It was their fault, not his.
Acid burned in the back of his throat. Owl swallowed hard, shaking his head one last time, and stepped back.
“Give me your notes,” he said. There wasn’t an ounce of softness left to the words.
Will and Olivia froze. They glanced to each other, unmoving.
The irritation in him burned brighter. If they’d been toying with him personally, there was no telling what else they’d been up to while his back was turned. Will had been up to something. Olivia was buying him time, he was sure. He needed to know why. “Now.”
Olivia licked her lips, her face bone-white. “O-Owl, why do you-”
“Did I stutter?” Owl said. Each word seethed with barely-contained frustration. The fire in the hearth dimmed, burning low. The paintings on the walls rattled. The whole room seemed to chill, as though his darkening mood sucked the life out of the Library itself. “Give me your notes. Now.”
Olivia and Will shrank back, drawing closer together - and what little color had remained in their faces bled away as they watched the books in their shelves start to tremble and shake.
Will was the first to break the tension of the moment. He scrabbled at his pocket, pulling out a narrow, leather-bound notepad. “H-Here,” he said, thrusting it toward Owl. “It’s- You can take it. It’s just- It’s my research. Please don’t-”
Owl turned away from him, facing Olivia - who hadn’t moved. He held his empty hand out, still eerily silent. He’d said everything he wanted to.
Slowly, each movement heavy and deliberate, Olivia took out a matching pad, and passed it over to Owl. “I meant it,” she whispered. “All of it. I never wanted to-”
Owl turned away, flipping through the first journal.
What he saw...disappointed him. It was all so mundane. What did you expect? his thoughts screamed. Conspiracy plans? A log of everything they pulled when your back was turned?
That much would’ve been nice. Instead, he was greeted with neatly-ordered lists of what looked like villages, each marked with dates that meant nothing to him. Owl flipped farther in, masking a growl. All he found was more of the same.
The second journal was no better. Owl paused a moment, clutching them in his hands still. Olivia and Will waited before him. Both were all but quivering with anticipation. This was their work, after all. The fragments of data they’d spent their hard-earned time collecting. They wanted it back, naturally - and he hadn’t found anything suspicious.
Owl shook his head again. Just because he didn’t recognize anything as being suspicious didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Maybe they’d written in code. Maybe the two journals were connected, somehow, or the lists meant more than he knew. He couldn’t be sure. Something in him still screamed that they’d done something while his back was turned.
And since the two had already proven where their loyalties lay, he couldn’t trust them. Not anymore.
Crossing the room in two steps, he made up his mind in an instant - and threw both journals into the fire.
Olivia and Will surged forward, their cries echoing about the sitting room. Owl snapped his fingers. The flames exploded, filling the hearth. The journals vanished from sight before they’d made it more than a single step.
“Why would you do that?” Will whispered. “W-What the hell? That was all of my-”
“Get out,” Owl said, still watching the flames dance.
The sitting room went silent. No one moved. It didn’t even sound like they were breathing.
“Owl,” Olivia whispered. “Let me fix this. Let me-”
He didn’t say a word. But he turned his head, glaring over his shoulder at them. She stopped.
Even letting them go was a risk, he realized. It’d be safer to wipe them clean, erase every moment of their visit. There’d be no question, then.
Something flickered at the edge of his vision - an end table, hidden from sight behind one of the room’s overstuffed chairs. A panel had popped up on its surface, revealing a vial beneath.
Owl stepped closer, exhaustion wiping out even the ache that still filled his limbs. Letting one hand glide along the smooth wooden table, he reached for the vial and-
For a moment, the smell of chocolate wafted through the room.
Owl froze, his fingertips resting against the glass. Was this how it’d happened? He remembered this room, certainly. He remembered waking up here, with...with her in front of him. Was this what she did too? he whispered to Alexandria. She didn’t reply.
He stared down at the vial, his thoughts racing. This would be safer. It would eliminate any question, any worry. He’d be safe. Whatever they’d hoped to gain from tormenting him, it’d be wiped clean.
But he’d have done what she did. He’d have followed right in her footsteps.
His fingers traced out the edge of the vial’s top - and then he closed the panel again, lifting his head. Olivia and Will were still watching him, aghast.
Owl pointed toward the exit. At his gesture, the bars rose, retracting into the ceiling. “Go,” was all he said.
Again, the pair hesitated - but when he took a step forward, the lights dimming ominously, they turned.
Reluctantly, they began to walk.
None of them spoke. The only sound to mark their passage was the low padding of their feet against the stone. Owl still simmered, his loathing almost too much to bear. For them, toying with him this way. For himself, letting himself become so vulnerable. For letting himself become so distracted he failed Alexandria.
When he glanced back, casting an eye toward the main hallway behind them, all that showed between the bars of the gate was...nothing. Just a blurred emptiness, a void where his Library should be. He shivered.
He could fix her. He’d put her back together.
Somehow.
It didn’t take long. Before he’d so much as collected himself, they were there, stepping over the threshold into the Library’s entrance. A low, humorless chuckle burst from his throat. Alexandria was alive - and she was expecting
