There’d been so much change in the Library over the last several weeks. From new branches opening, to new supervisors and delegations. It extended through to the problems they’d encountered and sought to fix, like requiring new staff or fixing the filtration system, retrieving restricted section books and boosting the Library’s power levels.

  All of this meant more foot traffic passing through the Library on a very consistent basis. Just regular patrons, but also allies, visitors, and all the new staff.

  Quinn’s gut twisted. She felt, knew... there was something she’d not thought to reason, though. But she wasn’t sure what it was.

  She closed her eyes and pushed her senses through her connection with the entire Library - to every nook and cranny. From where the power pulsed evenly through the check-in desk, to the way ambient magic trickled consistently from all the visitors... all of it whispered power if one listened close enough. The filtration chamber, the core, the culinary, alchemical, and combat branches... all of them sent a steady hum right through the body of the Library, reinvigorating it and bringing it back to life.

  Except there was one, small blip on that radar. One tiny little thing that seemed like a black mark.

  And she should have known. On some level, anyway.

  Where Jasper had left the ritual circle in place for future location spells, was a hum of ever so slightly wrong.

  “What happens if a tracker spell is set and left in place and then the caster dies?” She asked, very softly.

  Malakai blinked at her and opened his mouth as if to reply, when the Library answered instead.

  A tracking spell requires a medium to attach to. There was a pause, and then the air around Quinn warped briefly until she stood precisely at the door of the tracking chamber.

  Quinn’s stomach roiled, and she had to fight down the urge to wretch. They’d talk about that whole warping her here thing later when her intestines weren’t trying desperately to escape through her throat. The runes and magic were alive all around her. They glowed, ever so faintly, as if they were feeding off something when nothing was supposed to be feeding it because they weren’t currently trying to find anything at all. And that was just it.

  “Why is it glowing?” The thing was, though, that Quinn knew why it was glowing without actually having found the knowledge somewhere to back up her very specific gut feeling. She just knew.

  This is an active summoning circle. It was left dormant to be triggered to a specific location that would bring it fully online again.

  “Yes, I know this.” Quinn had to grind out the words, because she just needed someone to confirm that what she feared was actually true and since the Library was the only one in this chamber, she’d have to wait on it.

  Let me process. The Library snapped this time. As if this was all just a bit too much to process. And Quinn couldn’t blame it. Because right then it really felt like it was. It’s being fed from an outside force now. It’s trying to track the Library.

  Quinn didn’t have time to allow herself a reaction. Because really, it was probably about right for her to shrug and just accept their fate, but instead, she tried to remember just what it was Jasper had done when she created the thing. And the supplies she’d created it with...

  She looked around, walking over to the box of supplies. Frowning, she crouched down, rifling through. Finally she found one of the strange chalk like permanent markers. The only thing she could think of. Reaching over, Quinn drew a long, distinct line through one of the runes.

  The light sustaining the show puttered and extinguished.

  Quinn sighed with relief.

  That was one way to do it.

  “You didn’t help.” She shot back at the Library.

  I’m not criticizing, I just would have liked to keep the circle, but that apparently wasn’t possible.

  There were so many questions running around in Quinn’s head that she could barely form coherent thought. She could hardly figure out just what she even needed to ask. Or maybe it was easier to convince herself of that because she was scared to. “Did they... was her death deliberate, then?”

  The Library didn’t say anything immediately. Perhaps it didn’t know, or didn't have enough data to draw a sample conclusion on. Something probably very sciencey or universal.

  Suddenly, Lynx was next to her. “Felt the power fade, and only just realized it shouldn’t have been powered up as it was.” The Library must have needed all its concentration for something, which meant Lynx was definitely the next best thing.

  “When did it start? Did they get to this before she died?” Quinn had to know, even though she was fairly sure she already did.

  There was a slight hesitation before Lynx responded. “No. I don’t think it’s been going for long. I’d have to double check, but a day or so...”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “How?” Quinn needed to know how they’d ever managed to do it, but even though she was playing at not knowing, she really did. It didn’t take a genius to understand what had happened.

  “A type of bound blood magic.” Lynx offered no comfort with his answer at all.

  Not that she’d really expected it. “So they killed her and took her blood and connected into the wards that way?” She needed to be clear. Jasper had actually been a friend. She’d helped delegate some of the more onerous tasks when Quinn first got overwhelmed. This was very personal.

  “I would think that likely. Having her blood and randomly figuring out that it opens a tracking ritual circle inside the Library...that seems a little too coincidental to me.” Lynx didn’t crack a smile. There was no word in that with humor.

  Quinn liked to think Jasper got under everyone’s skin. Like an itch no one could make go away. “How would they have known we launched a tracker for those books?”

  Lynx shrugged. “There are any number of different combinations of affinities. Using several together, as you’re aware, is not unheard of, but frankly... they would have had to. Hmm.” His eyes flickered, bleeding through multiple purple variants before settling finally on his usual again.

