Aisling stared. “Right now?”

Oz nodded. He ran to the pile of books and grabbed up an armload. “Right now.”

Roan waved his hand, scooping toward his sleeve. The books flew into his wide sleeves and vanished. “I’ll put them back. If someone’s inside, we need to address that. Now.”

“You’ve certainly turned about-face,” Oz commented.

“Not for you. For the library,” Roan grumbled. He turned to the door, which still shimmered with gold light, then turned back and arched a brow at Oz.

“Hey, unlock,” Oz muttered aloud.

The Library is locked due to automatic emergency protocols. Scanning…

Gold light swept over them, passing over the nearby fields. It rested on the dead bodies for a moment, then faded away.

The danger has passed. Please present identification at the Head Librarian of Floor One level or higher to unlock the library.

Oz lifted his control tattoo. A smaller golden beam played over its surface.

Welcome, Librarian. The gold beam vanished, and a moment later, the gold light locking the door faded away.

Roan, Oz, and Linnea hurried toward the door. Aisling paused a moment, looking back at the bodies. She stomped, and the earth opened up, swallowing the two corpses into the depths. Corpses buried, she chased after the other three.

Golden grass shivered. Oz glanced back, nervous. More spiders? He reached for the door, but too slow. The shivering grass surged toward him.

Shit. I can’t close it in time! “Guys, there’s—”

Sid leaped out of the shivering grass and squeezed through the door even as the door shut. She sat down and looked at him, mewing.

“What?” Roan asked.

Oz took a deep breath. He shook his head at Sid. “You scared the shit out of me.”

Sid mewed again, twisting between his feet.

It’s a good thing she’s so cute. Oz knelt and petted Sid, who closed her eyes and rubbed up against him in happiness.

Crouched down to pet the cat, Oz nodded up at the other three. “Roan, Aisling, can either of you go up a floor? I heard a thud up there earlier.” If there’s someone in the library, that might be where they’re hiding.

“Easy.” Turning, Roan grabbed a ladder.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Oz muttered to himself. I couldn’t get up there. They’re stronger than me, but it doesn’t seem like a super-easy thing to do. That pressure is intense.

Rolling his eyes at Oz, Roan scaled it halfway, only to slow. Veins stood out on his arms and legs as he strained upward, helplessly. His gaze shifted to Oz, and distaste flashed across his face.

“No?” Oz asked, trying not to gloat. Guess it’s not so easy, huh?

“Not until you’re powerful enough to enter the floors. The library is locked to your cultivation level,” Roan said, voice dripping with disgust. He let go of the ladder and dropped to the floor.

Oh. “Could someone hide up there?”

Roan shrugged. “If reaching the next floor is locked to your cultivation level, then they couldn’t enter the second floor after you took control. Before you took control… Madame Saoirse should have swept this space with her divine sense before she ascended. I can understand her overlooking a few extremely weak disciples hiding behind a World Door, but I don’t think she’d overlook a high-level mage standing in the library itself.”

But something thumped up there. I heard it. Oz rubbed the back of his neck, then shook his head. Maybe the thump isn’t the intruder. If it can’t get up there without me growing stronger, then maybe it was already up there before Madame Saoirse handed the library over. Something like Sid, or myself. A person or animal that the library considers as part of itself, and doesn’t count on my wrist. If that’s the case, it should be non-hostile, right?

…Right?

Oz shook his head. “If that’s the case, let’s split up and search the first floor. If anyone finds someone, scream.”

“Good plan,” Roan said sarcastically.

Softness latched onto Oz’s arm. Linnea rested her head on his shoulder and grinned cutely. “I’m going with Oz.”

Roan’s eyes narrowed. His lip twitched, and his hand dropped to his hilt.

“We’ll cover more ground if we move alone,” Oz said, subtly trying to extricate his arm from Linnea’s grasp. Sweat dripped down his back. He glanced at Roan and struggled harder. Linnea, why now? Don’t make me use my library controls, please…

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Linnea has a point. If there’s someone in the library, we should move together. Especially you, Oz,” Aisling said, looking him in the eye.

“That’s…” Oz closed his mouth, unable to argue.

“I’ll go with Roan. Let’s move quickly. If someone’s in the library, there’s no time to waste. We’ll take the far half, you search the near.” Nodding at Roan, Aisling hurried off.

Still glaring at Oz, Roan reluctantly followed Aisling.

Oz looked at Linnea. She beamed at him. “Let’s go, Oz-lovey!”

“Don’t—don’t call me that,” Oz said, grimacing. He shook his arm again, and this time, Linnea released him.

The two of them wandered the stacks, peeking around corners. I’ve already done this once and didn’t see anyone. If someone’s in here, they’re on a different floor, if that’s possible, Oz thought, scanning up and down the shelves. He scanned books as he walked, once more setting the tomes on the floor, and began reading another book on back burner, gathering qi from the stroll. The empty space in his core filled up ever so slowly. The motes of light swirled in a large open space.

Oz put a hand to his stomach. It feels like my core is larger, now. Is that what opening meridians does? That, and enhancing my qi flow. Just one improves my qi flow and capacity this much… I need to open the rest of them.

Abruptly, Linnea stepped in front of him. Oz backed away, startled. His shoulders struck the bookshelves. She slammed her hand down beside Oz’s head and leaned in.

Oz stiffened. He put his hands up. “Linnea, please—”

“I know your secret. You’re a changeling, aren’t you?” Linnea hissed, staring into his eyes.

