“No,” Ashes said. “Even the old Readers couldn’t manage that, not on a few hours’ notice. Mother thinks the spell they gave you was a shield, something that would block off the library entirely when you activated it, cut off all the portals. The Ouroborean would be trapped here.”

“Along with all of us?” Isaac said.

Ashes nodded.

“Of course,” Alice said. “You—we—are expendable.”

“I . . .” Dex’s unflappable cheer cracked, just for a moment, and there was something lost and scared behind it. “I don’t know. The Most Favored . . . she wouldn’t . . .”

“Master Vin wouldn’t just send us to die,” Michael said.

“My master would,” Isaac snapped. “And yours would too. That’s what apprentices are for. You don’t get to be an old Reader by taking risks.”

“Ashes, what do we do?” Alice asked. “How do we stop that thing?”

“You don’t,” Ashes said. “I’m sorry. Once it’s activated, the Ouroborean will keep going until it runs out of magic to absorb. You can slash it, crush it, smash it, whatever you want, but it won’t stop. It’s a spell that feeds itself.”

Guilt tightened her chest. “There has to be something! If it devours all the books in the library—all the portals—” Flicker told me it was locking the portals in books that started his world’s decline. What would happen if they were destroyed entirely? “It’s not just the library that’s at stake. Every world connected to it is in danger.”

“The Readers will stop it eventually, but not soon enough for anyone here. Mother said the only thing you can do is get out of the way. Take the first portal you can find, and keep running until you get to another one.” Ashes lowered his head miserably. “I’m sorry.”

“But—what about Ending?” Alice said. “She’s trapped here, isn’t she?”

The cat looked at the floor and said nothing. Everyone was silent.

Pyros told me to stay away from the prison. So did Helga. But I had to have revenge, and now everyone else is going to suffer for it. Guilt and anger warred inside her. The Readers collect “tribute” and say they provide protection, but they don’t dare risk themselves. They’ll sacrifice their apprentices without a second thought just to protect themselves. They made the Ouroborean. She had a sudden image of the old Readers as vast monsters, squatting over the landscape of a thousand worlds, devouring them to feed their appetite for power and their paranoia. “His magic is based on cruelty and death.” Ending told me that, but I never really understood it.

Revenge on Geryon wasn’t enough. It would never have been enough. Because it’s not just about Geryon. He hurt me, but the old Readers are hurting everyone. Someone has to stop them. Someone has to take responsibility.

Starting now.