Chapter 18 #3
Kyrith makes a small noise of distress under her breath. “I’m reading.”
“Do you think Leo…”
She bites her lip. “No. If Leo were trying to become a lich, he would’ve hidden the book better.
The page was open on the creation of a phylactery, but it stands to reason that in order to unmake something, one must first understand how it was made.
I also…” She swallows. “For all his faults, I don’t believe Leo is capable of murdering an infant.
It’s distressing that Isidora managed it. ”
I want to throw up. “What?”
“The spell calls for an impressionable soul and the removal of the lich’s heart.
They’re combined and transmuted into a gem or other object.
The lich lives on, literally heartless, kept alive and empowered by the magic they absorb from their victims.” She puts the book down.
“Which likely means that the only way to break a phylactery is to be able to manipulate souls.”
“Necromancy to kill a necromancer.”
“Exactly.”
“Shit.”
She nods sadly. “Please refrain from using profanity in libraries.”
I open my mouth, about to argue—it’s not like this is a church—but she raises a brow, and I shut it. She’s been doing really well at adapting to life outside her comfort zone. I can cut her some slack.
She keeps reading, and I keep hovering, until Leo reappears in the doorway, catches sight of what she’s doing, and pales.
“It isn’t what it looks like,” he swears, hurrying to her side. “I’m not trying to—”
“Learn necromancy in order to destroy Mathias’s phylactery as a way of earning my forgiveness?” Kyrith shuts the book with a gentleness that belies the frost in her tone. “Because it seems like that’s exactly what you were trying to do. May I take this?”
Leo looks completely lost. “I promised to get the Arcanaeum back for you.”
She shakes her head. “Learning necromancy is not the answer. Far from it. It’s probably the one thing that could make me trust you less. Besides, you won’t have time to read this. Watching me is a full-time job.”
His jaw drops, but she’s not paying attention to him anymore. Instead, she’s sweeping back to her own desk, taking the book with her.
Leo looks at me like I have some clue what’s going on in her pretty head, but fucked if I know.
“Bring the rest of your family’s runeforms,” Kyrith commands, settling back in her seat, laying a hand on her grimoire, and summoning his table so it sits directly opposite hers.
“I think I understand the pattern now. It makes more sense for you to work on the simple ones while I focus on the worst mutations.”
The insult is subtle, but Leo doesn’t react. I think he’s just grateful she’s talking to him, even if her tone is frigid enough to make his balls shrivel up.
“I didn’t mean you had to decide right now,” I mutter under my breath as he retreats to grab his work.
Kyrith sighs. “If I leave him alone, he might do something ridiculous in the name of winning me back. I’d rather not wake up one morning to discover he’s gone after Mathias on his own, with a half-baked theory on how to destroy a phylactery.”
I want to object, to say Leo wouldn’t do that, but…yeah. The evidence isn’t on his side.
“His apologies are nice,” she mumbles, “and his motivations have always been noble. I’ve never begrudged him wanting to save his family.
But saying sorry and meaning it are two different things.
Only time will prove whether he’s genuinely learned anything from his mistakes.
” A slight pause. “Grand gestures are foolhardy, especially ones that may put him within Mathias’s reach at a time when he’s murdering powerful arcanists to break into the Arcanaeum. ”
She says the last a little louder, and I glance up to spot Leo watching her with puppy eyes that almost put Lambert’s to shame.
“If the most useful thing I can be doing right now is this, he may as well stay here where I can keep an eye on him.”
And he can watch over her. She leaves the last left unsaid.
“You’re still on that break,” I remind her when she reaches for her papers again.
Kyrith shakes her head. “I took a break—”
“Don’t make me spank your ass.”
Her eyes dart up, lips parting like she can’t decide if I’m serious. I am. Ever since I caught Pierce making her squirt like a fountain over that piano, I’ve been biding my time.
“This is a library,” she objects, like she thinks that will deter me.
I cross my arms. “I guess you’ll just have to be quiet. Unless you don’t think you can handle it?”
It’s an invitation wrapped up as a dare. I smirk as I watch her shoulders creep higher in indignation.
Heat flares in her gaze, her breath hitching, but then she looks down at the table guiltily. “I promised to—”
“Go,” Leo mutters, dropping his books on the desk with a thud that makes her jump. “You’ll work better if you’ve taken care of yourself.” He shifts from side to side, keeping his gaze anywhere but on her. “I’m going to grab something to eat.”
Then, without a word, he turns and strides off, leaving her to gape after him like he’s been body snatched.