I steeled myself on the way to the front door. Jokes aside, there was a battle going on out there and I had no idea how well it was going, or any weapons beyond my tiny penknife. Even the cuts on my cheeks had slowed down to a trickle, the blood on my hands too intermingled with Mark’s to risk using it. I rubbed my hands on my jeans again, trying to clean them before I grabbed the doorknob.

The evidence of the battle was apparent as soon as I opened the door. Just a few feet from the door lay one of the downed harpies, its feathers shimmering with a coppery hue in the light of nearby fires. The moment I stepped outside, one of the dark bodies let out a shriek, plummeting out of the sky towards me.

I pulled the door closed as I tucked myself into a roll, landing behind fallen harpy. That was when I noticed didn’t just look metallic. The flesh and blood had been transformed into bronze, its human face frozen mid-scream. I didn’t have long to examine Mark’s handiwork before it’s living sister was striking out at me again. The harpy’s long claws ripped into the statue of its brethren, sending razor-sharp metal feathers to the ground.

I rotated my way around the statue, keeping it between me and the harpy. Around me, I could see the fight illuminated in flashes and bursts of fire. One of them struck close to me, scorching the harpy hassling me. The bird screamed, collapsing to the ground with the smell of burnt feathers and hair. When the fire vanished, Nate was standing where the beast had been moments before.

“Why are you out here?” he asked, staring down the burning bird.

“We need you inside,” I said. With Nate beside me, the fire bursts had stopped. It felt darker than it had when we arrived as well. But perhaps that was because the carefully manicured gardens were much closer than they’d been before. The branches were more wild now, scraping against the sky. “You or Karen.”

“Who’s down?” he asked, kicking a line of fire at the harpy that was starting to rise. He advanced on it aggressively.

“Mark.” I stepped around the harpy statue, brushing against it too closely. The bronze feathers sliced into my burgundy jacket, ripping up the leather. I frowned at the statue.

Nate swore when I mentioned a name, turning my way. “Bad?”

“Would I be here otherwise?” I asked, stooping down to grab one of the fallen bronze feathers. I walked up to the fallen harpy, slicing the feather across the human throat. It parted the flesh easily and Nate looked away as it bled out.

“Christ, Rachael-”

“Just go make sure Mark is fine,” I said, scratching a quick rune into the barely-moving breast of the monster. It looked like a flourished “R”. Nate glanced back at me, scowling.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I said, “You were going to kill it anyways.”

He opened his mouth to protest and I pointed at the door. “Go. Argue with me later.”

He scowled at me, then ran for the door. I looked down at the harpy that seemed caught between life and death. With it as an offering, I could summon something big enough to end this easily. But the battle seemed to be winding down now, at least by the sounds. The other librarian’s would consider it a needless risk. And I had promised to avoid bringing any demons into the mix.

Still, it seemed rude to leave the clean up to Karen and Jeff. I searched the sky but I couldn’t see any more of the birds. Most of the noise seemed to be coming out of the brambled wildwoods that had sprung up from Kinder’s garden. I headed in, ignoring the feathered bodies that were trapped and crushed within the branches.

It was slow going through the brush. The woods were thick, with long, sharp thorns that ripped at my clothes. I was forced to hack at them with the makeshift blade, cursing as it caught on my jeans again.

After five minutes of struggling through the thicket, I had to admit that I wasn’t getting anywhere. I turned around, and my path in had vanished.

“Well fuck,” I muttered. Even the moon had vanished beneath the supernatural forest, the sounds fading away into just those at my feet. Kinder was going to be pissed when he saw what Karen had done to his fruit trees and flowers.

I plunged back into the vines, hoping I was travelling the right way. I thought I was going uphill, at least.

“Karen!” I screamed into the thicket, “Jeff!”

The thorns were going for blood. It only took me a few minutes to figure that out. They buried themselves into my legs, tripping me up, making me question my bearing. One thorn tore across my leg, leaving a bloody scratch from knee to mid calf. A dark curse escaped my lips and a patch of forest three feet wide and ten deep appeared in the forest.

