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

“Well, she’s not actually capturing me,” Daniel said, chuckling. “Before things get ugly, I’ll take off down an escape route. No harm, no foul.”

“We regroup after,” Olivia said. She was nodding along, by then. “With the tracking mage out of the picture, none of them will be able to stop us. We can leave.”

“Right.”

Daniel couldn’t bring himself to look at Leon. He could still feel his face burn under the force of his glare. He just stared straight ahead, watching the miles slip by under their wheels.

“Fine,” Leon muttered at last. “Fine. We’ll try it your way.”

“It’ll be fine,” Daniel said. “It’ll work out. And-”

“But how the hell are we supposed to fight back?” Leon said. “How are we supposed to do this?”

Daniel did glance over, then, starting to grin. “Well, you’re a mage, aren’t you? Figure it out.”

“Oh,” Leon said. He lifted a hand, eyeing his palm. “Right.”

“Um,” Maya said.

They stopped—and Daniel looked up. “Something wrong?”

Maya shook her head. Dark circles were starting to appear beneath her eyes. “N-No. Not really. I just...should we stop, somewhere? Should we-”

“Keep going for now,” Daniel said. “Leon, figure out what you can. Without getting too tired. And James…” He ran a hand through his hair, wrinkling his nose. “Try not to break anything? But, uh.”

“You think I’ve got this magic bullshit too,” James said. “Is that it?”

Daniel was forced to shrug. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s a possibility. I can’t tell for sure-”

“Without going back into Alexandria,” Leon said.

“And we don’t have the time for that,” Daniel said. He leaned back, chewing on his lip. “We can...find somewhere good. Somewhere we’ll be alone.” He yawned. “A-And then...I’ll get us a second car.”

“Thief,” Leon muttered. This time, though, there was no venom in the word.

“We caught them by surprise,” Daniel said. “So we might have a minute. Let’s build the distance we can, and then…” He hesitated, but only sighed. “And then we’ll be the ones to make the next move.”

He glanced around as silence fell over the car, letting his gaze drift from face to face. All of them only nodded—some stoic, some resigned, but...there was agreement.

It would have to do for now. Soon, he’d have to act again.

But until then, he could think.

* * * * *

Daniel’s eyes slid open again.

He could see Leon’s fingers were moving back and forth at the edge of his vision. James was gazing down at his hammer, contemplative.

Good. Just like he left them. Leaning back, Daniel stared at the ceiling.

And tried to find a way out of their nightmare.

“How did I do it?”

At Leon’s hushed murmur, Daniel raised his head—and jerked away, stiffening, when he realized his temple had been laid against Olivia’s shoulder.

He hadn’t wanted to sleep. He really hadn’t wanted to sleep, not when sleeping meant going back to Alexandria for God only knew how long. He needed to keep his mind in the game, not take a literary vacation for a year.

Somehow, though, he’d wound up dozing off, floating in the space between wakefulness and the Library. Alex hadn’t pulled him in, though. He smiled, shaking his head to clear the last fragments of sleep, and glanced over. “W’ssat?”

Leon held something smooth and narrow between his fingers. A credit card, it looked like. His brow was furrowed, his lips pursed in concentration.

“I gave it to him,” Olivia said. She pointedly wasn’t looking at him, although he saw her flex her arm gently now that his head had been lifted. “He’s-”

“Trying to figure out how the hell this works,” Leon muttered. “I...I did something, didn’t I? Back there? I wasn’t just imagining it?”

“Not unless we were all having a shared hallucination,” Daniel said dryly. “You-”

“I made that tree stop,” Leon said. “Just like that. So-”

He tossed the credit card up into the air, catching it—and just as quickly, tossed it again. With each iteration, his fingers tensed. “Why- isn’t it- working?” he hissed.

“H-Hey,” Daniel said, masking a yawn. “Maybe-”

“I’ve got to figure this out,” Leon said. He deflated, letting the card sink back to his palm. “If we’re going to have any shot of this, I need to make this work.”

“Stop freaking out, then,” James said from the front seat.

Leon glared up toward him, leaning over half-onto Olivia to get a better angle. “That’s not helpful.”

The low rumble of him chuckling drifted back from the front. “Didn’t really mean for it to be.”

Maya backhanded the side of his leg. He stilled, but kept laughing.

“M-Maybe,” Daniel began, but stopped, banishing the last of his yawn. “Maybe you’re going into this a bit hard. If you can freeze things...maybe you shouldn’t start by, y’know. Throwing them.”

“Maybe,” Leon mumbled. “I just- I don’t know how to-”

“Hold the image in your mind,” Daniel said. It’s just like in the Library, he wanted to say. It’s just like I taught you when I showed you magic.

But Olivia was sitting right there between them, and even if she was pointedly looking anywhere but at him, she was close enough to catch anything he might say. She’d helped them. That didn’t mean he trusted her with secrets like that.

“Visualize it,” was all Daniel said, smiling faintly. For a moment, a tuft of mouse-brown hair waved at the edge of his vision. A woman smiled down at him, her face blurred by the years.

Leon blinked—and nodded slowly. A twinkle shone in his eyes, all new. “Okay,” he whispered. “Like that, you think?”

Daniel swallowed. Damn it, Leon. But Olivia hadn’t so much as moved. Ever so slightly, he inclined his head.

Raising his hand, Leon stared at the credit card, chewing on his lip. His brow furrowed again, more deeply than before. “So...if I’m going to stop this thing, then…”

Still gnawing at his lip, he moved his hand back and forth. Daniel waited, not daring to speak. Better not to distract him.

Eyes narrowed to slits and his face starting to turn red as a cherry, Leon lowered his hand.

This time, the credit card rocked once—and