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But I manage to keep it together.

I even lob a few more books at Hannigan as he does his best to get me down. He shoves shelves until they shake, and I stumble; his sword almost spears one of my sneakers on one particular leap. And I know he’s going to climb up here, too, at some point. I can feel him getting ready to.

Which wouldn’t be good for what I’ve got in mind.

I have to keep him on the ground for now. But how?

Talk, memories of Madison suggest. Distract him, memories of Maisy add.

So I do. “It must really chap your ass that you went to all this trouble, all this spell work to make me doubt, in life after life, and he still always chooses me,” I say as I crouch and peer into the nook at the end of the library. I can see something in there, something that could be Sten. But I can’t be sure from up here.

“Any man may be hypnotized by a whore,” he spits, and when he does I think of Sten saying that his culture isn’t puritanical. Just you being a horrible piece of shit, then, I want to yell at him. But the good thing about his rage is it’s made him a little less sharp. He goes left when I slide down, and to the right.

I can make it into that cubby, I think, to a soundtrack of him calling me a slut in about seventeen different ways. “You filthy creature,” he screams at one point, as I try to inch toward that dark space. Back to one shelf, for a moment, when I see his shadow on the wall, then a quick flit across as he sinks deeper into the library.

Or, at least, I think he sinks deeper into the library.

But apparently he’s not as silly as he seems, because the second I step out I feel it across my back. A white-hot line of agony, brutal enough that I go to one knee. I cry out and put a hand over that pain. And sure enough, it comes away bloody.

There’s no time to worry about it, however.

If I don’t move the next slashed thing is going to be my neck. In fact I think I feel it cutting through the air, then just instinctively I press myself against the floor. And it’s good that I do, because that is definitely a haircut I just got. I see shreds of it suddenly in the air, and try to shoot forward.

But the fucker actually steps on my right leg.

It stops me cold, and hard enough that it jars my body. My teeth snap together, almost abrupt enough to bite off a bit of tongue. “You bastard,” I shout, and kick out at him with my free leg.

But I know that’s not going to work.

I’m a goner. I got this all wrong.

At least I’ll see you in another life, my love, I think, and close my eyes. I wait for my inevitable fate. And instead, I get the weirdest sensation. It feels like a baby duckling breathing on me. A little ghost of air against my face, and then a crash somewhere far away. The other end of the library, it seems.

Though I’m still nervous about checking.

I stay like that, frozen, too afraid to hope.

He has to speak before I can open my eyes. “Do not fear, my sorceress,” he says. “I am with you.” Then I see him standing over me, one hand reached out to help me up.

And it has to be one hand, too.

Because he’s missing a fucking arm.

“What the fucking fuck,” I blurt out on seeing the whole-ass bloody stump. And okay, it’s not exactly bleeding now. It’s clearly knitting itself back together pretty fast, and if we had an hour it’d probably be back to being an arm. But the problem is—we don’t have an hour.

He tossed his dad across a library.

He didn’t send him into another dimension.

Give it a minute and he’s going to try to cut us into pieces again, and I just don’t know if Sten has enough in him to fend the man off a second time. “Did you not think it might be useful to be a full-strength vampire against your deranged father,” I say, though even before he answers I know that’s unfair.

I can already tell what he’s done here.

But god, when he explains.

“I had to wrench it off. He bound me to the wall with silver,” he says.

Now who’s the foolish one, I think at his currently hopefully unconscious dad. Imagine believing he wouldn’t pop off his own limbs to stop you killing me. Though I don’t let myself linger on this glee. I get up and get my shoulder under his still intact arm, and help him to stay upright.