“Of course that’s the wrong way,” I muttered at my cleared path. Already I could see the trees trying to close in on itself, trying to fill in that void. I raced down the path quickly, hoping I was at least heading closer to the house. By the time I reached the end, I’d already lost where I started.

“I get it!” I yelled at nothing in particular. “You’re a spooky, scary forest! Now will you let me out?”

The forest did not seem to be listening. That was never a good sign. I sighed, gripping the feather hard enough to cut open my hand. Fresh blood welled up in my palm.

“Sorry Mark,” I said. Between me and the harpy I’d left bleeding, he shouldn’t get any feedback. I hoped, anyways. When I’d left, Mark didn’t have a whole lot of blood to spare. But I wasn’t sure how else to get out of this forest. Hopefully, one near-dead harpy would be enough.

Before the first words could escape my lips, a section of woods imploded nearby. I felt the moisture suck out of the air around me and a man appeared beside me. I could barely make him out in the gloom, but I recognized that magical signature.

“Jeff!” I said gratefully, letting the spell shrivel like the plant matter he’d burst from. He turned my way, dried twigs snapping in his path.

“Rachael!” he said with surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d come help,” I replied, “only to get trapped in Karen’s infernal forest. How the hell do you get any fighting done in this?”

I heard him more than I saw him come towards me. “I’m at my limit too. I haven’t seen anything but shadows in here.”

“Fuck,” I said, “Not even Karen?”

I picked out his outline, shaking his head. “I was hoping to get her to Mark.”

“Well Nate’s on it now,” I said. “Just need to worry about ourselves.”

“Ourselves?”

“Do you know which way is out?” I asked. He froze as if considering the predicament for the first time.

“Fuck,” he said finally.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “Fuck.”

“I could port into the canopy?” he said questioningly.

I grabbed at his shirt before he could. “Not unless you want to lose me.”

I heard Jeff sigh. “So what do you propose? Demons?”

I looked at the blood dripping from my hand. Mostly my own, but mingled with the harpy and Mark’s by now. I took a deep breath, clearing my thoughts.

“Rachael?” Jeff said, and I held up a finger to shush him, trying to sense the connection back to the house, between the blood I had spilled and the blood in my hands. I could sense the harpy too, with my mark on its breast and its blood neath my nails. It was like tiny threads of shadow in a forest that threatened to rip them apart, but they were there. I pointed a path towards the house.

“That way,” I said, sounding confident. “Can you make a path?”

“I can try,” Jeff said. He sounded exhausted. I didn’t blame him. I’d only fought two harpies and I was already a mess.

“Go slowly,” I cautioned. “The forest is still growing.”

“I guess Karen’s still fighting?” he asked as several trees before us exploded into frozen shards.

I pursed my lips as we walked, still pointing the way home. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” he asked, still clearing the path.

“If she’s still in control, why is the forest fighting us?” I asked.

“Maybe she’s distracted?” Jeff said hopefully.

I shook my head. “You were jumping around, did you hear any fighting?”

Jeff didn’t respond. A larger swatch of forest exploded, and I could see the house lights beyond the clearing.

“I don’t hear anything either,” I said, walking quickly out of the shadows. “Not even the harpies.”

“Do you think she’s still in there?” Jeff asked as we stood on the driveway. “She could be hurt, or dying.”

I looked back on the forest now that we were in relative safety. “Maybe,” I said. “If she was hurt, this might be her cocoon while she heals.”

“Might?” Jeff asked. I had to remind myself he was still fairly new. Not as new as Amber, but he hadn’t been around during the Great Giant War, when we’d all thought Karen was dead. She’d come back a day later, hatching out of a tree just in time to save my ass. It’d been years before she let me live down ‘The look on my face when she skewered that punk’. In her words.

“If it is,” I said, “We probably won’t find her tonight. Let’s get some sleep.”

Jeff looked skeptical but let me pull him into the house. I just hoped I was right.

