Chapter 22 · The Date That Doesn't Exist

"Your barrier work's decent."

Karl's voice came from inside my salt line. One second the space between me and Leon was empty. The next, Karl stood there, boots planted in the salt, one hand resting near the knife at his belt.

The line didn't even twitch.

I grabbed Leon by the collar and dragged him behind me. His head lolled against my shoulder, breath scraping in and out. Karl watched him, then looked back at me.

"Move away from the boy."

"Try making me."

"I don't want him. I want the archives." Karl stepped over the salt like it was a crack in the floor. "You broke the outer barrier. That opened my only route in."

The students pressed against the far wall. Nobody moved. Good. If Karl could walk through my ward, I didn't want anyone testing what else he could do.

He looked younger than the file photograph. Twenty, maybe. The black burns climbing his neck ruined the illusion. They cut through his skin in crooked lines, as if the spell had started erasing him and stopped halfway.

"You're dead," I said.

"That's what the school wrote down."

He pulled a bundle from inside his coat.