Paper and Fire

ALSO BY RACHEL CAINE

THE GREAT LIBRARY

Ink and Bone

Prince of Shadows

THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES NOVELS

Glass Houses

The Dead Girls’ Dance

Midnight Alley

Feast of Fools

Lord of Misrule

Carpe Corpus

Fade Out

Kiss of Death

Ghost Town

Bite Club

Last Breath

Black Dawn

Bitter Blood

Fall of Night

Daylighters

Midnight Bites

(short story collection)

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

Published by New American Library,

an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

This book is an original publication of New American Library.

Copyright © Rachel Caine LLC, 2016

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Names: Caine, Rachel, author.

Title: Paper and fire / Rachel Caine.

Description: New York, New York: New American Library, [2016] | Series: The

Great Library; 2

Identifiers: LCCN 2016000404 (print) | LCCN 2016005835 (ebook) | ISBN

9780451472403 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780698180826 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Libraries—Fiction. | Alexandrian Library—Fiction. | BISAC:

JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action &

Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Love & Romance. | GSAFD:

Alternative histories (Fiction) | Dystopias.

Classification: LCC PS3603.O557 P37 2016 (print) | LCC PS3603.O557 (ebook) |

DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000404

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version_1

To the scholars. To the students. To the librarians.
To those who fight for all of those every day.
Shine the light.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have many people to thank for the very existence of this book, including my husband, R. Cat Conrad (who has been extremely patient during a difficult writing process); my amazing assistant, Sarah Weiss (ditto); my agent, Lucienne Diver (double double ditto); and my editor, Anne Sowards, She of the Greatest Patience of All, Ever.

Special thanks to my sanity readers, Tez, Sarah, Becky Tyree, and Sarah Tyree.

CONTENTS

ALSO BY RACHEL CAINE

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER ONE

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER TWO

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER THREE

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER FOUR

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER FIVE

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER SIX

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER SEVEN

EPHEMERA

CHAPTER EIGHT

EPHEMERA