“What on earth did you summon off her?” Kelcie whispered at me fiercely. She pointed at the bloody handprint on Amber’s jacket as we walked down the hallway.

“Nothing,” I replied, but Kelcie was still glowering at me viciously.

“Rachael!” she hissed, trying to get in my way. “You can’t just summon creatures on a whim!”

“And I didn’t,” I whispered, pressing a hand to my cheek trying to stop it from dripping blood to the carpet.

She scowled more as we entered the closest room. “Then what the hell was that?”

“I imagine it was demonic destruction,” a deep voice said from the living room. Mr. Kinder looked over from the front window, where he was watching the fight. I nodded as Amber stared at me questioningly.

“Your arcane is improving,” he said, handing me a white handkerchief as the blood dripped into my mouth.

I pressed the cloth to my cheek gratefully. “Thanks.”

“But you cut your face?” she fussed. “For that?”

“Friendly fire,” I said, going over to the window and pushing aside the curtains. On the wall behind the sapphire brocade fabric, there was a small etched symbol. I touched it lightly with one bloody finger and it flared into life, shining a deep, purpley-blue.

“Is that necessary, Rachael?” Kinder asked. His frown creased wrinkles into his face as I let the curtains drop. He was wearing a heavy flannel robe and I hoped there was also some clothes underneath it.

“Your entire staff shows up at 2 AM with a swarm of harpies in tow and you wonder if the wards are necessary?” I asked, disgruntled.

Kinder sighed heavily. “Do what you must.”

“Fill him in, Kelcie,” I said, wandering off through the house. She glowered at me and I smiled back at her with blood covered teeth.

In a way, Amber had done me a favour with her accidental slash. The cut had been shallow enough that it barely stung when I flexed my jaw, investigating the wound with my tongue. And yet, it bled freely enough that I didn’t have to worry about a medium for my magic. I walked through the dining room, activating the runes on each window. They glowed as I touched them, drinking in the offered blood hungrily.

I slipped into the kitchen next. I could see the ugly birds circling the house but I didn’t need Kinder’s help in finding the runes. I’d etched them into his walls myself, a decade ago. When he announced he was going into semi-retirement several years ago, I’d refreshed the runes again, as well as everyone else on the staff. Well, almost everyone. I hadn’t gotten around to sealing Amber’s house yet.

I pursed my lips, trying to remember if Amber lived alone. She almost certainly hadn’t been on the team long enough to have made enemies. But with an outright harpy attack on a residential home, it was clear that the kiddy gloves were coming up. Someone out there meant business. I just wished I’d spent enough time studying the fae to guess what that business was.

A harpy slammed into the window as I finished up with the main floor, startling me. They were wising up to where we’d gone. I’d have thought they’d be more distracted with the fighters outside. I rushed past the massive fish tank beside the stairwell. All of the fish seemed to be asleep at the late hour. All except for the massive, spotted algae-eater, hiding under the log near the bottom of the tank. His freckled and whiskered face stared out at me as I hurried up the steps to the bedrooms.

Kinder had way too many bedrooms for a single man. I swore as I ran out of the first of them, flipping on the light in the second room. I was greeted by an explosion of glass and feathers as a harpy burst through the window. It screamed insults at me as I threw the door shut again. I heard it hit the wood with talons as long as a hatchet.

I took a deep breath, leaning my weight against the door and considering my options. Most of our staff had cross-disciplines in their fields. Mark threw fire almost as well as Nate did. Better, in some situations. Karen could have probably represented any of the primaries equally well. But I had dedicated myself almost exclusively to the indigo field, as much because no one else wanted it as anything else.

The reason no one wanted to cross train in my field was simple.

Demons required a sacrifice.

The harpy slammed against the door again, reminding me of my current issue. With no line of sight, my options were slim. I hadn’t bothered with the flashy skills of the fae discipline, there were no shadows to claim it, and it was preventing my access to my protective wards. The stupid harpy were practically wind demons yet here I was in a stand-off.

