Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
Jasper
“You awake yet?” I ask, but Benny gives me no answer.
I’ve checked over his wounds, but my grimoire is nowhere to be seen and honestly, there’s not much I can do without it. I’m in better shape, but barely. My clothes did a pretty good job of protecting me from the net, and the burns I did get will heal, even if they currently sting like a bitch.
I was expecting to be returned to my old cell in the Carltons’ basement, but no.
We’re in the corner of a grey-painted room, separated from the rest of the minimalist office furniture by thick, runeform covered bars.
The geometric LED light hanging from the ceiling is punishingly bright, making my splitting headache worse.
Doesnae take a genius to realise we’re probably in Mathias’s study.
Locked up in the lich’s lair. Fuck.
The door opens.
Old habits rear their ugly heads, and before I realise what I’m doing, I flop back against the wall.
Faking sleep or weakness has spared me more times than I care to admit. What would Kyrith think if she learned I spent most of my time in captivity trying to be as small and unobtrusive as possible?
Probably wouldnae care, I reassure myself. She knows what Mathias is like. She’d understand.
Kyrith and the others will come. She’s got a tracker on my baws after all, and no one seems to have taken that off, thank the stars. I just have to keep myself alive—which might be easier said than done if Mathias is murdering powerful arcanists.
“Your speech was well done,” Mathias says, and I peek through my lashes to watch as he sweeps over to his desk, Isidora a half-step behind him.
“Certainly enough to put to bed the rumours started by those upstarts. But you shouldn’t have announced Benjamin’s execution.
The last thing we want is to find ourselves fending off his would-be rescuers. ”
“They won’t find us here.” Isidora brushes off his concern with an airy wave of her hand. “Even Pierce was never trusted with the location of your home. And the wards are strong enough to keep the Librarian out… I’m more concerned about the loose end you left in Belfast.”
“I don’t remember inviting you to criticise my decisions.” Mathias’s hand drops to the dagger at his waist.
For a second, I imagine she’ll challenge him on it, but no, she folds. “I was merely thinking aloud. We need to give the press a reasonable explanation for the attempt on the ó Rinn parriarch’s life.”
“Spin it however you like,” Mathias dismisses. “That’s your job, after all. My focus must remain on the Arcanaeum.”
“Do you not think maybe the Library is lost—?”
It’s hard to make out his expression, but whatever Isidora sees in it shuts her up.
“I didn’t give you the gift of immortality so I could spend centuries listening to your poorly founded opinions.” He pauses. “You’re lucky that we can use the execution to lure out the Librarian. Don’t make such impulsive decisions again.”
He unbuttons his suit jacket, taking a seat at his desk. Pierce’s mother says nothing. That must be the right move, because Mathias hums, dropping the subject.
“Arrange your father’s transport to enforcement headquarters,” he orders. “Make the transfer public and get it done quickly. I don’t need him cluttering up my study.”
Shit.
That doesnae give Kyrith long to find us.
Isidora’s heels clack as she strides back the way she came, passing our cell without a second glance.
“You’re still a terrible actor, old friend.” My heart stops as Mathias pins us with a glare, but before I can open my eyes fully, Benny sighs.
“I’m only human, and feigning sleep remains a lesser evil than facing the monster you’ve made of my daughter.” He heaves to his feet, supporting himself against the wall. “Beating a man is beneath you.”
Mathias leans back in his chair. “When commanding zealots, one must occasionally allow them to be zealous.”
“How benevolent.” Benny coughs, the sound wet and painful. “And is the execution for their sake, too?”
Mathias links his fingers and puts them behind his head. “No. That was entirely the result of your terrible parenting.”
“You took advantage of her youth and my grief and turned her against me. I never had a chance to be her parent.”
The lich scoffs. “You ignored her and then tore her down when she showed you all her hard work.”
“You taught her to raise the dead behind my back to drive a wedge between us.”
“She reanimated your dear wife. Wasn’t that all you ever wanted?”
“She made her mother’s corpse walk, and you expected me to celebrate. There were maggots in her eye sockets, Matty.”
Stars. I’m hearing more than I bargained for. Part of me wonders if I should ‘wake up’ and stop this before I learn anything else I didnae need to know. The cowardly part of me doesnae want to.
“Isidora’s first steps along the path were so sentimental.” Mathias layers the last word with disgust. “Thank magic she grew out of that.”
“I never thought I’d see the day Mathias Ackland gave up his secrets and allowed another lich to walk the earth.”
“And I never thought you’d grow a spine and stand against me; yet here we are.
Unfortunately, your efforts were too little, too late.
” He flicks his hand. The bars of the cell melt away, and a sheet of paper with a large runeform appears in the air beside him.
“Now be a good man and do something about my arthritis. It’s getting hard to hold a pen.
” A long pause. “I’d hate to have to start relying on young Jasper again.
We all know how well he held up the last time. ”
It has tae be a trick, right? No way is Mathias going to allow Benny anywhere near him.