Blankly, Oz stared at her. Closing the manual he’d been reading, he opened the bestiary in his mind again. Changeling, changeling… There.

Changeling: A fey creature, though some consider it demonic. Changelings kidnap humans, then shapeshift to take their place. The vast majority of changelings merely spirit away their charges to somewhere in the Land of Seelie, though sometimes a changeling will eat or kill their prey. Mortals consider changelings exclusively demonic because mortals’ lives are too short for a mortal to escape Seelie and return to mortal territories without a mage or fey’s help, but most mages consider the fey creatures relatively harmless, save the few who turn to human flesh.

He licked his lips. “I’m not—”

“You aren’t Ossian, Oz. I know Ossian. I spent a few days at his side before he inherited the library, and I know. You’re different.

“Roan hates you too much to care. Aisling barely knew you. But you can’t fool me.” She leaned in. Her eyes narrowed. At a whisper, she finished, “You speak a word of what happened in that realm, and I’ll tell everyone your secret.”

“I’m telling you, I’m not…” Oz’s voice trailed off. Hold on. Should I refute this? If she gets the wrong idea, it’s in my favor. She can waste her time ‘proving’ I’m something I’m not, while no one investigates me for blood magic.

Fundamentally, she’s looking for something to hold over me, the same way I can hold using dark magic over her. I have no intent of threatening her, but she doesn’t know that. Allowing her to have this ‘secret’ of mine, which isn’t my secret, not only gives her security, but doesn’t actually threaten me at all.

Oz widened his eyes, putting on a shocked face. “Are you going to tell the others?”

Linnea’s eyes glittered with victory. She smiled, just a bit, and stepped away. “As long as you keep your mouth shut, I’ll return the favor.”

Zipping his lips, Oz locked them and mimed throwing away the key.

“So, where are we going, Oz-love?” Linnea asked, all smiles and sweetness again.

“You can stop with the love stuff. I already told you, I’m not interested,” Oz said flatly.

She stuck her tongue out. “Stupid changelings.”

“Hey. What was that about keeping secrets?” Oz asked, hooking a brow.

Grinning, she waggled her brows at him and scurried off.

Oz put his hand on his chin, watching her go. She doesn’t know that I’m a reincarnation. That basically confirms she isn’t behind my reincarnating here.

Guess I’m back to the drawing board.

Time passed. They wandered back to the desk to find Roan and Aisling already there. Roan scowled at them. “Nothing.”

“Same,” Oz returned. He touched the tick on his wrist, brows furrowing.

“Were you mistaken?” Roan asked, obviously expecting a yes.

Oz pressed his lips together. “Maybe…”

Something warm flickered under his fingers. Oz glanced down to find a strand of blue running through the black ink. Qi? Oh, right. It’s a magical tattoo. That means qi.

If I put a bit of qi into that mark, I wonder what happens. Without thinking too hard, Oz sent a pulse of qi into the tick.

A ping appeared in his mind. He turned, then looked down at his feet. “It’s under us?”

“Under us?” Aisling knelt and tapped the floor.

“The library doesn’t have a basement,” Roan insisted, rolling his eyes.

Oz walked toward the ping. It shone out from behind the desk, close to the library’s back wall. Shelves dominated here, too, full of books as always. Here, two tall, churchlike stained glass windows flanked the shelf immediately behind the desk, casting the desk itself in an almost religious faded light.

He crouched, running a hand over the floor. The black-and-white marble marched away in all directions. Inlaid in the floor behind the desk, a circular crest featured a begonia in jet blooming from an open book, its pages cast in creamy white stone. Black marble circled the outside of the crest. He knocked on the crest, but the sound remained the same as the rest of the floor. Nothing obvious.

His eyes traveled upward, to the shelf. He raised his brows. But then… isn’t it classic to hide a switch in the shelves?

Running his finger along the spines, he pushed qi into each and every book, scanning them as he went. One of the books came up empty, no text returning from his scan. Oz paused, then tipped it outward. Weighty, the book resisted his pull. His control tattoo lit up with silver light. The three magical circles spun slowly, glowing brighter than the rest of the tattoo.

In return, the entire book glowed silver, the light brightening, then fading. As it faded, it concentrated toward the book’s spine, shifting into strange glyphs. The glyphs danced and shone like sunlight on water, morphing from moment to moment, in time with the magic circles spinning on Oz’s arm.

The magic circles locked in place. The glyphs froze. The light intensified, then vanished all at once.

“What the hell,” Roan muttered, squinting.

“A lock formation. You’ve never seen one?” Aisling asked.

Linnea giggled. “Roan, really?”

Roan put his hands up, gesturing at the books all around them. “It’s not like Madame Saoirse locked away her singular ancient inheritance. Why would she use a lock formation?”

“We’re about to find out,” Oz commented.

Deep in the library’s floor, metal scraped, and something thumped. The crest pushed up out of the floor slowly, inching over the surface. At about a thumbspan off the floor, the crest spun slowly away. A spiral staircase vanished into the floor, vanishing into darkness.

From the depths, a hollow laugh echoed up, not amused, not intimidating, but merely empty. A shiver ran up Oz’s spine. The desolation. The inhumanity.

That wasn’t a human laugh. Something else laughed. Something… something that doesn’t like us… no. More like, it couldn’t be bothered to consider us at all. Subconsciously, he took a step away from the staircase.

He looked up. Everyone else stood a step back as well, giving the staircase a wide berth.

Oz laughed. “Who wants to go first?”