Chapter 53. Eloise
Eloise
By the time we arrive at the edge of campus, things are unusually quiet, which is both good for us and bad for Sage. It means most of the Guardians were probably deployed to the woods.
Grayson uses his wind spell to get us across the campus green in mere seconds.
And when we ease open the door to the University, the pathway is clear.
Most of the lights are extinguished since it’s well after curfew.
And I wish more than anything I could check on Maggie.
But I don’t know where she is for one, and if the Chancellor gets ahold of us before we reach the Archive Room, we’re done for.
We sprint through the hall, and peer around the corner. But as luck would not have it, we find our first Guardian—standing right in front of the training room door.
No Guardians anywhere in sight except this one. And this Guardian isn’t patrolling. She’s just standing there, arms crossed. Guarding. If I had doubts about the Archive Room location, they’re long gone.
Grayson throws up a soundproofing bubble. “When the coast is clear—run for the door.”
“Wait, you’re not coming with me?”
“I’ll meet you there. I just need to get rid of this Guardian,” he says, and pops the soundproofing bubble with a wink.
The nerve.
He casts his wind spell, sprinting down the hall at lightning speed. And because he’s Grayson, he flicks the Guardian’s braid as he passes.
“The hell?” the woman growls, and there’s no hesitation. She takes off after Grayson, very unfortunately using her own wind spell to give chase.
The second they disappear around the bend, I run for the door, pulling the Key from my pocket as I slide to a stop.
I’m about to slip the Key in the keyhole, only to discover there is none. Just a handle. How did I never notice this before? Just the same, I shove the Key at the space where the hole should be. Nothing happens, not even a hint of magic. I look both ways down the hall.
Despite my depleted magic, I say a simple unlocking spell. But even that small magic pulls at my insides in the worst way.
Nothing happens.
I try Alchemy next, pressing the Key to the door while I attempt to alter the wood. My chest aches with the effort and my head feels like it’s being squeezed. All this only to have my magic pool uselessly on the outside of the wood like oil on water.
Think, Eloise, think.
There’s a crash somewhere in the distance and as I momentarily survey the hall, the Key bites me.
At least that’s what it feels like when it shoves one of its beautifully rendered leaves into my palm.
Blood bubbles from the tiny wound and reflects off the Key in a way that makes it look oddly iridescent.
My thoughts immediately flit to the iridescent potion Akari made us retrieve for our punishment, and a wild idea forms. I grip the Key, running it along the arch of the frame, the same way we painted the potion.
And lo and behold, the frame starts to glow where I touch it.
I jump to reach the curve of the arch. But just like with the potion, the very top refuses to glow.
And I know without a doubt that it’ll only open with Grayson, that we have to do this together.
Another crash sounds in the distance. I whip around as an ice dagger hits the wall at the end of the hallway with such force that it sticks a good two inches into the wood.
Grayson rounds the bend, his hands held high to form a shield as another ice dagger bounces off it.
“Grayson, run for it!” I yell. “I need your help with the door! It’s just like in the training room.”
He backs up toward me as fast as he dares without dropping his shield. But when he’s about five feet away, Akari appears at the other end of the hall.
Grayson’s back is to her and I know in my gut that if I don’t do something, all this will be for nothing. So, despite my magic resisting me, I raise my hand, demanding that it move. I cast the first spell I can think of, the only one I can really manage right now.
Akari’s eyes flit from the glowing doorway to me before registering Grayson’s back, like she’s putting together the full extent of our crimes.
And in a flash, she raises her hand to cast, but I’m already pulling at the floor under her with my sputtering Alchemy spell, rippling the wood below her feet just enough to make her step falter and her hand wobble.
I buy us a second, maybe two, just enough for Grayson to use his wind spell to crash into me and wrap his arm around my waist. He lifts me in the air, and together we press the Key to the top of the arch.
The arch flashes brightly and magic shoots through the door into the handle, making it shine like a pearl lit from within. I don’t see Grayson grab the handle; he’s moving too fast as he pulls me in the room.
Akari appears in the doorframe, and Grayson kicks the door shut with his boot.
The instant the door slams, there’s absolute silence.
Unnatural quiet like we’re the only two people in existence.
The door handle doesn’t rattle. No one pounds.
Voices don’t drift through the wood. And in a way, I suppose that makes sense, because we’re in a room that doesn’t exist.