I winced as a taloned foot stabbed through the door above me. A very unbalanced stand-off.

And yet…

There was a wall socket beside me. With much luck, it connected to the wiring within the bedroom. Or at least that was my reasoning as I punched through the drywall beside it, grabbing onto the plastic coated wiring with the blood-soaked hanky.

I could see the shape I needed in my head. The perfect circle of metal and wire surrounding the room and the angry harpy. The wiring bent to my will, ripping itself out of the walls to encircle the beast. I willed the copper into the floorboards, etching beneath the doorframe. Based on the steady attacks on the door, I suspected the bird hadn’t even noticed the danger it was in yet.

The others might laugh that I knew the entire language by heart. But there was hardly a chance now to look up the rune in a book. I smeared a finger across a bloody cheek, writing three runes in red in front of the door.

Then I drew my pen knife out of my pocket again, testing the blade against my finger. I drew myself to a shaky stand in front of the shattering door, drawing the knife along my undamaged cheek to match the other. Three drops of blood fell onto the copper binding circle just as the harpy smashed the door into splinters.

The bird slammed into the magical barrier, inches from my face. It screeched obscenities at me, but the copper and blood barrier held firm, trapping it inside.

“Rachael!” I heard Kelcie scream from the living room. Her feet pounded on the staircase.

“I’m fine,” I yelled, trying to convince myself of the same thing. Kelcie froze at the top of the steps, staring at the mangled door and wall. Or maybe at the angry, raging monster. I couldn’t be sure anymore.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“Demonology follows certain laws,” I said, sounding calmer than I felt. I pointed at the torn out window behind the raging harpy. “Do you think you can activate that rune?”

“What, like, just walk through the angry harpy?” Kelcie snapped.

“Or you could teleport,” I said. “But don’t let me stop you from just walking through.”

I hurried into the rest of the bedrooms to activate the runes on their windows as Kelcie blinked away. Luckily the rest of the monsters stayed outside as we worked.

We left the rune by the front door for last, to give the others somewhere to run.

The car pulled up along the long gravel driveway into Kinder’s house. It was tucked away from the highway, hidden behind rows of carefully manicured gardens and fruit trees. Our headlights illuminated the building, casting shadows across the front. Amber looked nervous, but I’d long ago learned not to fear the shadows.

“Guess we’re the first ones here,” Amber said as she got out.

I pursed my lips, looking around and up at the home. “Who was driving the other car?”

“Jeff,” Mark said, his voice echoing the worry I felt.

“They probably just took another route,” Amber said, sounding unconcerned.

“Maybe,” I said. I’d asked Jeff to carpool with me last year, when we’d shared a shift in the morning. By the end of the first ride, I felt like I had aged ten years. I was certain his driving was partly to blame for the white streak that was forming on my hairline. But I suppose it was always possible he’d fixed his lead foot in the past year.

The squealing of tires and the crunch of gravel a moment later proved that Jeff had not cured his need for speed just yet. I hurried out of the driveway as the lights rushed over me, far too fast to be safe.

Nate spilled out of the backseat almost before the car had stopped moving, rolling into a crouch. I was about to yell at him, but when he came up I noticed one fist glowing and flickering with a red flame, his eyes tracing the black sky.

“Shit,” I said, staring up as well. I couldn’t see anything. But then, I hadn’t noticed anything on the way over either. “What am I looking for?”

“Harpies,” he replied without looking at me.

I frowned, squinting at the sky. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty damn sure,” Kelcie said, running out of the parked car towards the door, her half on coat flapping uselessly against her cast. “They started chasing us as soon as you guys left the parking lot.”

“Did we lose them?” Jeff asked as he got out of the car. As if responding to his question, I heard a roar of caws approaching. The sound got louder as they flew over the trees, and now I could see their dark wings, the moon shining off bare breasts and long hair. Harpies were one of the nastier types of wind spirits, prone to snatching and ripping at whatever they could get in their talons. They were what a pack of coyotes would be if the could fly and curse.

