Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
Kyrith
They find me in the Astrology Room at midnight.
I don’t know why I’m working up here. Leo’s superstition has somehow become mine.
Now his runeform—a behemoth that makes me nervous just looking at it—is spread across the table beneath me as I float above, star charts drifting around me.
Westley gave up chasing the shadows they cast an hour ago, and now he’s asleep on the chair, paws twitching in slumber.
The sheer number of stars in this runeform has me convinced that it’s like the first layer—a combination of two constellations, or perhaps even more. I’ve already dismissed over a hundred of the more common ones.
“Lass?” Jasper murmurs. “Are you coming to bed?”
“No thank you,” I reply offhandedly, dismissing yet another constellation with a sigh.
I had hopes for that one. Several of the angles matched, but—
A hand on my ankle turns me physical in a rush, and I flail, plummeting, before North catches me.
“You’re coming to bed,” he says.
“I’m busy.” I shove away from him, forcing myself to my ghost form again, only to be cut off.
It turns out, when two of them are touching me, I don’t get a choice about whether to remain physical or not.
Lambert’s gentle kiss to my temple is all it takes to pin me in place.
“Boss. You need to take a break.”
“I need less sleep than you. I’m not alive.”
“You feel alive to me.” North grunts as I elbow him in the abdomen in my attempts to escape. “Right. That’s it.”
The world goes topsy-turvy, and a second later a massive hand claps against my ass.
“Put me down this instant! I swear to magic, I am putting a new rule—”
“Keep mouthing off at me, Ice Queen, you know where it’ll get you.”
“Now is hardly the time for—”
“Actually, lass, I kinda agree with him. You’ve been shut up here every waking moment. And when you’re not, you’re in your office, still working. When was the last time you read one of your porn books?”
I strain my neck to glower at Jasper. “It’s not porn, it’s cliterature!”
His brown eyes light with mirth. “Either way, it’s your hobby. When was the last time you read something for fun?”
Okay, so it’s been a few weeks, but that does not excuse a kidnapping!
“I need to work. Sometimes there’s too much to do, and—”
“Boss, if there’s stuff that needs doing, why didn’t you ask?”
I gape at Lambert. “Do you know how to break Leo’s ensorcellment?
Do you have sufficient alchemical knowledge to put together concoctions that will increase Dakari and Pierce’s resistance to poisons at that dinner tomorrow?
What about warding the Lineage Room? Can you create an emergency confusticating spell that will affect every single book in the Library, just in case?
Oh, and that needs to be reversible too, but only with a specific counterspell.
One that’s complicated enough that it will at least take anyone else years to solve, but that can also easily be recreated from memory, so that anyone with a grimoire could cast it on my behalf. ”
“You’re doing all that?” Lambert gapes at me, and I refuse to blush. “Boss, you’re amazing.”
“And overworked.” North hefts me a little higher on his shoulder as he reaches the bottom of the stairwell and heads towards the parapet. “Come on. Dinner is ready.”
“It’s far too late to eat—”
“You should’ve thought about that before you missed the last three meals.”
Gah, why is he tracking my eating habits, anyway?
“Pierce is cooking,” Jasper adds. “Smells mouthwatering.”
“I’ll admit, I didn’t think he’d lower himself to cook for us peasants,” Lambert adds, faking a bad posh accent. “But at least he brings something to the group beyond criticism and negativity.”
“Wait, you’re all eating with me?”
“Yep,” Lambert pops the ‘p’ with a grin. “Family dinner!”
North adjusts me again, and I slump, ceasing my feeble struggles. “Are you going to walk nicely now?”
I huff at the indignity, but honestly, now that I’m not a ghost and they’ve mentioned it, I am a little hungry.
“Fine.”
The relief at being returned to my feet doesn’t last long. Lambert is there, crushing me in an enormous hug that nearly breaks my bones.
“Missed you,” he murmurs, as if he didn’t see me a few hours ago when I was ushering the last patrons out for the night.
I melt a little, anyway. Being missed isn’t a privilege I’ve enjoyed for a long time. He pulls me against his side while we walk, and I absorb his warmth like sunshine.
“So you’re really doing all that stuff to protect the Arcanaeum?” North asks, staring at the books like he can see some evidence of the magic I’ve been working on.
“Prevention is better than cure,” I recite. “I’d rather be prepared and not need it. Without a grimoire, it’ll be tricky, but I can create a number of copies of the runeform on reinforced paper and cover the building in sections.”
“Why are you warding the Lineage Room?” Jasper asks.
“Mathias doesn’t believe Liminals deserve access to the same resources and education as their adept counterparts.
