My flight carried me forward, putting the pillar between me and the barber, blocking my view.
The bell was loud, down there. It was loud above.
I was almost certain now.
“Up, fast!” I said, as I found a warmer air current. I flapped my wings. Evan joined me, and we worked to climb our way.
It didn’t take long to catch up to the others, even with the delay. The staircase was steep, and flying beat already-exhausted legs climbing what had to be twenty stories.
Especially when the Others kept coming at them. Lost souls worming their way out between shelves like so many maggots in a carcass. Now and again, an Other would appear.
Several of the Knights had abandoned their guns, ammunition spent. The ones that had guns were saving the bullets for the Others.
There were so many Others around them that the collected pile of bodies on the stairs was impeding progress.
I circled around, and landed on the outside of the railing, further up.
“Rose!” I called out, roaring over the noise of the bell.
A bullet penetrated my chest. I very nearly lost my grip.
“Shit! Sorry!” One of the Knights called out.
Nick snatched the man’s gun from him and passed it to another Knight.
I touched the bullet wound.
Rose and Alister had rivers of sweat running down their faces, and it wasn’t hot. They were dirty, spattered in blood, and Alister seemed lightly wounded, though he still managed to help Rose, one hand on her shoulder.
“Can’t stop,” Rose said.
“Stop!” I called out. “Stop making noise!”
Ironic, that I had to shout out over the bell to say it.
She and Alister glanced at one another.
Behind them, Ellie screamed as a haggard old man reached between books on the shelf and tried to drag her closer. Her back to the railing, she kicked the man in the face.
Ellie seemed to like doing that, as it happened.
The railing, in that same moment, gave way. Karma? Whatever it was, Johannes and a Knight reached for her. Two baseball players going for the same ball. Counterintuitive. Both failed, where one might have succeeded.
I took flight, Evan helping.
As rescues went, it wasn’t graceful. It might not have even counted as a rescue, given how crude it was. I veered into her, slamming her back toward bookshelves and stairs. It kept her from falling the entire way down to the ground floor and the Barber, but it was only about as graceful as my last collision with the shelves. Except Ellie wasn’t the type to heal within minutes, she was meat.
We collapsed in a heap, and stairs creaked, threatening to break and drop us even further, as we reeled from the impact. She was hurt, and I was very aware that I didn’t want to hurt her further.
I saw a set of red eyes peering between books. No back to the bookcase here.
I shook my head.
The lower lids of the eyes raised, as if the cheekbones were rising. Glee? Opening its mouth?
A hand snapped out, tipped with black claws.
I grabbed it.
“The fuck!?” Ellie gasped.
I shoved my wing into her lower face. The closest I could approximate to a finger pressed against her lip.
“Shhhh,” I whispered.
I dug wooden fingers into the flesh of the Other’s wrist, sharp, intended to hurt, and as it gave me leeway, I twisted the arm, bending it backward, forcing it into the shelf.
I heard the moan and growl of pain.
My fingers sank in to the first knuckle, blood welling around them.
The Other screamed, long, loud.
The scream was interrupted as something else behind the bookshelf seized it, tearing it away so quickly and so suddenly that only part of his hand was left in my grip. The ring and pinky finger, and a bit of the upper palm.
The noise in my head got louder.
Ellie was staring at me.
I joined her in looking at the piece of hand, then quickly tossed it back, over the railing.
I climbed off Ellie and gave her some assistance as she found her feet.
Looking where the Other had attacked from, I saw the spines of books. Gibberish, running ink, scratched spine, and a book titled The Lies Rose Has Told You.
I took hold of the book, then pushed it past the bookshelf, into the dark void beyond, where monsters seemed to dwell and stew, ready to emerge.
“You okay to move?” I whispered.
“Have to be,” Ellie said. “No way I’m staying behind like Kathy did.”
I nodded. I flexed one wing, and I wasn’t sure I liked the structural integrity of it. It had been lightly damaged, and being this high up, I wasn’t sure I wanted to try to fly and fail.
I opted to ascend on foot, instead. Staying closer to Ellie.
We were a full story down from the others, now. We were quiet on the ascent, but we still moved as fast as we were able. Ellie was clearly hurting, wincing, moving with a limping sort of gait, favoring her back, but she didn’t complain, and there was something dogged about her persistence.
“You keep doing this,” Evan said. “Jumping on the grenades.”
“I think the Abyss knows it,” I said. “It keeps encouraging me to.”
“Well stop! Because the guy that’s made of wood is the guy that’s gotta stay behind with the fire and the demon? That makes no sense at all!”
“Quiet!” I hissed, “We’re in a damn library!”
For a moment, he seemed stunned. He blinked.
“It’s like you’re trying to die,” he said, his voice almost a whisper.
“I’m not-”
“You’re making it awfully hard to keep you alive. I don’t know if I’ll get another chance to say it before you do something else that’s stupid, but you keep playing with fire? Dragon, demon, The third time counts.”
“Faysal, maybe,” I said. “Dunno if he has fire, but it could be angelic, light, energy…”
“Fay- No. You’re not getting it, you nincompoop. We do this as a team. We kick his butt and you live, and then we figure out where we go from there!”
“Shh,” I said. “I’m not disagreeing. But shhh.”
I saw him bob his head in a nod.
Ellie spoke up. “What are you talking about? Kathy just got magicked or something and we’re so supremely fucked, and you’re seriously thinking this could turn out okay?”
“You’re not?” Evan shot back. “How can you get through something like this if you don’t believe you can?”
We’d just reached the tail end of the other group. They’d stopped where they were, and were taking a breather.
Sure enough, now that the were being quiet, the influx of Others had stopped. The Library was relaxing.
But I could see every head turn skyward as a rumble shook the entire area. Books fell off shelves here and there, and one tall bookcase toppled, forming an arch with another tilted bookcase.
“We make noise if we move,” Rose said, her voice low, still carrying well with that Conquest voice she had a way of tapping into. “But if we stay still, we sink.”
“Lose-lose,” Alexis said.
“It’s the way the Abyss works,” I agreed.
There were screams from far below, a rumble as something shifted into place elsewhere. Candleflames throughout the Library swayed, very nearly going out.
“Flying’s the way to go,” Evan said. “Minimal flapping, find the hot air…”
“We don’t fly, you little moron,” Ellie spoke. “Why am I just now realizing I’m arguing with a bird like it’s normal?”