Chapter 30
Thirty
Kyrith
It doesn’t take much searching to find Leo. He’s in his usual chair in the Astrology Room, but agitation cloaks him. His foot jiggles where it rests on his opposite knee, and he flicks back and forth between two pages like he’s unable to take in the words.
Instinct says that speaking won’t help. I float closer to him anyway, drawn by some invisible tether until I’m by his side. Tugging on my sleeve, I debate my next move for half a second, but I’m spared from deciding because he lifts a single hand and points to the cushion on the floor by his feet.
Something akin to relief flitters between my ribs, stealing the tension. The last sparks of anxiety fizzle out entirely when my knees hit the soft fabric and his hand falls into my hair.
Leo stills. His foot ceases its incessant bouncing, and the sound of the pages turning above slows, becoming more purposeful.
I’m not the only one who feels this ease.
Summoning my work onto the rug in front of me, I resume the tedious process of comparing the second runeform to the star charts.
I’ve already matched the first, and my work floats up to Leo, whose harsh inbreath is remarkably satisfying.
He’ll double-check my workings, and I let him, content to work as his fingers absently pet my hair.
The frustrated miasma drains from the room as paper rustles and progress is slowly, silently, made.
An hour passes, then two. Time blurs a little, until the weight of something piercing and amused drags me from my focused state.
His eyes, I realise, daring a glance up. He’s staring at me, and the sheer intensity of it is like a caress.
“Yes?” I venture, only to flush as he holds up a neatly folded collection of papers. “Oh.”
That damned contract. Butterflies erupt, clawing at my insides, even as my cheeks heat.
“I can’t sign this.”
The warmth cools. Something in my chest shrinks, suffocating the butterflies, and my head drops. I struggle to adopt an expression of polite acceptance, but Leo’s hand in my hair turns controlling, forcing me to meet his icy gaze.
“Let me finish. I can’t sign it…yet.”
That doesn’t make me feel much better. Before he even opens his mouth, I know what he’s going to say.
“It isn’t fair on you.”
“Your curse takes up a lot of your time,” I acknowledge. “And you won’t let yourself love me. But we can still burn off some of this tension. It doesn’t need to be romantic.”
He gives me a slow, solemn shake of his head. “I’m not strong enough to leave it at that. You’re too fecking tempting.”
I scoff, but he shakes his head.
“Do you even realise what this does to me?” He waves a hand at my kneeling form.
“This…elegance. The comfort of having you close, on your knees, like a good little sub. So trusting, intelligent, and mine—” He cuts himself off with an uttered curse.
“It makes me want to tie you to my bed and debase you until you scream and cry and beg me to stop. It would be too easy to fall for you, Kyrie.” He delivers the sentence like a guillotine, cutting and final.
“If I do that, I’ll doom you. I’m already facing losing Lambert. That would destroy me. If I lose you…” A darkness overtakes his expression, and he changes course. “If the world loses the Librarian…”
Oh. Right. I’m allowed to matter as a public figure, but not as me. Not as a woman.
“And when the ensorcellment is broken?”
He runs his free hand through those red-streaked curls.
“Then, if you’ll still have me, we need to have a long fecking talk about safe words and your limits.
These checkboxes are a good start, but when we get into a scene, I want your total and unconditional surrender.
” He pauses. “I can’t sign it. Not even platonically.
Because that would be a lie. There’s absolutely nothing friendly about the way I want you. ”
His final words are delivered so darkly that it’s almost scathing. Is that emotion directed at me or himself?
“You don’t think I can handle it.” North said the same thing.
“I know you can. But why should you? I’m not stupid. What I desire from you requires your trust, and I’ve banjaxed that with some of my behaviour. Worse, I’m not able to offer you the same in return until the ensorcellment is broken.”
I stay silent. That’s a suspicious amount of self-awareness coming from the man who seems to have a one-track mind.
Almost like…some of his callousness has been intentional. For the first time, I wonder how much of the Leo we know is a calculated act to keep us all from getting too close.
“If you think I don’t know that this curse might cost me everything before it’s even broken,” he whispers. “You’re mistaken. I can only hope, when it’s done, you’ll offer me this again. If I even still deserve it by then.”
