Page 107 of Architecti
“What’s wrong?”I ask as she stumbles her way through the library.She moves with purpose as if she’s leading me now.
“Yeah.No.I… my heart… it’s.Doesn’t matter.”She takes a deep breath, her shoulders tilt away from me, her back rigid, distant.She charges forward and doesn’t wait for me.
Something is wrong.
We pass through three aisles before she slows her pace.And then she halts suddenly, rifling through a rack of parchment.
Her fingers still.
“It’s here.”
She brushes the contract.There’s an almighty crack.
The ground shudders.
“A Veil tear?Shit.I thought we’d be okay in here.We need to get out.Now,” I scream.
Lucy grabs the contract, and we run back to Bastien and Lex.
“You’re going to have to make the cuts by yourself, Midnight,” Bastien says.
Lex glances up at me from the ground, but she’s barely conscious and Bastien is covered in her blood where he’s applying pressure to her wound.He’s right.If he releases the pressure on her, she’ll bleed out.
“I’m sorry,” Lex mumbles, her eyes rolling open and closed.
“You stay with us, Lex, or I swear to the archdemon… Mortem?”I say.
He materialises, chewing on a translucent tail.I scrunch my face up as the ground judders again, the violent shaking making Bastien slip and have to readjust his position on Lex.
“Is that a— You know what, never mind, I need you to get the door open for us,” I say.
He does that thing with his mouth that looks like pouting.
“Or would you like to die in here,” I growl.
“Already dead,” he purrs.
“And yet you could still be fed to a wraith,” Bastien jabs at him.
He sighs.“Fine.”
It’s ugly.The fizzing in my chest doesn’t help my focus, nor the fact that we’re celestial-side, so calling the campus’s magic in a realm I’ve not worked in is significantly harder.
I manage to call one ribbon of magic from the walls, but I need two—I can’t do this at half tilt.A headache sears through my temples as I refocus, concentrate on the campus, and coax more from the walls.
The ground trembles harder.
“Come on, Midnight, faster,” Lucy breathes.
She and Bastien have Lex standing and secured under her arms.I draw my fingers in slicing motions so familiar muscle memory moves them now.
But it’s messy, and the Veil parts more than I intended.
The scent of stale coffee and boiled flesh envelopes me.
“Wraith!”Bastien screams as a skeletal arm punches through the gap I’ve made in the Veil.
I throw my fist up, scythe in hand, and sever the limb.The wraith screeches so shrill and piercing I slam my hands over my ears.
