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