With that, he releases my hair and passes the contract back to me. The tidy move and my gentle acceptance of the document belie the talons his words have sunk into my chest.
On the front, a small scrap of paper containing a single line has been neatly stapled.
‘I, Galileo ó Rinn, waive my right to be included in this relationship contract, and will not interfere with any other relationships that the Librarian may choose to pursue.’
His neat, swirling signature is right beneath, along with the date.
Leo’s focus has already returned to the books and charts, but mine is shattered. At least, it is until he brings me out of my roiling thoughts with a simple statement.
“Apparently, Mathias has already managed to break the first and second levels of my ensorcellment and promises to work on the final one.”
My head jerks up, burning eyes widening as they meet his cool ones. How did Mathias get a copy of the second runeform? We only discovered it days ago. A hundred possibilities flash through my mind, none of them good.
“It’s undoubtedly how he plans to bring my house into line. If he manages it, or starts on others’ ensorcellments…”
ó Rinn could easily fall to the lich in their gratitude, leaving more than half of arcandom under his thumb.
As heir, breaking Leo’s would grant the most publicity, but if Mathias freed enough key members of the family, it would have the same effect.
Then, only Winthrop and McKinley would remain outside of his influence.
The latter might hold out, but Georgina wouldn’t.
Lambert’s aunt is a creature of gossip and alliances, following the tides of the other parriarchs as they ebb and flow to maintain her tenuous hold on her position.
It won’t take much for her to drift to Mathias’s side.
Even the McKinleys, with their powerful nullifiers, couldn’t hold out against the combined force of all five of the other families.
Without meaning to, I glide to my feet and begin pacing the room.
Leo says nothing, letting me connect the dots.
“This is his plan,” I whisper. “Unite the families under him by bribery or force.”
What does that mean for the Arcanaeum? How does the Library factor into this?
There’s no force in the world that could break in here, even with all of that power.
Once the doors are sealed, the place is impenetrable.
Unless he had the dagger or some other link to the building’s magic, there would be no way in.
There’s no question of him leaving us alone once his conquest is complete. Benny confessed that he’s still bitter over the loss of this place. Power aside, everything I’ve read about liches describes an impossible thirst for knowledge. The only question that remains is when.
How long do we have until he makes his move? Is it safe to assume he’ll consolidate his power over all six families first?
“Kyrie, you’re floating.”
Oh. I suppose I am. I didn’t even notice that I’d switched forms. In my defence, it’s easier to think—to remain rational under the weight of the fear sparked by his announcement—when I’m a ghost.
My stomach flutters with poisonous butterflies as I sink to the floor and become physical again. I sigh. If he’s not going to sign the contract, he really should stop calling me Kyrie.
“You’re suggesting I devote every spare moment to working on breaking your ensorcellment to gain their loyalty first.”
Perhaps he means it in a benign way. It could simply be that he wants to pass on information, but something deep and cynical in my gut can’t help but think that Leo has been offered a carrot by Mathias and decided to give me the stick.
“Threatening me into working harder is a curious choice,” I mutter before I can stop myself.
“I’m not threatening you,” he retorts. “I’m simply telling you what will happen if Mathias controls the cure.
What would you give to the devil if your bairn’s life was on the line?
Sure, not every ó Rinn carries the mark, but enough of them do that it will make a difference.
Do you even know who you’re going to use to cast the next nullification spells? ”
I tug at my sleeve, because I have considered it. There are four runeforms on his chest; ergo, four separate spells are needed to break this layer. Four separate incantations. Four arcanists.
And I still don’t have my grimoire.
“You won’t like my answer.”
“Talcott.”
“Lambert barely knows enough nullification magic to pass this year. North is untrained. Eddy isn’t powerful enough, nor is Hopkinson. That leaves Jasper, Pierce, and Dakari as your best chance of success. Unless you have other friends who can step in?”
He glares at me. We both know he doesn’t. Leo has been shutting people out since he was a child.
Now it’s coming back to bite him on the ass.