I dropped into a crouch myself, reaching for a small swiss army knife I kept in my pocket, but Mark grabbed the back of my coat.

“Go, Rachael,” he said, pushing me towards the door. “Get Kelcie and Amber inside.”

“So now I’m on guard duty?” I scowled at him. Behind us, Nate launched a fireball into the flock, scattering and illuminating the birds.

Mark cursed, whipping around on the birds. He imitated Nate’s spell, summoning fire around his fist. “Kelcie can’t fight with a broken arm,” he hissed.

“Excuse me?” Kelcie said, her hair slowly rising in a torrent around her. The dark birds were regrouping, forming back into a dark swarm.

Mark launched a small spark of fire into the harpies. It flew into their midst like a bullet, exploding with a bang on impact. “Then both of you guard her!” he growled. “But we can’t lose more time or to trip over summons.”

Kelcie looked ready to argue but I caught sight of Amber where she was cowering behind one of the cars. I grabbed Kelcie, pushing her to the door.

“Go wake up Kinder,” I said as I ran over to Amber. Amber was peeking out around the car, one hand at her side. Even in the dim light I could see she was attempting to gather the winds around her, but her soft breeze was unlikely to scare any harpies.

“How you doing?” I whispered as I knelt beside her. I was trying not to startle her but I felt the wind slash across my cheek all the same, and the warm sensation as blood trickled down my cheek.

“Oh my god, no,” Amber spluttered, turning away from the fight to see her damage. “I thought you were a-”

“Don’t worry about them.” I plastered a fake smile on my face, trying to look as reassuring as possible as I wiped my hand against my cheek. The dark shapes were flying overhead now. I hissed, “We’re getting out of here.”

“But the harpies-” she whispered.

“We got this,” I said. Glancing over the car, I could see that was nearly true. Aside from Nate and Mark tossing fireballs, Jeff had ripped the water out of one of the garden beds, transforming it into ice needles he was picking off the harpies with. I couldn’t see Karen, but in my experience, that was when she was scariest. Amber still looked like a scared sparrow though, and I could see why Mark had directed me to her. “Those guys don’t need our help.”

Amber nodded at me, lips sealed like she didn’t trust herself to speak. A bead of blood was trickling down my chin, I caught it on my clean hand before it could fall.

“Do you see Kelcie over there?” I said, pointing out where she stood pounding on the door. Amber nodded again so I continued. “On one, we’re going to run to her. You ready?”

I didn’t wait for her response, watching the nasty bird approach. “Three.”

I shifted Amber to be between me and Kelcie. “Two.”

“One.” I pushed at her, leaving a bloody handprint on her back. The girl took off running, with me a step behind. One lone harpy dove down alongside the house, aiming at her back. I flicked the blood droplet at it, and the shadows seemed to reach off the building, enveloping the harpy and dragging it back into the darkness. Amber didn’t notice a thing as Kelcie ushered her into the building. Kelcie, on the other hand, scowled at the bloody mark.

I gave her a toothy grin as I slipped over the threshold.

I hadn’t realized how late it was until we finally stepped out the door of the library to see Kinder. The moon was already high in the sky and my phone was now claiming it was Wednesday. Amber seemed to be frozen in the doorway of the library. I stepped around her into the empty parking lot.

“How is it so late already?” she asked, staring at her phone like it was lying to her.

“Fae magic does stuff like this,” I said, syncing my watch to the new time. “Though I wish you’d mentioned you were using it, Kel.”

“You asked me to unravel four different glamours, Rachael,” Kelcie said, tugging her coat around her arm cast. “And check for three more. What did you think I’d use?”

I grunted at her non-committally.

“Besides, I don’t think we lost that much time,” she said, glancing at her watch, “That still took us a few hours.”

“Should we wait until morning to talk to Kinder?” Amber asked nervously.

“And waste more time?” I said.

“Rachael is right,” Mark said, stepping out into the night sky. “We need to talk to him sooner rather than later.”

