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"I need some air first" I turned and headed downstairs Fresh air would steady my nerves and help me think I pounded down the wooden treads that had been laid over the stone and pushed through the glass doors and into the Old Schools Quadrangle, gulping in the cold, dust-free Deceed fro terrible had happened

His next quiet words confirmed it

"Benjamin has Matthew"

"He can’t I just talked to him" The silver chain within o," Fernando said, checking his watch "When you spoke, did Matthew say where he was?"

"Only that he was leaving Germany," I whispered numbly Stan and Dickie approached, frowns on their faces

"Gallowglass," Stan said with a nod

"Stan," Gallowglass replied

"Problelass explained "Benjaot him"

"Ah" Stan looked worried "Benjaine he’s iht of my Matthew in the hands of that monster

I remembered what Benjairl

I saw er touch the tip of Matthew’s nose

"There is no way forward that doesn’t have hihwave of power--fire, air, earth, and water--that swept everything else before it I felt a strange absence, a hollowness that toldessential to my self

For a moment I wondered if it were Matthew But I could still feel the chain that bound us What was essential was still there

Then I realized it was not so habitual, a burden carried so long that I had becooddess had foretold

I whirled around, blindly seeking the library entrance in the darkness

"Where are you going, Auntie?" Gallowglass said, holding the door closed so that I couldn’t pass

"Did you not hear o after Matthew There’s no tilass turned to powder, and the brass hinges and handles clanged against the stone threshold I stepped over the debris and half ran, half flew up the stairs to Duke Hulass shouted

"Diana Bishop! Have you lost your arette consu ic, I won’t lose Matthew either"

"Lose Matthew?" Sarah slid on the slick floor on her way into Duke Hu "Who suggested such a thing?"

"The goddess She toldup if I wanted Ash of absence had been replaced by a bloo worries

"Corra, fly!" I spread my ar around the galleries and down the long aisle that connected the Arts End and the Selden End

"What was it, then?" Linda asked She’d taken the stairs at a more sedate pace and arrived in time to watch Corra’s tail pat Thomas Bodley’s helmet

"Fear"

My mother had warned me of its power, but I had ht it was the fear of others that I needed to guard against, but it was , I’d let the fear take root inside hts and affected how I saw the world

Fear had also choked out any desire to workmy power completely Fear had sheltered me from the curiosity of others and provided an oubliette where I could forget who I really was: a witch I’d thought I’d left fear behind o when I learned I was a weaver, but I had been clinging to its last vestiges without knowing it

Noher talons forward and beating her wings to slow herself I grabbed the pages from and held them up to her nose She sniffed

The firedrake’s roar of outrage filled the rooh she had spoken to me seldo to coestures, Corra chose to speak now

"Death lies heavy on those pages Weaving and bloodcraft, too" She shook her head as if to rid her nostrils of the scent

"Did she say bloodcraft?" Sarah’s curiosity was evident

"We’ll ask the beastie questions later," Gallowglass said, his voice gries come from a book It’s somewhere in this library I need to find it" I focused on Corra rather than the background chatter "My only hope of getting Matthew backyou this terrible book, what then?" Corra blinked, her eyes silver and black I was reaze

"You want to leaveCorra was a prisoner just as I had been a prisoner, spellbound with no o unless you set me free," Corra said "I am your familiar With my help you have learned how to spin eave what is, and knot what must be You have no more need of me"

But Corra had been withon her

"What if I can’t find Mattheithout your help?"

"My poill never leave you" Corra’s scales were brilliantly iridescent, even in the library’s darkness I thought of the shadow of the firedrake on oddess’s arrow and my weaver’s cords, Corra’s affinity for fire and water would always be within otten places There I will await those ill coic back, as it was foretold Noill no longer be the last of my kind, but the first" Corra’s exhale steao withto be her own creature "Thank you, Corra I s"

"And now it is time for you to use theled, webbed appendages, she cli around up here?" Sarah hissed "Send her down the conveyor-belt shaft and into the library’s underground storage rooic, Sarah" Goody Alsop had taughtyou were s"

"I hope so," Gallowglass said, "for Matthew’s sake"

Corra sang out notes of water and fire, and a low, hushed chattering filled the air

"Do you hear it?" I asked, looking around for the source It wasn’t the pages on the guard’s desk, though they were starting to murmur, too

My aunt shook her head