Chapter 46
Forty-Six
Kyrith
By unanimous agreement, we decide not to lock the Arcanaeum that night. Or the night after that.
The patrons are ushered out. The doors close behind them. But we’re not really closed, not properly.
We do the same for the rest of the week. It’s unsettling. Despite casting multiple alarm spells and warding the Clock Tower, the building feels unsafe. I can’t relax.
All of my nervous energy goes into my work on the runeforms. So much so that I completely neglect my duties at the desk.
The others do their best to continue the charade in my absence, but by the time we shut on Friday evening, everyone has noticed the Library’s ‘decline’.
At least our new policy of closing on weekends spared me the assessing looks of the patrons. It also gave me more time to throw myself into protecting the collection. I’ve used every spell I can think of. Fireproofing. Waterproofing. Acid-resistance… Please let it be enough.
Tomorrow, the plan comes to an inevitable crescendo.
Blanche has confirmed that the aegis is planning a raid, seeing the damage to the building as proof that they can get away with it.
According to her informants, they’ll wait until an hour after opening, when Monday morning lessons are in full swing, to maximise the number of arrests.
Just before their arrival, I’ll use the dagger to rescind every banishment that’s ever existed. Including the one keeping Mathias out.
Even if he suspects it’s a trap, once the aegis has control of the building, he’ll likely feel secure enough to enter.
The thought has my gut in knots.
The lich’s banishment wasn’t my doing. It can only have been the Arcanaeum’s decision. I can’t help hoping…perhaps…perhaps the Library is still there, under everything, keeping us safe.
Lambert has roped the others into a game of magiball. I almost joined them.
But my heart just wasn’t in it.
So now I stand here, in front of Pierce’s door, clutching two pieces of paper as I wait for him to answer me.
Finishing the runeforms that will destroy Mathias’s phylactery and channel his magic towards the Arcanaeum doesn’t even feel like an accomplishment. At most, I’ve achieved a hollow kind of relief.
Because the loathsome spells alone don’t solve everything. Someone still needs to cast them. We still need to confront him.
Pierce answers in a pair of silken pyjama bottoms and nothing else. His hair is unkempt, making me itch to run my fingers through it, and his skin is flushed from his shower. It’s an uncharacteristically messy and vulnerable look on him.
His scars are covered by the illusion, and I can’t tell if he’s tweaked the enchantment to work on the one on his face, or if the light is making it harder to see.
When this is over, I’ll help him remove it entirely, if that’s what he wants. He doesn’t deserve to be branded as a traitor when he’s been nothing but loyal.
“Is that it?” he asks, when I don’t say anything.
He reaches as if to take the papers from me.
“No. Hear me out.” I hold them behind me instead. “I want you to take the soul vessel, and I want you to destroy it away from the Arcanaeum.”
He nods. “You don’t want necromancy in the Library, I understand.”
“No. That’s not it.” I reach for his arm, the warmth of him steadying me. “If Mathias is coming here, then the dagger and the phylactery need to be far away when he does.”
We can’t risk letting him get his hands on them.
“Once the gem is broken, and he’s incapacitated, you can bring the dagger back, and we can use it to channel his magic into the Arcanaeum. As long as we do it away from the altar, then the spell shouldn’t be able to bind anything as nuanced as his consciousness to the building.”
We only need his power. The runeforms across the granite slab, and the immense spire above it, are critical to ensuring none of it is wasted during the transfer.
Without them, there's a very low chance of the lich being added to the collective consciousness. The spell won’t be as efficient, but even half of his magic, added to mine, should be adequate to stop the heirs being bound to the building.
Pierce doesn’t argue. “Yes. No one wants him tainting the Library.”
“Thank you.” My shoulders ease.
“And if the dagger is far away, there’s no chance that he’ll be able to use it to control us.”
My throat bobs. “Exactly.”
It’s a risk, having Pierce away from the Arcanaeum, but it's riskier for him to be in the Library and performing necromancy when Mathias and his aegis enter. If all goes well, Pierce will be safely away from here while the others and I incapacitate the lich.
“I’d also feel better if you took someone with you.”
He pins me with a look. “No. They’re better off not knowing. Like you said; deniability is safer for them.”
“I could…”
“No.” His voice hardens. “It’s bad enough that you had to create this using memories of your own death. I’m not going to ask you to cast it.”
I sag a little lower into my bones as I hand him the pieces of paper. “Then…here they are.”
