My name is Kasira Vitalis—truth.
I am a thief—truth.
Only once her breathing finally calmed did she realize where she was sitting. The chair hadn’t been there previously, nor had the room been large enough to accommodate it. Seeking a task to channel her nervous energy, she measured the distance between the foot of the bed and the opposite wall and found it wider than it had been when she left that morning.
The room had changed.
Just like the door in Allaster’s office had appeared to let her out and the hallway in the catacombs had moved. Allaster wasn’t the only one with spatial abilities—the Library had its own magic, and it wasawareof her.
The question was, did it see her as friend, or foe?
CHAPTER 9
ALLASTER
ALLASTER SAWNYELLE BACK TO THE PORTAL ROOM AND THROUGHthe Kalish door before returning to his office, their conversation permeating his thoughts. For months now, he had been attending meetings at the royal court to discuss the increasing natural disasters taking place across the continent, and for just as long, the Kalish had been neatly sidestepping everything he said.
When he pointed out that the highest concentration of disasters was occurring in Kalthos, the Paratal claimed it was a test of the Kalish people’s dedication to Haidra’s light and blamed the greater population of beasts. When Allaster tried to explain the necessity of beasts to maintain the balance of magic, the Paratal twisted his words to mean the existence of sin was necessary for the existence of magic, before suggesting both should be excised.
Never mind that the balance of magic was the only thing sustaining the world’s ecosystems. If the beasts were culled, the natural world would descend into chaos. The trouble was, Allaster couldn’t prove it. Evenhedidn’t fully understand the relationship between beasts and the magical balance. Only that with each beast’s death, it grew more unstable, and these disasters were the result.
He found May in the kitchen, where she often went to work out stress on unsuspecting balls of dough. She wore an apron over her uniform, the long sleeves pushed up above her elbows and herforearms dusted in flour as she worked a particularly large batch of dough against the wooden counter.
“So?” he asked, leaning against the edge.
Her dark gaze flicked toward him out of the corners of her eyes, no doubt considering what to tell him of her time with Eirlana. He’d been certain that when May had come to get him it was merely an excuse to introduce herself to the new Assistant, and sure enough, he’d sensed them together through the magic before leaving for Kalthos.
“I gave her a tour,” May said eventually. When Allaster only frowned, she added, “I wanted to spend some time with her myself, since you refuse to do it. For what it’s worth, she’s curious about this place, though trying very hard not to be.”
“I’m sure she is. How else is she to find anything to report back to Vera?”
May drove her fist into the dough with particular force. “You were supposed to give her a chance.”
“I gave her one, and she only proved me right.” Allaster fidgeted with an escaped piece of dried dough, thinking of the way Eirlana had wielded her staff. It had not been in the half-hearted, artful manner Kalish nobles twirled them about, but hard-hitting and defiant. If he weren’t certain she was here to ruin everything he held dear, he might have been impressed.
But whoever Eirlana Corynth was, she had the skill of a warrior and a very particular knowledge of beasts. The test questions she had gotten right had been things like adaptations, migration tendencies, and herd dynamics, but nothing of diet, grooming habits, or habitat. Hers was the knowledge of someone who had grown up being taught a beast’s weaknesses, its dangers, and none of its magic.
Yet he’d seen that curiosity himself. Not just with Benlo that morning, but the day before when she had entered the main library and taken in the rows of books like a starving woman at a grand supper. It had been only for a moment, but he’d seen a yearning in her green eyes that called to his own, one he’d caught himself wanting to explore.
In another situation, another lifetime, maybe he could have. Hecould have taken his time getting to know her, shearing through the layers of indoctrination that had been heaped upon her, and shown her the truth of magic. The wonder. But there was too much at stake for him to risk that, too many lives, and there was a part of him, far larger than he wanted to admit, that barely remembered that truth himself.
May’s expression softened, and it was almost worse than her disappointment, because he knew what was coming next. She left the dough to rest as she faced him. “Is this about Mora, Allaster?”
A year later, and the previous Librarian’s name still tore a hole through his heart. The rest of the Library had moved on, Mora’s death just another in an ancient line, but Allaster could never do the same. Her loss would haunt him for a thousand lifetimes.
It was, after all, his fault.
May’s fingers curled into her apron. Perhaps not everyone had moved on. She and Mora had been close, closer than most, and there had been a time when Allaster had thought their relationship might even become something more. Then May had met her wife, and that door had closed. But there had always been a part of her that loved Mora, a part that was clearly still as raw as he was.
“I can’t imagine what you’re feeling,” May began, the words clearly difficult for her to say. “I don’t imagine anyone ever could. It’s a miracle you get up every day, Allaster. Don’t think I don’t know that. But the Library needs you now more than ever, and it needs Eirlana too. If there is even a sliver of hope that she isn’t what you think—”
“Then I have to take it.” Allaster scrubbed a hand along his jaw, his exhaustion threatening to whittle him down to scraps. He didn’t know if he had it in him to put up a fight against someone like Eirlana. There was something magnetic about her, about the way her green gaze settled on him so fully, that left him disquieted.
He sighed heavily. “Just let me do it my way, okay? I have time enough for that.”
The look in May’s dark eyes betrayed her worry, and something deeper. Something she wasn’t telling him, that she’d refused to tell him for some time, despite his asking. Still, he very nearly did again,well aware that he was not the only one who carried the weight of the Library about their shoulders.
He owed May more than he could put into words, so instead, he fished something from his pocket, proffering it to her. May’s face lit up at the sight of the gold foil-wrapped package, and she reached for it before remembering her dough-encrusted hands. “Is that what I think it is?”