“But it’s 2 AM,” Amber whined, holding her phone out. “And I took a bus here!”

“That is unfortunate,” Mark said, “but he’ll understand. Come on, I’ll drive you.”

We all filed into two cars, me riding with Mark and Amber and the other librarians in Jeff’s car. Amber tried to give me the front seat but I pushed her into it, settling into the backseat myself.

“No summonings in my backseat,” Mark said threateningly.

“Like that’s ever been a good idea,” I said, staring up at the night sky while he drove. It was a clear night. The stars were out, though with the moon it was hard to see more than the brightest constellations. That was probably a bad sign, but the moon was still only a waxing gibbous. That meant we would have at least a few days before anything major went down.

“Is Kinder going to be mad at us?” Amber asked after several minutes of silence.

“Probably,” I said, my words overlapping with Mark’s.

“No,” he said. He scowled at me in the rearview mirror. “We couldn’t have planned for this, Rachael.”

“Sure we could have,” I said.

“Not this argument again,” Mark said, “We tried the stupid cameras, they kept breaking, remember?”

“There are other options,” I said, “But you guys seem to have a different opinion than I do about letting the general public inside.”

“We’re a library,” Mark said, reciting lines we’d gone over a million times. “What do you propose, we close the doors and tell people we’re a private collection?”

“Why don’t you?” Amber asked quietly.

“Because we’re a library,” I said, startling Mark by stealing his lines. “We’re here to serve the public, and to spread a joy of reading to the next generation. To create a community of readers and empower individuals with free access to the universe of ideas. To teach and inspire, as it were.”

I could see Mark beaming in his reflection off the front windshield. I bitterly added, “And also to protect the people from mankind’s dark past.”

He almost laughed at that. I gave him a wry smile.

“But why is that our job?” Amber asked. “That wasn’t part of my University program, I wasn’t that bad of a student.”

“Told you we should’ve hired someone local,” I said to Mark. He ignored me.

“It used to be, Amber,” he explained. “Didn’t you ever think the criteria for this job was a little high? How many other professions have a Master’s degree devoted to the field just for an entry level job?”

“I… Well… it’s not like it’s a Ph.D. or anything…” she muttered.

“Exactly,” Mark said. “You’d be well on your path to being a doctor or lawyer. Stocking books seems a little too easy for that level of education, don’t you think?”

“So why didn’t they teach us any of this?” she complained. “I didn’t exactly write my thesis on wind magic!”

“You want to field this, Rach?” Mark asked.

I snorted, sitting up in the back. “Thought you just finished her initiation, Mark. Shouldn’t you have taught her this?”

“That’s right, I did,” Mark said. “You should know this, Amber. Why are we protecting these books? What’s their source of power?”

“Belief?” she said questioningly, “Like, the more you know and the more people who believe in magic, the stronger it is?”

“Exactly!” Mark crowed, but Amber still looked confused.

“So what happens if we start teaching this to every wannabe librarian?” I prompted. “How many of your classmates are still looking for jobs? How many more dropped out?”

“Oh!” she said, the lightbulb finally going off. “But wouldn’t stronger magic make it easier for us?”

“Easier for the monsters too,” I pointed out. “They get stronger too. The fewer people in the loop, the better.”

“But the Falconers aren’t librarians,” Amber pointed out. “So where do they factor in?”

“Special case,” I said, yawning. Time skips always messed with my sleep schedule. “And one we won’t get to talk about. We’re here.”

“Rachael wait up!” Mark yelled through the back room. I didn’t slow down though. I walked down the stone, spiral staircase that lead to the library’s basement. I couldn’t afford to slow down.

“God damn it,” I heard him grumbling from the top of the stairs. “Rachael, what the hell are you planning on doing?”

“I plan on finding those books!” I yelled, not even turning my head to yell up the stairs. “And if I have to go through some fae to do so…”

I could hear him cursing the whole way down the stairs. I ignored him, moving into the stone hallway that lead away from the stairs. Brightly coloured and bejeweled doors lined the hallway beside me, but I was looking for the penultimate door in the row. At least, until we reached the common room at the end of the hall.

