The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1) by Casey White (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📕

 It'd be kind of like letting Alexandria show off, wouldn't it?  Except instead of showing him her good side, she’d be showing him exactly how nasty she could get.

"He'd probably shit himself if he saw it.  He'd have nightmares."

"Yeah," Owl said.  "Probably."

"I'll drag him along anyway," Leon said.  "He'd have fun.  And he's getting murdered in physics."

"I think I can manage that."

"Yeah.  I bet you can," Leon said, grinning.  "Oh, I should..." He hesitated, glancing to Owl.  "There's another girl in my class.  A study partner.  Uh.  She saw the journals, too, she just didn't come with.  And she's got some questions with electromagnetics.  Um.  I was wondering...do you think Alexandria might let her slip in, too?"

Owl's headache surged back to life in full.  He stiffened, the slackness fleeing his limbs.  "Leon...I know she's a friend, but...I don't think..."  He swallowed.  "I don't want more people here than necessary.  It's not safe.  She might be a friend, but-"

"I get it," Leon said.  "Sorry.  I didn't mean to- I shouldn't have assumed.  Sorry."

"You didn't- I'm not upset.  I just-"

"No, you're right," Leon said.  "It was stupid.  I just-"

He gasped, and Owl flinched.  His eyes snapped back to Leon.

Out from under the edge of his hood, he watched a dull glow take root in Leon's skin, faint at first but growing stronger.  "Oh," he whispered.

"Guess that's it," Leon said, shooting Owl a grin.  "Your girl is sending me home."

"I'm sorry," Owl said, a moment of horror flashing through his mind.  "Your exam.  I didn't- We never-"

"You can make it up to me next time," Leon said.  "Me and James both.  Deal?"

Owl smiled, leaning forward.  "Yeah.  Deal.  Thank you.  For staying."

"No big," Leon said, his grin widening.  "You looked so damn pathetic, I couldn't just leave.  What kind of friend would I be to run off and-"

The glimmers of light flared like a sun underneath Leon's skin.  Owl threw a hand up, shying back.

When it faded, the other seat was empty.

Owl lingered a moment longer, letting the last notes of Leon's voice fade from the air.

And then, slowly, he pushed himself upright and trudged toward his quarters.

* * * * *

"We are so, so sorry."

Owl stood in the entryway, eyeing the two scholars.  They stood, the doorway arrayed behind them with their bags in a heap.  The worst of Alan's wounds had faded in the night, much to Owl's relief.  It was Dylan who spoke, his hands clutching at the hem of his shirt.  The man looked like nothing so much as a schoolchild caught misbehaving.

He smiled thinly.  "It's all right," he said.  "You're both safe.  That's what matters, in the end."

"But we-"

"I apologize for the mess we've made, Librarian," Alan said quietly.  The man had hardly said a word since Owl guided them into the entrance a few short minutes prior.  They hadn't argued, at least, which made the whole thing substantially less painful than it could have been.  He still wore a few of the white bandages Owl had wrapped about him the night before, poking out from underneath his shirt.  "It was...never my intention.  I just wanted to learn."

"I understand," Owl said.  "Really."  How many times was he going to have to explain this?

He knew, though.  The two had blown their chance.  It didn't matter what punishment he tried to exact on them.  Their own minds would serve up something far worse, if they remembered enough to know what wrongs they'd done.

"I can't believe we did that," Dylan mumbled, deflating further.

Owl sighed, shifting from foot to foot.  When he didn't reply further, the two seemed to understand that they weren't going to get another response.  Slowly, reluctantly, they turned toward the door.

The light of the outside grew as it opened, swallowing them whole.  Owl rocked back on his heels, squinting his eyes closed against the brilliance.

Freedom.  He'd gotten rid of them, without them realizing the truth of the magic they'd played with.  It was a small victory, but he'd take what he could get.

The light faded, and Owl slumped like a puppet whose strings had been cut.  They were gone.  The Library was empty again.

Maybe now, he could leave.  Maybe he could actually taste freedom again.

He turned on his heel, striding back toward his domain.

With the ache of the magic he'd used still rumbling through his limbs, his skull, he couldn't help wondering if that freedom was worth the struggle.

- Chapter Twenty-Six -

The smell of coffee wafted through the kitchen.

Daniel leaned back against his counter, his eyes fixed to the steadily-bubbling carafe of brown.  Light streamed through the windows, warm and bright.  He'd slept too late.  Or, rather, he'd woken up early enough - he'd simply stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours.

It was a waste of time, his senses screamed.  But his thoughts churned as turbulently as the coffee dripping into the pot, and somehow, laying there had felt like the right thing to do.

The coffeepot was still screaming its first strident cheep when he swiped the carafe free, pouring a cup.  It clanged back onto the hot plate.  He turned for the back door, hardly seeing the rooms around him.

A shiver rippled across his skin as he stepped outside, carried on a thin whisper of a breeze.  Summer would be over soon, he knew.  Another year, down.  And him still without any sense of direction.  The sourness of his mood deepened.

His house bordered a forest, one owned by a party disinterested enough that it'd been left untouched.  He drifted down the narrow trail he'd long since beat into the dirt, leaving the sunlight behind.

A picnic table waited, just inside the treeline.  Daniel lowered himself onto one of its benches.  A drop of coffee sloshed onto the wooden surface.

He'd already looked away, though, lifting his chin until a scrap of blue sky shone from between the green-brown leaves.  His hands wrapped about the mug, though, savoring the warmth it offered.

Alexandria had let him go early.  He smiled faintly.  That was unusual - although,