Grayson
This shit is wild.
The Archive Room is a two-story circular library that shines like it was just polished. There’s a large arched window that looks out at the valley, four columns that run along the walls and meet in the center of the domed ceiling, and glass flower sconces that give off a warm glow.
But the thing I can’t stop staring at is the heavy round table, in the center of which is a tree, one that has a shimmering dome over it like a translucent bubble.
“What is that?” Eloise asks as we walk toward it.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” I reply in awe.
“Look,” she says, moving around the table. “Here in the back, there’s a piece of the dome that’s popped out.”
I lean closer.
“What if we try touching it?” she asks, and I tense.
“No way. We don’t know what it is or what kind of ancient magic it contains. We don’t want you blasted across the room or your hand burned off.”
I look up at the round library that’s floor-to-ceiling books and turn in a circle. “There must be a thousand books in here,” I say like it’s a bad thing. “And all of ten minutes to go through them.”
Sage and the Lawless are in danger. Every minute we spend in here could mean catastrophic harm out there.
“We need a place to start. We spent hours going through Brachan’s poetry and only made it through a couple stacks,” she agrees.
“I’ll try a sifting spell,” I say. “It’ll at least point us in the right direction, hopefully to books with powerful enough spells to subdue my uncle.”
I lift my hand to cast, only there isn’t that familiar flutter or even a light hum, there’s no charge running down my fingertips or spark in the air. There is nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Horrified is an understatement. “I can’t cast. At all.”
Eloise reaches for her magic, but as she lifts her hand, her face scrunches.
“Nothing,” she says. “Can you still read my emotions?”
“If I couldn’t I’d have noticed as soon as we walked in,” I say.
“How can a room mute magic?” she asks.
“Well, it’s one hell of a protection, that’s for sure,” I say. “Aisling’s spellcraft was supposed to be legendary, but I’ve never heard of anything like this.”
“Maybe there’s some kind of catalogue or index?” Eloise suggests. “It’s hard to believe someone would collect all these valuable books in one place and not keep a record of them.”
We both immediately look at the heavy wooden desk and rush over to it. Eloise sifts through the papers on top while I pull open the drawers. We find old quills, empty ink bottles, and parchment, but no ledgers of any kind, and definitely not an index.
Eloise moves to the books on the coffee table, and I can scent her worry as I move to the nearest bookshelf.
I curse at the room, the one that’s supposed to have the answer, but is proving difficult.
“Anything?” I ask her and she shakes her head. But she doesn’t immediately rush to the next stack of books to check them. She pauses like she’s thinking.
Then suddenly her scent changes from worry to hope and I stop scanning book covers to look at her.
“Grayson, what if we don’t need a spell?” she says and meets my eyes.
I move toward her. “Explain, Claws.”
“We’re looking for a spell to counteract your uncle’s magic,” she continues. “But why do we need a spell when we have this room that mutes magic?”
I stop in my tracks. “Are you suggesting we bring him in here?” I say, barely able to get the words out. “To the Archive Room that is supposed to contain every spell ever recorded and god knows what other secrets?”
“Look, I know it’s not ideal,” she says quickly, and that’s the understatement of the century.
This is the exact thing I swore I’d never do.
“But think about it, Gray. Your plan was to get him to admit the truth. If we brought him in here, we don’t need to subdue him with magic, we can just … talk.”
“Eloise, there is no just talking to my uncle. And there’s no way to bring him in here without giving him the Key.
” I stare at her, hoping she gets the gravity of this, of what a man like my uncle could do with free rein in this room.
“We don’t even know what that glowing dome is, or what secrets lie in these books.
One wrong piece of information and he could solidify his hold on the magical world.
He could kill all the Lawless. He could—”
“It took both of us to open the door. He wouldn’t be able to get in without us,” she says.
“For how long, though? Do you really think you wouldn’t call it for him if your family was in danger? Or that I wouldn’t if you were in danger? It’s a huge gamble.”
“What’s the alternative? Even if we find the right book, we have no time to practice a spell. This is our best shot,” she says, and I hate that she has a point.
I press the heels of my hands into my forehead. After a long second of intense conflict, I say, “If we’re doing this, we need a plan. Not mine and Sage’s, a new one. One you and I come up with … together.”
She beams, and I wish I could share her enthusiasm. It was one thing to risk fighting my uncle, but this feels like we’re gambling with our entire world.