The Librarian: A Remnants of Magic Novel (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 2) by Casey White (reading list txt) 📗

On the doorway that suddenly opened in front of his slide—the slide that was ending. And that doorway…Daniel hissed, digging his heels into the sides of the slide, but there was no killing his momentum at this point.

At least now he knew where Alexandria was taking him.

His boots scraped against the slide, but it was too late. With a final gasp, he stiffened.

The slide vanished from beneath him. In an instant, he was airborne, flying feet first through the open doorway.

Daniel hit the floor of the sitting room hard enough to drive the air from his lungs. He lay back against the carpet, wheezing, and waited for his vision to stop spinning.

Only...the room was...wrong.

Another ragged gasp later, Daniel let his head fall to the side, furrowing his brow. It was the sitting room, but...different. The chairs were still there. And the fireplace. And the clock.

But one wall had been shoved back to make room for a long, waist-height table. Books littered one end of it.

Leon stood half-hidden behind the stacks, staring at him—and snorted. He turned back to the table, bending back over the laptop he’d braced against a dictionary-sized tome, and arched an eyebrow.

“Welcome back. You done sulking?”

- Chapter Thirty-One -

Leon was still here.

Great.

Daniel twitched, trying to get up, but his arms decided that wasn’t going to happen. He tried to say something—he wasn’t quite sure what, but something—but it came out an unintelligible wheeze. His lungs burned.

Leon snorted, pressing a hand to his face, and momentarily looked away from his laptop. “Christ,” Daniel heard him mumble. “You look ridiculous, you know that?”

“I- I’m...I’m n-not-”

“Look,” Leon snapped, turning back to him. He drew himself up taller, leaning on the table. He looked for all the world like some sort of lord, glaring down at his humiliated subject. “We’ve got way too much shit to get done for you to go all self-pitying on us. So, like I said. Are you done?”

Daniel collapsed back to the ground, letting his gaze slide away from Leon at last. Was he done?

As though he’d wanted to hurt Leon. As though this was all some kind of temper tantrum, like he was a child. “Leon,” he whispered, rolling over—more slowly, to keep his ribs from shrieking in protest again. “Look. It’s- It’s not about you. I know...you want to help. And I-I appreciate that. B-But-”

“Would you shut up with that?”

Daniel swung up into a sitting position, going mute. Leon scowled across the abnormally-large sitting room at him. “I’m not in this shit to get myself killed, you know,” he said. “I don’t know why you think I’m out to get shot or something. I kind of like living. I’d rather live in a world that still had you, y’know?”

“That’s- That’s nice, but there are too many of them, and-”

“Then we’ll figure something else out, won’t we?” Leon’s hand slapped into the wooden tabletop for emphasis. “We’re in Alexandria. We have all the time in the world to find a new plan.”

“Well, not all the time,” Daniel mumbled. “I’ve never stayed here longer than a year, and-”

“Dude, I’m not staying here a year with you,” Leon said, starting to laugh. “I like you, but Christ. A year with only the two of us locked into a building together would end in murder. We have plenty of time. Can you agree on that?”

Daniel made a face. “I guess.”

“Okay,” Leon said, rolling his eyes. “Progress. God damn. And you call me the suicidal one. Let a man help you.”

Daniel didn’t bother responding to that one, only gathered himself and stood. His chest still ached, and his throat prickled as though he’d burst into coughing at a moment’s notice, but he felt...better. Just a little.

“So what’ve you figured out?” he said. He trudged closer, taking up a spot opposite Leon at the table. “Made any earth-shattering discoveries?”

Leon winced. His shoulders hitched higher. “W-Well. I’m still-”

“So you haven’t,” Daniel said, and groaned. “Look. I know you want to help—And I’m not saying no,” he added, holding a hand up as Leon turned on him again, “But you have to promise me. We can look. But if we don’t find a good solution, you have to be realistic. You aren’t allowed to do anything stupid.”

Leon snorted. “As though I’d do that anyway. I’m not an idiot.”

“Leon-”

“I’ll be careful, Daniel,” Leon said. He smiled across the table, even if his eyes were weary. “I meant what I said. I’m not out to get myself killed.”

“Okay,” Daniel mumbled. He nodded, gripping the table more tightly. “Just...remember.”

“Anyway,” Leon said, turning away. “In less depressing news. I might not have found the answer to all our problems yet, but I haven’t been sitting here idle, either.”

“Oh?” Daniel said. The spark of new hope in his chest was painfully transparent. “Then, uh. What are you finding?”

“I was thinking, is all,” Leon said, and gestured to a map pinned up on the wall. “Alexandria is a catalogue of all knowledge ever, right?”

“More or less,” Daniel said. “It’s more limited than you’d think sometimes, but-”

“Well, ‘knowledge’ is a broad thing, isn’t it? It comes down to anything anyone on the planet knows. That’s a pretty big bill.”

Daniel’s brow furrowed. “I guess. How’s it relevant?”

Leon half-glanced back, grinning. “Well, those people who have you? They know where they are, more or less. And they all know where they’re going.”

The light went on in Daniel’s head. “Then-”

“I pulled up a map,” Leon said. “You’re not moving anymore. I...think it’s because of the whole Alexandria thing. How’s it work? Is it, like, we’re frozen in a single moment, somewhere during our sleep, or is it that time outside is moving really, really slowly?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said.

“I think if we can- What?” Leon twisted back around, his eyes wide. “Really? You don’t know?”

Daniel shook his head. “Not really, no.”

“Dude,” Leon mumbled, running a hand through his hair. “How long have you been Librarian?”

“Since I was a kid.”

“And you’ve been in here every night since? And you never