Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Going to the Library as instructed, Nicholas remembers his kidnapping, at the age of 13 in San Francisco, when he’d been interrogated about “how the books were being written and by whom” (133). He later woke up in a hospital bed. He remembers learning he’d been found because of a tracking spell the Library includes in all their books, and he recalls his uncle’s promise that he would never be in danger like that again. He finds the book in Maram’s note, which contains a spell for turning chemical propellants (like gunpowder) into bees. The book contains another note from Maram with another call number, and its book “causes solid unliving objects to become translucent and breachable” (138). Nicholas is surprised to find the book had its last page rewritten to be rechargeable. He notes that the bookshelf is marked with an X and that something must be hidden behind the shelf. Because his immunity to magic makes it inaccessible to him, Nicholas asks Collins to read the spell. When Collins hesitates, Nicholas offers to write him a spell to reverse his NDA. Collins reads the spell, and the bookshelf reveals a door with a staircase behind it.

Trapped by Cecily’s spell but exhausted from her initial display of “furious emotion,” Joanna guesses at the reasons for her mother’s actions, but doesn’t receive a reply. Cecily says she just needs to get inside the house. Joanna attempts a bargain, telling Cecily that she’ll take her to the house if she’ll answer three questions under a truth spell. Cecily replies that she can’t but seems interested in making a deal. They decide that Joanna will take Cecily to the house blindfolded and can do what she needs to do, provided she doesn’t go to the basement or interfere with the wards. If she doesn’t abide by these terms, Joanna will never speak to her again.

Pearl confronts Esther, having heard from one of the front office staff about Esther’s plans to leave. Esther accuses Pearl of stealing the book. Pearl acts confused and tells Esther that she’s going skiing which Trev, one of the new arrivals, and that they can talk when she’s back. Esther interprets Pearl’s information about her plans as an invitation to search Pearl’s room for the book. Esther wonders if it’s a trap but can’t resist searching. She notices dried blood on the mirror but doesn’t find the book. Trev returns from skiing to announce that Pearl has fallen and broken her wrist, and when Esther arrives in the infirmary, Trev locks the door from the inside and pulls out a gun.

Nicholas and Collins proceed into the passage and up the staircase to find a room with 10 mirrors, with labels like “bathroom,” “gym,” and “clinic,” each displaying its respective room. They realize there’s another room and enter Richard’s study. Nicholas finds a leather binder with a drafted spell, as well as a cloth-bound book with the spell Richard uses once a year in an attempt to locate other Scribes. Collins tells Nicholas he needs to see something: an eye in a jar, which Nicholas recognizes as his own. He realizes his kidnapping must have been staged by the library. Looking closer at the spell draft, he realizes that it’s an immortality spell that would require two Scribes to complete it. It would also require a body, sinew, bones, and blood.

Nicholas remembers an interaction with Richard years earlier, after Nicholas had written a magic carpet spell but was unable to find anyone to read it for him. Richard had taken him to the grounds and allowed him to try the spell, which was a sublimely happy experience, then told him that “secrets are bad news” (175). Present-day Nicholas feels resentful at the one-sided nature of Richard’s view on secrets. Collins calls Nicholas back into the room with mirrors. He has seen Tretheway—a bodyguard they thought was fired—in the clinic in the Antarctic station with Pearl and Esther, though they do not know who the women are. They watch Esther and Tretheway/Trev fight but are unable to hear the scene, which is “all the more horrifying for being completely silent” (178). When Trev begins to strangle Esther, Pearl hits him with a flower vase, grabs his gun, and shoots him. She and Esther converse, then begin to push Trev through the mirror, which mangles his body.

Esther takes a spell book from Trev’s pocket, which Nicholas recognizes through the mirror as one he had written himself; the spell erases the past 24 hours of memory. Esther decides that Pearl deserves an explanation and tells her about her family’s collection of magical books, her mother’s murder, and her decision to leave home to protect her family. After, Esther gives Pearl a choice about erasing the memory, and Pearl says yes, because she “can’t handle knowing right now. Alone” (188). She makes Esther promise to find her and tell her again when she’s safe. Esther searches Trev’s room and is disappointed not to find the Gil novel. She destroys both the mirror spell and the memory erasing spell.

Joanna lets Cecily into the house. Cecily proceeds to Esther’s room, asking to see the mirror that was left in the corner. She writes a note, asking the recipient to find a way to let her know things are under control or if help is needed, adding that “it’s time to break my side of our agreement […] please end it” (197). Cecily folds Esther’s latest Antarctic postcard into the mirror. Cecily tells Joanna she needs three days, and then she will come back and suspend the spell.

While Nicholas is hesitant to produce the blood ink required to write magic now that he no longer trusts Richard, Collins reminds him not to tell his uncle about the previous night. The bloodletting ritual proceeds. When he’s back in his room, Maram arrives and asks to have a word with him and Collins in Nicholas’s study. She confirms that it was in fact Nicholas’s eye in the jar, though she immediately devolves into a coughing fit, proof that she too is under a silencing spell. She gives Collins an envelope and reminds him to “drop them” when they get where they’re going. He seems to understand, though he’s surprised that it’s happening now, while Maram and Richard are out for the day. When Maram and Richard leave, Collins tells Nicholas to pack and admits that Nicholas was never safe at the Library. Nicholas realizes the “attack” in the car had been a ruse to scare him, with Collins’s gun charmed to emit bees instead of bullets.