He studies them, jaw tightening. A stone settles in my gut as he mouths the incantation, testing it, before putting the papers to one side.
“Everything else is ready?” he checks.
“Yes. Blanche’s people are arriving in a few hours. Dakari has my permission to do his worst. Everything…” I swallow. “Everything can be fixed later.”
I hate the plan. I hate the risk to the books. To the Arcanaeum. I’ve cast so many protective spells over the last few days that North had to threaten to spank me to get me to stop. Dakari swore there wouldn’t be any fire, but…
Pierce tugs me into a hug, surrounding me with the scent of expensive cologne. Then he drops his lips to the top of my head.
“You’ll stay safe,” I order, making him stiffen. “I mean it.”
“I’ll go somewhere Mathias won’t even think to look for me. Then I’ll be right by your side to help you take him down.” The certainty in his voice may be foolhardy, but it steadies my roiling nerves.
“If anything goes wrong,” I press. “Come straight back.”
He’s silent for a second, then nods. “Wear the earrings and promise me you’ll use them if anything goes wrong… You’re the only person I have left.”
“Not the only person.” My denial is automatic.
I know what it’s like to have been so isolated for so long that the very idea of friendship is unfathomable, but he has the others now. Jasper, in particular, has built up a strange rapport with him. I caught them fencing in the Kinetic Hall the other day.
In time, Pierce’s walls will lower, and he’ll trust their authenticity.
He gives me a sheepish little half-smile. “The only one who matters to me.”
Wait.
My heart does a little kick behind my ribs. Is he saying…?
“I love you,” I murmur, the admission quiet, but no less bold for it. “I know it’s too soon, but ever since Mathias sacrificed me, you’ve let me see behind the mask you wear for everyone else, and if something goes wrong tomorrow—”
“—it won’t.”
“If it does,” I insist. “I don’t want you to ever question how much I care—”
“Everything will be fine. You’ll have all five of the others and dozens of enforcement officers with you, so stop talking like this.”
I want to argue that it’s not me I’m worried about. I’m sending him on a mission alone. If I could, I’d go myself.
But Pierce is set on this course. He needs to do this, for himself, and for Benny.
“Blanche knew your grandfather,” I say, when the silence gets too much. “A lot of her people spoke highly of him. I think, when it’s over, you should spend some time with them.”
Pierce is already shaking his head, pulling back from our embrace. “My grandfather had a lot of contacts, but very few friends.” His lip quirks. “Besides, Jasper already found me. They talked while they were imprisoned together. It wasn’t nice to hear but…”
“But it will help, one day.” When his grief is no longer the raw, scraping thing lurking in the depths of his grey eyes.
He dips his chin in agreement. “I’ll find you before I leave, but I won’t make a scene of it.”
So as not to tip off the others. “I understand.”
He kisses me, a peck on the cheek that screams goodbye, even before he murmurs, “Good night.”
The dismissal stings, but I’m oddly grateful for it. I don’t want to watch him learning the incantation. Selfishly, I’d rather never hear it come from his lips. As much as I want company right now, I felt uncomfortable enough just creating that spell.
His face softens. “Try to get some sleep, darling. I know it’s hard, but…”
But the alternative is facing down the lich from my nightmares while also being tired, and some things require fortitude.
Despite my resolve, I do not, in fact, manage to sleep.
Instead, I slip from the bed, leaving Dakari and North snoring peacefully as I slip a robe over my nakedness. My intention is to make myself a jasmine tea and return to bed, but somehow, I find myself wandering the corridors with Westley in my arms.
Perhaps Pierce is right. Maybe I am catastrophising, and it was wrong of me to confess to loving him like I did. It was too early. He never said it back. Not that he needed to. I just didn’t want to have any regrets.
The cat purrs, butting his head into my collarbone as he kneads his little claws into my arm. He’s not usually this affectionate. Maybe he can sense I need it right now.
We can rebuild. When the Arcanaeum and I are restored, we’ll be able to redecorate. Even knowing that, the cracks in the marble pillars around the Rotunda make my heart hurt.
It’s peaceful now.
It won’t be in the morning.
The only guaranteed outcome of our plan is chaos.
Perhaps it’s inevitable that my feet take me up the stairs to the Astrology Tower. I’ve never needed a refuge more than I do right now.
Leo’s here. Some part of me hoped he would be. He’s cradling a book in both hands without turning the pages, his eyes fixed on the stars drifting across the ceiling. I rediscovered the illusion spell a few days ago, and now the room is completely as it was.