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‘Only a fool would make a deal with you,’ Brada cabinet

‘Accurate but impertinent’ The holes in Alberich’s forehead were bloodless, and unnaturally dark, with neither flesh nor bone visible He raised his hand, palreater lords of the Fae don’t manifest in their true form in the physical worlds Do you knohy?’

‘Their chaos is too great,’ Brada questioned in class ‘They would unmake a world’

‘Exactly,’ Alberich purred ‘And you wouldn’t want that’ The very air began to shudder around his hand It sh to burn a hole in reality ‘And to prevent that manifestation, I only need one of you with your skin intact’

Irene breathed He hadn’t forbidden her to do that And she was not going to accept the binding he had set on her She was a Librarian, and while that made her the Library’s servant, it was also a protection The Language was her freedom Bradamant had told her to move freely She could not allow

and her brand was a weight across her back, a heavy burden, trying to force her to her knees

she would not

white hot iron, searing into her

permit him to do this She refused to subreater Librarians than herself, she was not going to accept his binding

Irene opened herher lips seemed to take years as she watched dark fire blosso to distract hiive her time to invoke the Library And it came to her in a burst of inspiration ‘Jennifer Mooney’s skin! Get off that body now!’

And it did In rags and tatters, like a piece of clothing being ripped apart along the seams The flame around Alberich’s hand died, and he opened hisapart like the pale fragments of skin What lay behind it was so painful to Irene’s eyes that she had to turn and shield the hole into some place or universe that should not exist on any hu muscle, tendon and blood – but also colours andspaces on her retinas She’d seen thingsstructures which ile as a curtain which soh at any , and she could hear Brada out as well Yet behind it all was Alberich, his voice higher than any hue and pain