For a moment, Alice didn’t think anyone was going to obey. Then Garret shot Ellen a sharp glance, and she swallowed and raised her hand. Beams of brilliant white light lanced out from her halo, reaching for Alice like spreading fingers. Alice ducked, wrapping herself in the Swarm thread. Where the blasts hit the shelves behind her, books exploded, burned pages fluttering down all around her.

Between blinks, Dex encased herself in the silver armor of her caryatid, and the young girl, Jennifer, raised her arms and summoned an enormous hawk. The bird rose above her with a screech, eyes trained on Alice as it flapped madly to gain height. In the center of the confusion, shadows roiled around Garret, but the blades of darkness Alice had been expecting didn’t materialize. Thank goodness for small favors.

Even if she’d been willing to fight the other apprentices, she didn’t think she’d be able to win against all five of them. She paused, ducked another beam from Ellen, and shouted to Isaac.

“Now!”

Isaac, still hidden around the corner, demonstrated his latest trick, calling on the powers of the iceling and the salamander at the same time. Frost whispered across the ground, painting it with a slick of feathery ice that flashed almost instantly into steam as the salamander’s fiery breath rolled over it. Thick, white clouds billowed up, engulfing Alice and the other apprentices in fog.

Alice could still see Ellen’s halo, shining through the murk like a lighthouse, and she sighted on that. She yanked hard on Spike’s thread, pulling the dinosaur into the world, and then sent him charging toward the apprentices. His claws clattered like horseshoes on the stones as he built up speed, head lowered to bare his horns.

Anyone he hit would either be trampled or skewered, but Alice hoped none of the apprentices were that stupid. She watched Ellen’s light move as the girl dodged, vanishing into an aisle. Spike crashed through where the rest of them had been standing, mist swirling in his wake, and let out a bellow.

Then Alice played her trump card. She took hold of the fabric of the labyrinth and twisted hard. Every one of the aisles that the apprentices had used was suddenly there instead of here, scattered across the vastness of the library. Alice could still feel them through the fabric, tiny movements, like beetles running across her dress. They’d been split up into at least three groups, though it was hard to tell exactly who was where.

“You can come out now,” she called over her shoulder, waving at the fog. “And get rid of this stuff.”