Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
Kyrith
“What do you mean you don’t know?” I demand, my entire body vibrating with fury as I face down Pierce. “How did you lose Eddy? You promised to watch over her.”
Magic. He had one job! It’s not as if she’s powerful enough to use transport spells.
“Hey, he found me again,” Eddy defends, though she’s still hugging her soaked cardigan tightly around her. “I said sorry already, okay? I was only a few shops down. It’s not like I was kidnapped.”
True. She had no idea we were even looking for her until she re-entered the Arcanaeum a few hours later, having finished her shopping.
“We should put a tracker on you,” Pierce mutters.
“No need,” she replies, still the calmest of the three of us. “Honestly, I’m fine.”
The only person who has a tracker on them is Jasper, but maybe I should rectify that. When I was young, we didn’t have to worry about people just wandering off. We had common sense.
Magic only knows how North would’ve overreacted to this whole situation. Thank goodness he’s currently busy keeping Lambert occupied while he heals.
I pace the length of the living room, supremely grateful that it’s only us here. Well, us and the sullen Irishman on the sofa, but I’m studiously ignoring him.
Unfortunately, he’s not so content to be dismissed.
“I still don’t get why you dragged me back here,” Leo grunts. “I told you. I’m not staying—”
“You’re here because you were meeting with my sister.” Pierce folds his arms, glaring down his aristocratic nose at Leo with contempt. “I heard you both. You’re bargaining with Mathias to break your stupid curse.”
The air leaves my lungs in a rush.
No. S-surely not. He wouldn’t…
I search Leo’s face, waiting for him to deny it. To tell me that Pierce is lying. That this is some kind of Carlton plot.
He won’t meet my eyes. He’s clammed up like a shell, warily studying the other man in the room like he’s a threat. Which he would only do if the accusation was true.
Thankfully, my voice is strong as I say, “Please leave us.”
To his credit, Pierce doesn’t argue, heading for the door and pulling Eddy along with him. When they’re gone, I turn fully to face the man in front of me.
He looks so much worse than he did even a few days ago. The Library bristles around me, but at the same time, the kettle flicks on. A hidden jar of finely ground crystalline powder floats free of the cabinet and spoons itself into the mug, glimmering with the light of infused restoration magic.
Good to know that we’re both stupidly concerned for this man.
I let the false peace linger until his tea is ready, then wave it over to him.
Swallowing back the bitterness coating my own throat, I take a seat on his left and finally muster the courage to ask the question that’s been clawing at me.
“Why?”
He stares into the mug, and my heart sinks. “Why, what?”
“Why would you do that?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes! Obviously.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Leo. You’ve betrayed me.” My voice starts to rise, despite my best efforts to quell my frustration. “Betrayed the Arcanaeum. Betrayed Lambert—“
His annoyed groan cuts through my accusations. “Argh, yes. I did. And I’d do it all over again, because I’m in love with you.”
My lungs seize, hand rising to cover my mouth, but he isn’t done.
“I’m in love with you, and I’ve doomed you.” He leaves the sofa, putting distance between us. “I thought if I didn’t kiss you, didn’t spend time with you, and focused on the curse, then I’d escape it. But you weren’t content with that, were you? You had to infiltrate my every waking moment.”
He stalks the length of the room, downing the scalding tea like it’s alcohol and discarding the mug on the counter.
“At first, I thought I was just in awe of you. But it was more than that. You helped Lambert pass those exams, broke the first layer of the curse, and slipped those tonics into my drinks, even when I was an absolute bastard to you in return. You knelt by my side, promising such sweet perfect submission if only I dared reach out and take it.” His hands clench and unclench.
“Somehow, you offered me peace in the depths of hell, and I burned all the deeper for it.”
“I—” I stutter, but he’s not done.
“You were clever, and kind, and you loved my brother the way he’s always deserved to be loved, and I…
couldn’t stop myself. I fell for you a long time ago, Kyrie.
I’ve banjaxed any chance of a relationship between us in every conceivable fecking way, but I won’t let you and the Arcanaeum fall because of it. ”
The words fall out of him in a rush, leaving the space between us barren and cold. That was more of a eulogy than a confession of love. I’m not surprised. Leo’s affection is a death sentence, but not in the way he fears.
Has he thought this through? He’s an astute man. He must have. Yet it still begs the question…
“Even if it means handing us both to Mathias Ackland?” I shouldn’t sound so fragile. I hate myself for it.
His glacial eyes melt with sorrow as he pins me with them at last. “It won’t get that far.”
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I want to rage at him that it already has. What he’s doing is a self-fulfilling prophecy. In choosing Mathias, he’s actively working to destroy both the Arcanaeum and me as surely as if the magic had obliterated us both.
In fact, I’m sure the ensorcellment would be kinder.
Mathias will ask for something in return—if he hasn’t already. Something small. Innocuous. Or maybe he won’t ask for anything. Maybe he’ll simply use the moment when Leo is vulnerable to sneak some sinister spells beneath his skin.
A Trojan horse.
One I can’t banish thanks to his connection to the Arcanaeum.
Magic, I feel sick.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” Leo vows, as if reading my thoughts. “That’s why—”
“I completed my work on the degenerated runeform,” I interrupt, because he should at least have all of the options. “I just finished rounding up enough arcanists to break it. Benny, Pierce, Jasper, and Dakari are all waiting downstairs and willing to help. Or you can choose others.”
Choose Mathias.
His mouth drops open, and I summon the four neatly drawn-out glyphs to float in front of him.
“I will provide the same service to any ó Rinn who asks. If you give me the final runeform, I’ll work on yours as well, but I no longer wish to see you. Frankly, I’d prefer you no longer attended the Arcanaeum at all.”
