Book of Thay Glitch in Act 1, Please help

In act 1 I retrieved the Book of Thay, used the amethyst on it, and beat all 3 skill checks.

However, it wouldn’t let me actually pick up the book and keep it. Like it just would not go into my inventory. So I left it.

Now, I know I’m cooked in terms of Dance Macabre (this is my first playthrough ever so don’t judge…) but has this happened to anyone else? I can’t find anything on it.

Maybe it’s because I didn’t have the strength to save Gale, so he never actually joined my team at the start? Or bc Halsin was left behind due to not lifting the curse?

I want to know if this was player choice related or game bug related. Was I supposed to be able to pick this up without Gale on my team? Is it broken because I didn’t save him? Or is it just… broken?