I passed the green door, covered in a leafy pattern and intertwined with mahogany vines. Different shades of green were interwoven into the door, forming an image that seemed different at every angle of the door. At one angle, it looked like a tree reaching up to the sky. At another, it looked like there was an entire forest in the mahogony vines. I took a few more steps and the vines seemed to melt away, forming an open field of yellow flowers. I looked away before I could see them transform into eyes.

The next door was as blue as the previous one was green. It rippled and shimmered between different shades and hues. Mother-of-pearl inlays formed peaks and waves over a door that seemed to be constantly in motion while staying perfectly still. But that wasn’t the door I wanted either.

The next door was mine. I didn’t even need to look to recognize it, but I did anyways. It was the colour of dark washed jeans, the shade of the night sky, the sort of unnatural hue that made you question if it was purple or blue. The shade seemed to seamlessly fade between the two colours, broken only by the onyx black symbols that were scrawled across it.

“Rachael, stop!” Mark yelled. I could hear the anger in his voice and I sighed, stopping outside of my door. He approached me like an incoming storm.

“For fuck’s sake, Rachael, we’re supposed to be a team here!” he raged, his footsteps ringing angrily down the hall past the red door. “This is not drama tv! This is not the goddamn ‘Rachael goes Jack Bauer on everyone’ show!”

He was walking past the yellow door now, the golden light playing over his stern face. I pointed at the indigo door. “I can fix this!”

“There is a process here, Rachael!” he yelled, stomping past the green door that stared at him with cat-like eyes. “A process that you’re very much ignoring. Before we go unleashing even more evils on the world…”

He was standing in front of me now, staring up at me in a way that made me feel small, despite my extra inches on him. “We talk to Kinder first,” he concluded.

I sighed. “I could figure this out in 3 questions, Mark.”

“We talk to Kinder first,” he repeated, hands on his hips.

“And you’re willing to admit we fucked up?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “Is that what you’re worried about here? Not the ‘tomes of unspeakable danger unleashed upon the modern world’? Admitting that we got caught with our pants around our feet is what scares you?”

“No,” I said sulkily.

“Out of the basement, Rachael,” he said, pointing towards the staircase. I sighed again, walking back towards the rainbow of doors.

“I hope you’re willing to be the one to explain everything to Kinder,” I grumbled.

“I will explain,” he said, following behind me. “And I will explain to the Falconers, if we need to.”

“And if that all fails?” I said bitterly.

“Then I will be be the first to advocate for plan Jack Bauer,” he said. “But we will do this everyone’s approval.”

“I don’t know why you all freak out over a tiny little summoning,” I muttered.

Mark sighed as I started climbing the stairs. “We’re here to contain evils, Rachael. Not unleash them.”

“I don’t unleash anything,” I retorted. “I use them!”

“Yes yes,” he said patronizingly, pushing me gently through the backroom and back out into the lobby where the other five librarians waited.

“Did you come up with anything?” I demanded of Karen and Kelcie as soon as I saw them.

Kelcie looked about ready to strangle me right there but Karen shook her head. “It’s an oak leaf, Rachael. I don’t know what you want me to tell you. Oak trees are sometimes considered sacred? They used to hold the birds that were the messengers to goddesses? That might explain the feather but it could really be anything. The Earth realm doesn’t have nearly as much symbolism as yours.”

“That might be useful,” I muttered, “Kelcie, anything?”

“I already told you, that’s useless for me,” she said between grit teeth, “With Fae it’s as likely to be a red herring as it is to be real symbol.”

I grunted, turning the information over in my head. Mark cleared his throat noisily, interrupting me.

“We’ve decided,” he said, giving me a dark look, “that it would be best to go to Kinder right now. Hopefully, he’ll have some insight on what to do next.”

Amber let out a gasp. I couldn’t help but let out a dark laugh at her reaction.

“Yeah, if you think I’m scary, wait until you meet Kinder.”