For safety and for myself.
Yes, it’s dangerous having someone bonded to me out there, but it’s less dangerous than his coming and going so freely when I no longer know whose side he’s on.
Defeat and anger war in his expression as he tries again. “Kyrie—”
“It’s not up for discussion. You’re more than welcome to let Mathias Ackland and his disciples use their magic on you, and blindly trust that they’ll do nothing more than—”
“Oh, like Dakari wouldn’t take advantage if he could!” His voice rises.
“HE IS NOT YOUR ENEMY!” I yell back, jolting to my feet as the tether on my patience finally snaps.
The entire room trembles before I manage to find a semblance of calm.
“Dakari Talcott is just as much an outcast from his family as the rest of you, and I will not listen to you slandering him again.”
Without meaning to, I slip back into my ghost form, relaxing incrementally as the heat boiling in my veins subsides and the lump in my throat disappears.
Like this, my anger is intellectual, manageable.
Already, I regret yelling, but now isn’t the time to apologise.
So I simply stand there, glaring at him as I wait for him to argue.
A heartbeat passes, Leo’s jaw clenching and unclenching.
“So that’s it? I tell you I love you and you what? Kick me out?”
“Galileo, what you’ve described isn’t love. If it is, then it’s misguided and twisted in ways I want no part of.” I pause. “If you loved me, you would never have considered asking the man who tried to murder me for help.”
“I’m trying to stop us ending up like my damned parents!”
“And in the process, you would repeat their mistakes.”
I know I’ve ruffled his feathers when he snatches the four runeforms from the air. “Thank you for your charity, Librarian. My family appreciates your contribution.”
The stiffness in his shoulders matches the steel in mine as he turns to the door and storms through it.
Then he’s gone. I return to my body slowly, and all of the heartbreak that was threatening to overwhelm me slams into me the second the transition is complete. My knees wobble, and I collapse against the sofa with a muffled sob.
I have to get up. This is ridiculous. He’s made his choice. I am not some girl to throw myself after him, begging him to change.
No. This is the end.
I will help the ó Rinns because it is the right thing to do. I will do my best to save Leo from his ensorcellment because he means a lot to Lambert.
That is all.
Even if he turned up with a signed contract and an apology on his lips tomorrow, I would know it was a lie. As long as that spell is active on his chest, nothing he says is truthful or sincere.
Dakari was right.
I should’ve listened.
And yet I chose to hope that a few moments of stolen peace and camaraderie meant something. That my fantasy version of Leo would choose me over his fears.
“Hey boss, the Arcanaeum hit me with books until I quit my workout and then it chased me up here…. Wait. Why are you on the floor?”
Lambert’s heavy steps thunder across the room. Without hesitation, he pulls me up and into his lap. “Hey. What happened?”
Taking a shaky breath, I drag myself back together. “It was nothing. Leo and I had a minor disagreement. That’s all.”
“Leo did this?” His tempest eyes turn stormy as his hands cup my face, thick thumbs stroking away salty tears from my cheekbones. “How do I fix it?”
I shake my head. “It’s not something that can be fixed. There are enough problems between you—”
A forced and jagged smile curls his lips as he hugs me a little tighter. “And I’ll add one more to the list if he thinks he can make our girl cry and just leave.”
“He’s simply acting in his own best interests.” I try to stand. “I can’t… He just…”
Deep breaths. I need to calm down so my words aren’t some incomprehensible drivel.
Swallowing, I take a second before finishing, “His choices are not compatible with my wellbeing. Thus, I’ve decided to part ways.”
Lambert doesn’t release me; if anything, his hug turns downright suffocating. “You’re giving up on him? I thought you’d figured out the next layer?”
Something behind my ribs twinges, and I find myself tracing the edges of the shiny, just-healed skin across his arm. Despite my earlier certainty that anything between Leo and me is dead, I can’t bring myself to confirm it. Instead, I dodge his question.
“I just don’t want to see him right now. He…he went to Mathias, seeking a cure.”
Lambert’s embrace tightens. “No way. He wouldn’t do that.”
I don’t refute him. There’s no point when the realisation that yes, Leo would do that, is creeping over his face.
“Let me up. There’s a lot to discuss. I have work to do.” I pause, shoulders inching lower as I recognise four unique surges of magic somewhere below us.
I’m not sure if Leo chose to let the others help out of guilt or urgency, but it’s done.
Only one layer left to go. I take a deep, steadying breath, then address the building. “Please don’t forget to take a copy of the next layer of the ensorcellment. I’ll need it.”
The light flickers sombrely in answer.
“You’re still going to help him?” Lambert asks as he finally releases me.
“Naturally. The alternative is his family becoming indebted to a lich. While Leo might’ve chosen that for himself, there are others out there who can be spared such a fate.
” I swallow. “Now, there are plans that need to be made. If Dakari, Pierce, and Leo are all going to be at the Carlton Manor in a few days, they need to be adequately protected. I need to create antidotes in case Isidora tries anything with poison, and there are warding amulets that might mitigate any ensorcellments.”
Without meaning to, I ghost and float away from the warmth of him, shrouding myself in distance both emotionally and physically.
“Boss, he didn’t want to hurt you, you know that, right?”
I look blankly back at him. “Lambert, Leo has been intentionally hurting me for some time in an effort to ‘save’ me from his curse.”
It would be flattering if it didn’t hurt so much.
“Now, I have work to do.” I tug my sleeves over my hands, willing myself away to my office. I have no intention of wasting any more time crying over Galileo ó Rinn.