And then she heard it. Whispers hummed, somewhere deep inside the Library. Her pulse beat harder.Come,they hissed,come to us. Until blood cloaks each step, until bones crumble. Come, little mortal. Come.Emma closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she was deep among the dark alleys of bookcases. She looked around, confused. The prim little night-light of reception had disappeared. Corridors yawned around her like the mouths of caves.
She took a shuddering breath. She was not lost. There was no reason to panic. She had come this way because she had been following something. A sound. Emma wrestled with her memory. It was almost as though someone had been talking to her, although she couldn’t think who, or what they might have been saying.
“Child.” The voice behind her was so sudden, her knees threatened to buckle.
He was there again. The Librarian. Hair standing around his head like a dandelion clock, breathing labored. Emma took a step back.
“You should not be here.” His voice was grave. “Those who wander after dark come to no good.”
“I’m sorry, my friends said to find them—”
“You are with those others?”
So there were others. Relief spread cool fingers through Emma’s chest. Jasper’s text had not been a trick. There was something happening, and he wanted her here. With him.
A knotted hand hovered above her arm. Emma realized the Librarian was trying to guide her down the corridor to her left. “Come. Let us return you to the safe path.”
An odd phrase. Surely all paths were safe. It was only an empty library. The most danger she was in, logically, was from a paper cut. Still, Emma glanced at the darkness over her shoulder. It seemed to have grown thicker, swallowing the nearest bookcases.
Abandoning logic for the moment, Emma broke into a run to catch up with the Librarian. With his steady wheezing beside her, Emma’s pulse settled. She kept within arm’s reach of him, all through the shadowed corridors and galleries.
At last, the Librarian stopped at the foot of a staircase. “You will be safe now. I leave you here. But do not stray again, child.”
Emma felt a tug at her heart as he shuffled into the shadows. The darkness had not seemed so vast with him there. She listened as the creaking breaths faded into silence, wishing she did not feel so desperately alone. There was no sign of anyone else. Not Jasper, not those “others.” She was not even sure she knew the way out.
Slim hands closed around her shoulders. “There you are.”
Emma muffled a shriek. Julia spun her around. “Goodness, you’re as jumpy as I was.”
Jasper appeared behind Julia with a suddenness that made Emma flinch. He was holding the torch of his phone under his chin. The uplighting gave him a ghastly appearance.
“Stop it,” hissed Julia. “Behave.”
Jasper grinned. “The party’s this way. Where’ve you been?”
“I got lost, I think.” The last hour had begun to feel like a dream. It seemed strange now, how little she’d thought to ask the Librarian. What had he been doing here so late? Library staff might have to work at night, she supposed. Archiving, perhaps, or sorting new acquisitions. But he was surely too old, too frail for that? And why had that receptionist denied he worked there at all?
Then Jasper ran a hand down her arm, and the thrill of his touch banished her questions. Letting the Librarian fade from her mind, she twined her hand into his.
“How on earth did you get the front doors open?”
“That’s down to Rich.”
A sturdy figure met them at the staircase, twirling a key ring around his finger. “No problem in the end,” Richard said in a plummy whisper. “Said I wanted to stay late to catalogue some new boxes of Cromwell correspondence.”
“The Library’s Military History Society was founded by Rich’s great-uncle.” Jasper trained the phone light in his friend’s eyes. Richard squinted and batted him away. “So Rich gets prime position as student curator. They’re very… trusting with the keys.”
“That’s because I’m responsible,” Richard said, offering his arm to Emma. Jasper passed him the light instead.
“Lead on, then, prick.”
The room Richard led them to was awash with candles and brimming cups on every surface. Light flickered off embossed spines. Emma recognized most of the people from the last party, lounging against the bookcases, swapping gossip and sips of wine.
Her heart sped. She leaned to whisper in Julia’s ear. “Is this ‘the Society’? The one Imogen—”
Julia’s voice was barely above a breath. “Don’t let anyone hear you say that. Jasper bringing you here is a test. The boys are watching you tonight. No, don’t look around.”
