Page 75 of Dragon Compelled
I don’t cheer with her, my mind still reeling over everything I’ve learned. I re-made my world after Constantine destroyed it. Or tried to. And in doing so, I caused the very thing that brought him into the library in the first place. The Extrication.
Without me, Constantine would have stayed trapped in my world. Without me, Hoc would still be alive.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. With Aries’s arm still around my shoulders, I’d love to turn into him, to seek comfort in his arms again, but I know there is still far too much to do before rest can be had.
“Are you sure that you’re okay?” he asks as he lifts my chin to check the cut on my throat where Oliver’s blade nicked me earlier.
“Physically, I’m fine. Honestly, I can barely feel it,” I tell him truthfully. “You?”
“We lost,” he says. “And I can feel your pain.”
“We haven’t lost,” I tell him. Turning, I face Mag and Blossom as well as the others. “We’ve been beaten, but we won’t stay down. Constantine willnotwin.”
“How are we supposed to get back?” Mag demands as he holds up his arm. “Our keeper tattoos are gone.”
“The same way we got here,” I tell him. “Me.”
Blossom’s eyes widen. “That was your portal. The red one.”
“Yes.”
“Which means you don’t need the library’s magic to get us home.”
“No,” I reply. “I don’t.”
Mag’s grin spreads. “Does that asshole know that?”
“Constantine does,” I tell them. “He’s always known what I was capable of. It’s why he’s been one step ahead of us.”
“How? How has he known when you didn’t even realize what you were capable of?” Mag questions.
I turn toward them. “Because we’re from the same world.”
They gape at me, all of them silent.
“What? Seriously?” Blossom demands. “Did he tell you that? Because that asshole is lying…”
“No.” I shake my head. “I saw it. When Oliver dragged me through that portal, it was into a memory world. I saw what happened. Constantine killed my people, slaughtered an entire village, but my power was too much for him. By using my magic without meaning to, I caused the Extrication and robbed him of his magic.”
“Wait. He’s been in the library all these years?” Blossom nearly shrieks.
I nod grimly. “He was the shadow that stalked me.” I turn to Aries. “And when I let you out, the power was enough that he was able to take on a corporeal form.”
“Shit,” Mag mutters. “This is—a lot.”
“I saw all of it,” I tell them as I turn back. “He knew me well enough to know that, with Hoc gone, I would be solely focused on finding him. Then, he let Oliver distract me, used Tawny’s death to add to it, all while manipulating me into allowing them to call for a vote so he could come through and take charge.”
“I don’t understand, though. The library has to have three council members. By killing Phillip, all they did was ensure there would be another member added to their ranks,” Fred says.
I shake my head. “They changed the rules. Didn’t you feel it? The toxicity creeping through your system as the library shifted its allegiance?”
Aries growls. “I should have burned them to the ground.”
I put an arm on his chest, feeling the weight of all of his anger and regret rippling through the bond we share. “No. Doing so would have destroyed all those worlds.”
He huffs.
“Okay. So, the plan is to regroup and kill the bastard.” Blossom looks around. “Speaking of which, where are we?”