“I’ll think about it.” He waves me back to the paperwork. “But it’s pointless if we can’t solve this.”
“We’re already halfway.” Two of the four are done, or close enough.
The runeform may be a mess, but it’s mercifully less obscure than the previous one.
“It’s not enough.”
“It is for tonight.”
Standing firm under the force of his intensity is an exercise in control. I won’t stoop to snapping at him, but neither of us will do our best work when tired, and I promised Jasper a date.
“I’ll be back to continue tomorrow,” I say, when he refuses to break the stare off. “You should get some sleep.”
The disbelief that enters his eyes makes me sigh again. Of course, he won’t listen to me. In his mind, he’s racing against the clock. Never mind the mistakes he might make while exhausted or the damage he’s doing to his health.
I resolve to slip more fortifying draughts into his drinks. He’s getting peaky.
“Suit yourself.” I smooth the fabric of my skirt, hands stilling mid-motion.
Am I appropriately dressed for a date? I suppose it’s not like Jasper can take me anywhere fancy—we’re limited to the Arcanaeum—but what if he wants me to dress up?
With a thought, I’m standing beside Eddy in the kitchen, who jumps out of her skin.
“Bloody hell,” she gasps, clutching her chest. “Give me some warning next time?”
She’s alone, which is a relief. I really don’t want to ask this question in front of the others.
“How does one dress for a date?”
Her expression goes from shocked to downright gleeful in the space of two seconds. “It would depend on which of the dunderheads is taking you, surely?”
She’s got a point. “Jasper.”
Her smile grows. “Cute but casual. Sexy underwear.”
That is so unhelpful, but I suppose it goes with what I’ve seen the McKinley heir wearing.
As for sexy underwear… That much is a given. The box on my nightstand burns a hole in my brain as I remember what Jasper wrote in his contract.
While Leo might want me to submit to him in every way, Jasper is the total opposite. More so even than Lambert, who happily hands over the reins to me.
Even with all of my reading, I could never have imagined just how the idea of dominating my lovers would turn me on. Even now, just imagining him wearing what he asked for…
“Come on.” She misreads my distraction as indecision and gives me a mock shove towards the stairs. “Operation Seduce a Scot is a go.”
That’s how, an hour later, I end up sitting in front of her mirror, tugging at my short grey tartan skirt.
Forgoing underwear was a lot more comfortable when I knew my hem wasn’t about to flick up and expose the situation to everyone around me.
The heels I decided to wear only make the situation worse.
“Did you want me to do your hair?” Eddy asks, pointing at the waterfall of waves that I unbound because my braid was getting messy.
In answer, I point a finger at it, murmuring an incantation that has a grimoire deep below flaring with power. Only, it doesn’t quite go as well as I want it to.
I’ve seen neater bird nests.
“That’s…a look.” Eddy’s lips are twitching with how badly she wants to smile, and I roll my eyes at her.
“Consider it a lesson in why you shouldn’t try transmutation spells while distracted.”
A rookie error, but one easily corrected. I suck a deep breath into my lungs, focus properly, and turn the messy bun at the top of my head into a neater version at my nape with a second incantation. It leaves a few wispy strands free to frame my face.
Perhaps it’s my most modern outfit yet. It’s certainly more leg than I usually show.
“You look gorgeous,” Eddy reassures me. “When I’ve caught up on class stuff, will you teach me the spell you used for your eyes? I can never get my liner to match.”
I smile. “Of course.”
Some cosmetic spells can be incredibly complex, but Eddy enjoys this, and to be honest, so do I.
I’ve missed having female friends who would get excited about clothes and the frivolous little things, and her advice is invaluable. It’ll be nice to return the favour.
“Go, have fun.” Eddy gives me a mock shove.
“I’ve managed to convince Lambert to study with me and North tonight.
Hopkinson is testing us on Monday, and I still don’t understand half of this stuff.
” An offer to help lingers on the tip of my tongue, but she shakes her head.
“We have Leo if we need him. I think Lambert plans to drag him down from his tower to make him eat, anyway. Now go. Enjoy yourself.”
Summoning the little box on the nightstand into my palm, I do as ordered.