The Librarian: A Remnants of Magic Novel (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 2) by Casey White (read ebook pdf txt) 📕

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 without 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