Oz

By some miracle, the group managed to sneak past the first set of the castle's guards with a little help from Ilithyia, who had distracted them. Once they got inside, they gathered into the first room they could find, and Liam looked at each of them while he kept his voice low.

“We’ve got to split up,” he whispered. “We can’t do anything without that spell book, and then we’ve gotta get our hands on that wand.”

The group nodded in agreement, and Marianne could feel her hands shaking at her sides. Liam looked to first and nodded. “You’ll go with me.”

Marianne looked to her brother, who had his eyes on Cecily, before nodding in agreement.

“You all remember the knocks?” Liam asked the group, and everyone nodded except Marianne and Louis, who had no clue what he was talking about. The rest of the group split up and decided on which areas of the castle they would each take, and in a few moments they were ready to begin their searching.

She and Liam were the first to leave the room, tiptoeing down the hall and up the stairs. Liam had a small knowledge of the layout of the castle, which Marianne didn’t bother questioning, and he seemed like he had a particular destination in mind as they turned down several hallways before landing at a room with a large set of double doors.

Liam pulled the doors open slowly, careful not to make a sound, and the two slipped in as soon as it was cracked enough for their bodies to slip through.

The room was covered wall-to-wall with large, leather bound books, and it only took Marianne a few moments to realize they were in a library.

“Seems like the most logical place to start, yeah?” Liam whispered, looking at her with his lips twisted.

She nodded her head, her eyes wide as she looked at the thousands of books in front of them. “But where do we start?”

Liam shrugged his shoulders as he clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “The last place they’d expect someone to look, I guess.”

He took a few short steps while Marianne paused for a moment, taking a deep breath as she looked at the overwhelming amount of books they had to look through. They only had a limited time to get what they needed, and it seemed like an impossible task with everything that was standing in their way.

With one last breath, Marianne took a step over to the bookshelf nearest the door while Liam moved to the one next to her. Her eyes moved over the bookshelf, completely taken aback by how many books there were that looked exactly the same. She thumbed through the books with a sudden sense of urgency, when out of the corner of her eye she spotted an emerald green book that wasn’t covered with the same thick layer of dust that the rest of them were.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she reached for it, pulling it from its place with her fingers shaking. It was heavier than she expected, and she held it in her arms with her eyes open wide. Lifting her hand slowly, she flipped the book open, and when she was met with strange words and odds pictures with only headings she could understand, she knew she had the right book.

“Li – Liam,” she stuttered, her hands suddenly feeling like they were on fire. “I think I found it.”

Liam ran to her side as quickly as he could, and when he reached her side, he let out a long breath.

“This is it,” he said, pulling the book from her hands and thumbing through it. When he found what he needed, he ripped the page from the book and handed it to Marianne. “You keep this. We’ve gotta go.”

A faint knocking sounded throughout the room, and Liam’s eyes popped open as he looked up, his ears open wide to listen for the noise. A few more knocks came and Liam looked at Marianne with his eyes big again. “Let’s go.”

Marianne followed quietly behind Liam, who seemed like he knew exactly where he was going, and in just moments he had his hands held out behind him, motioning for her to stop moving. She stopped dead in her tracks while he peeked through a door, and Marianne couldn’t help but lean her head with him.

Inside the large ballroom was the rest of the group – every last one of them, including her brother – and Zayn and Evangeline standing in front of them while they were all on their knees.

“Louis,” Marianne whispered, tugging on Liam’s shirt. “We’ve got to help them.”

Liam turned his head around to face her and shook it. “You won’t do any good there. Stay back until I call your name.”

“What?”

Marianne didn’t get an answer before Liam was running forward, catching everyone of guard, and tackling Evangeline to the ground. Marianne could only watch with wide eyes as the two wrestled around, with Zayn giving a few kicks to Liam’s ribs, which caused him to groan. Marianne eyes stung with tears as she watched Liam get kicked and paraded by the two until Zayn finally pulled him up onto his feet.

Liam’s lip was puffy and his mouth was covered in blood as Zayn stared at him. “You dare to cross me!” Zayn shouted, a laugh pouring from his lips. “You stupid boy.”

A smile fell to Liam’s lips and he held his hand in the air as he moved his gaze to where he knew Marianne was hiding. “Marianne, now!”

Marianne didn’t know what she was doing, but she took a step forward, and that was when Liam chucked his arm forward and Evangeline’s wand flew from his grasp, right at Marianne. It fell easily into her hands, though she had never been good at catching, and as soon as it hit her fingers she knew what she had to.

She pulled out the piece of paper Liam had given her, tears pouring down her face as Zayn dropped Liam to the ground and went charging for her.

“Eritque arcus in quodam loco de hyacintho caelo sunt,” she shouted, her hands trembling as they moved closer. “A summo usque somniorum quae aliquando viderat tibi iuvante sequi.”

Suddenly, a white light enveloped the room, making it so everyone was completely blind. Marianne’s head was spinning and she collapsed to the ground in a heap. When the light cleared, the group was standing again, with Marianne still on the floor, and Evangeline and Zayn were nowhere to be found.

"What happened?!" Louis shouted, running over to his sister as Liam followed quickly behind him.

"It was an old spell," Liam answered, his voice low as he and Louis hovered over Marianne, whose eyes were slowly beginning to open again. "We've banished Zayn and Evangeline to your world, where they will have no power." He paused, pressing his lips together as he looked down at Marianne. "It's safe now. You both can go home."