Obviously, the other man doesn’t believe it either, because he stays exactly where he is. Maybe he cannae make the distance. He’s pretty badly wounded.
If I get close enough to Mathias, can I get the dagger away from him? I’ve got a better chance than a beaten-up old man, right?
I let my eyes flick open, and Mathias’s grin widens. “What a surprise. You’re not the only one playing at sleep to hide from me.”
“I’ll do it.” I push to my feet.
Only to slam straight into the bars.
Electricity arcs through my bloodstream, my shocked cry blending with Mathias’s cackle as I’m zapped backward into the stone. Bone cracks. My vision goes black.
Fuck. How did I end up on my knees?
I look up, feeling wetness dribble from my nose. The bars are still there. They never went away. It was just a trick.
“So noble.” Mathias shakes his head. “As if I’d let either of you touch me when the key to my ailments is almost within my grasp.”
He lifts the dagger, lips moving on an incantation I cannae catch past the blood rushing in my ears. My muscles willnae move. They’re still paralysed from the current that just tried to fry my brain stem.
Benny collapses beside me, breath wheezing out with a gasp. He clutches his chest like he’s having a heart attack.
By the time I can make my fingertips twitch, the older man is sprawled face-first on the stone beneath us, groaning hoarsely.
“I’m almost there,” Mathias muses. “Perhaps I’ll be able to drain you again before your daughter kills you. It might be enough.”
I dinnae think he’s really talking to either of us, but I glower at him anyway. “Fuck you.”
Mathias raises a brow. “How vulgar.”
Then he turns the dagger on me.
My magic rips out of my chest, down my arms and through my palms in a rush of lava that scalds my veins. I jerk, cursing hard enough to turn the air blue. My heartbeat stutters under the rush.
I must pass out again, because when I come to, Mathias is standing directly outside our cell, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt.
“If only I had the time to properly tease apart the threads of the bond you share with the Librarian. It would be much easier to simply funnel the building’s own reserve straight back into it.”
“Shut up,” Benny wheezes. “You could barely control it long enough to immobilise the others in Scotland. One tiny distraction, and you lost it.”
Mathias rolls his eyes. “And now I have a subject on which to practise.”
He turns on his heel. “Try not to upset my staff while I’m away. I’ve even brought on someone special to watch over you.”
The half-chuckle should’ve clued me in, but when a new pair of shoes shuffles into view, I’m still somehow expecting a living being.
The skull of the man in front of us is partially caved in at the back. His eyes are white and glassy, and his head has fallen to one side like it’s too heavy for him to hold up. Then there’s the stink. Rotten.
A single fly lands on the runeform carved into his cheek, and he clumsily bats it away.
All of those things are why it takes me a minute to recognise him. Robert married into the clan a few years ago, and from the looks of things, he’s not been dead long. Well shit. I guess we know how they got inside the wards.
It’s the same trick he pulled with Eddy. We’ll need to check everyone regularly—fuck. I need to tell Laura her husband is dead.
“A babysitter.” Benny shoves backward onto his arse. “How thoughtful.”
I cover my nose, falling into place beside him. “How do we get out of here?”
The revenant that was once Robert lets out an angry hiss, lashing out at the bars.
“I don’t believe our friend is fond of conversation.” Benny leans his head back against the wall, his breath still shallow and pained. “Let me think about it. Or maybe…nap on it.”
Nap? Now? Shit. Does he have a concussion or something?
“Hey, no going to sleep.” I reach out and shake him lightly. “C’mon. This isnae the time.”
He sighs. “Nothing good comes from being poorly rested. We have no grimoires, there are no obvious methods of escape, and yet…I suspect your Librarian has her own methods of finding her bonded, does she not?”
The last is barely a whisper, and my ears heat even though he cannae possibly know about the cage.
The fact that Mathias and the enforcers didnae find it is probably a testament to Kyrith’s skill, but I’ll never live it down if it comes out that my girlfriend knew how to find me thanks to my chastity kink.
Better to let them all believe it was the bond to the Arcanaeum.
“Sleep, if you can. Conserve your energy. Stars know I’ll need mine when Pierce gives me an earful for what I just did.”
I grimace. “When is Pierce not giving someone an earful?”
He’s not exactly famous for his sunny disposition, though I did learn to appreciate some of his sarcasm when I was last imprisoned by his family.
It was either that or go mad.
Benny inclines his head, though his eyes remain closed.
“My grandson has had a hard life, thanks mostly to my mistakes. Despite that, he’s a good man, one I’m proud to have raised.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing who he becomes when all of this is over.
” He pauses. “It would do me good to see him laugh once or twice before I die.”
“How hard did you hit your head?”
“Being a little bit delusional is one of the few privileges of ageing,” he quips. “Besides, I never thought he’d make friends, and yet…” He waves a hand in my direction. “Here we are.”
I huff under my breath. “He’s not the worst.”
Benny’s answering smile is smug. “I’ll try to remember that when he’s scolding me later.”