, his eyes flicked over to Leon. To him, and James, and Maya.
If he kept this up, if he fought for Alexandria to the end, it wouldn’t just be him paying the price. His friends would suffer alongside him. They could die.
Alexandria is responsible for them being here. She put them in harm’s way. Let her take the responsibility now, before-