  “One of the most comment ways to seek something is to know the name of it. In that case, it’s now difficult to assume they may have put a trace on the names of the books. So that if anyone was looking specifically for those books that whoever had set the alarm on them would be notified of the activity.” Lynx refused to meet her eyes.

  “So when we went to get it, they knew?” Quinn asked, her heart in her throat.

  But Lynx just grimaced. “Not precisely. They knew the book was getting tracked, but not necessarily where it was. Because the trace they set up would only have triggered based on the name. Probably took some nifty combination spell work to figure out where the trace came from, and then to narrow it down when they were fighting us.”

  “I should have kept her shielded. I thought I had...” Quinn couldn’t believe it. She’d not reinforced Jasper’s shielding before they left, because she’d been protected in the corner the whole time. But if the enemy had known to look for her magical signature, then they’d planned to kill her all along?

  Was that it? She shook her head. Surely that couldn’t have been it.

  “I can practically read your mind,” Lynx’s tone was soft, commiserating.

  “Yeah.” Quinn fought with the anger she needed to push down. It wasn’t going to help her solve anything. Especially since she realized now, she probably shouldn’t have tried to stop the glowing before she understood if they could have reverse traced where the new trace was coming from. And that was just a nightmare of words.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “She would have been the first one to tell you to breathe.” Lynx had moved closer. “You can’t change what happened.”

  Quinn wanted to snap back that, of course she bloody couldn’t. But there was a part of her that knew he was right. “I know. But I can find them and make them pay.”

  “Truth.”

  “Can we reverse engineer the trace now?” Quinn’s pretty sure she already knows that answer.

  “No. Not as such.” Lynx starts and then grins somewhat evilly. “But we can trace through the wards who was feeding power into the specific location of the tracking ritual.”

  “You could have just led with that.” Quinn sighs, finally straightening and wishing she hadn’t stayed in that uncomfortable crouched position for so long.

  “Then I wouldn’t have been answering the questions you needed to know, and you wouldn’t have been able to work through your justifiable grief in small incremental ways.”

  Quinn just stared at the manifestation. And then she couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “Thanks for that. Still though... we can do this from my office, right?”

  “Now that you’ve interrupted the ritual circle, yes.”

  Quinn frowned. “So what was that sort of warping me directly down from my office and into this chamber thing all about?” She glanced over at Lynx, who seemed to look everywhere but directly at the Librarian.

  “That’s not exactly easy to explain.” He said.

  “Try me. Bet you I can follow.”

  Lynx laughed. “True. Probably. You’re more attuned to the Library now, more connected. The magic is deep and attached. You can’t quite just teleport everywhere. But... you can push through. Sort of fold the space and step through it.” he took a second, as if he was trying to figure out if he’d explained it in the right way. “Yeah, that’s it. You just splitting the distance between two places within the Library and step through. If you like? It will take some of your own power, though.”

  “But I didn’t do this. The Library sent me here.”

  “Because it knew you needed to get here now, so it used your own core attachment to send you here.”

  Quinn watched him skeptically, but then nodded. “I guess. So, how do I get back?”

  “It’s not as easy as you probably think, but I’ll get the Library to warp you back upstairs...”

  Before he could say anything else, Quinn stood right back in her office. She panted ever so slightly.

  “See?” Lynx said. “Told you it cost your own energy. Even if the Library did move you, it made sure you paid for that move.”

  Yet another thing to add to her list. Beg the Library to teach you how to warp because that could really come in handy.

  Malakai looked up, a delicate eyebrow raised as if to ask what the hell in the nicest possible way. He hadn’t budged from the couch and the book was still open on his lap. “Do I want to know?”

  Quinn shook her head. “New magic trick. I’ll share it with you when I can do it without killing myself.”

  “Fun, fun.” He paused then, giving her a really good look and frowning. “So are you going to tell me why you ported out of here looking worried and then come back looking like someone just... well, killed one of your friends?” It sounded harsh, but the compassion in his tone made it okay.

  She waited several seconds before trying to articulate how she felt. “They knew about the tracking spell on the books. Not necessarily that we knew where it was, but that we had tried to track it in the first place. Hmm, maybe we need to see if we can cast something to refuse tracking to any other books by someone not from the Library.”

  “Hate to say it. It was probably Korradine who initiated it.” Malakai said gently.

  “Ah,” Quinn sighed, suddenly very tired. “That sort of makes sense, too. But anyway. They were looking for Jasper when they fought us. I don’t think killing her was a mistake.”

  Malakai was quiet for a moment. So much that Quinn thought he wasn’t going to say anything else.

  But then he finally responded and there was so much anger and heat in his voice. “I guess we add that to the list, then.”

  “What, of more things to do and figure out?” Quinn asked, suddenly feeling worn out.

  “No.” Malakai had to wrestle himself back in control. It was obvious he was angry. “Adding it to the list that we have to make these jackasses pay for.”

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