He saw us as barely better than inepts.” I sigh, pushing my braid over my shoulder.
“In his hands, the Lineage Room would return to what it once was—a way to determine how best to keep bloodlines pure, and who should be excluded from learning.”
Those were dark days.
“Liminals weren’t allowed to become magisters and would never have been considered capable enough for the parriarchy.”
After all, liminals were supposedly all weaker than their adept counterparts. Why would anyone let them rule?
The parapet is cool, and a welcome phantom breeze whispers against my skin as I look out into the formless misty void that houses the Arcanaeum.
“You think he’ll do that again?” Lambert asks.
“No.” I leave the shelter of his arms, continuing across the stone walkway. “I think he’ll do worse.”
Benny said that Mathias was bitter about being shoved out of the Arcanaeum. It’s no stretch to assume he’ll be out for revenge. A liminal forced him from his perfect life before, and he’s already taken subtle steps to identify those who aren’t pure enough for him.
Thankfully, Jasper holds open the door to the clock tower for me, and the smell of chicken and citrus chases those gloomy thoughts away.
I drift forward in a daze, staring at the blond arcanist carefully plating up something heavenly onto seven matching plates already loaded with bright green salad.
“Lemon chicken pasta,” Pierce announces, without even looking up. “Be thankful I stopped them before they decided on midnight kebabs and you ended up with some god-awful food poisoning.”
“I still think that was a good idea,” North grumbles, taking a seat at the table beside Dakari. “Where’s Eddy?”
“Upstairs. Headache,” he says.
I frown, but a tray is already floating up towards her room, accompanied by a familiar small grey bottle from my alchemy cabinet. Jasper has taken over steering me towards my spot at the head of the table with a smile and a kiss.
My heart sinks a little as I do my best to ignore Leo’s vacant spot. Just like I pretend not to notice that the Arcanaeum has removed his armchair from the corner, replacing it with a potted fern.
Lambert, of course, catches me looking in that direction as he brings over my food. For a second, his smile dims, but then it’s back. Maybe, in his optimism, he believes that this is temporary. I don’t see how it can be.
Pierce takes a seat on my left, cutting off my view of the fern.
“Are you sure you both need to go to that dinner tomorrow?” I ask.
“If I disobey, my mother is likely to make things more difficult in the long run.” His lips purse at the idea. “Better to appease her. She’ll be on her best behaviour if we have guests. With Leo, Dakari, and the rector there, she’ll want to give a good impression.”
I take my first bite of the pasta, and groan. “This is…”
“Absolute dogshit,” North says. “Come on, don’t compliment him. His head’s big enough.”
Pierce scoffs. “I don’t accept praise from someone who cuts up spaghetti.”
I freeze, looking down at my cutlery, where the short strands of pasta are piled neatly on a slither of chicken, and then at the way he’s twirling his on his spoon with deft motions.
“Oh, shut it,” North grumbles. “Not all of us went to finishing school.”
Jasper snorts, and a second later, Lambert does too. Okay, time to change the conversation before the banter escalates.
With a wave of my hand, I summon a collection of tonics and amulets into the centre of the table. There are three of each, something which seems silly now that Leo’s absence is so marked, but then again, perhaps I’m the only one who thinks that.
“I created a few things to keep you safe.”
“It’s just dinner,” Pierce leans back in his seat.
“And you’ve already proven that you’re easily fooled when it comes to truth potions.” I wave a hand at the bottles between us. “This will make you immune to most mind-altering concoctions and a handful of poisons. It should last for a few days, so you can take it now.”
Dakari is already downing his, dropping the empty bottle to the table with a slight frown. “Coconut?”
I incline my head gracefully. “It was the best I could manage on short notice.”
I usually prefer cherry, but things got mixed up. Maybe I have been working too hard if I can’t even get a simple potion flavour correct.
I hope I got the rest of it right.
Maybe I should—
I don’t even realise I’m beginning to stand until a gentle hand pulls me back down into my seat. “Five minutes to eat,” Jasper cajoles from my right. “Please?”
Those eyes of his should be illegal. While Lambert’s begging fills me with wry amusement, Jasper’s melts me from the inside out.
“Plus, we have a surprise for you,” Lambert adds. “If you can eat a whole meal and sleep the night in your own bed.”
“Something which you haven’t done in two days.” Dakari frowns.
Has it really been that long? I mumble an excuse no one believes and shove another forkful of food into my mouth.
I don’t expect to manage the whole plate, but Pierce—for all his arrogance—is a passable cook.
Dakari kidnaps me from my spot the moment we’re both done, pulling me into his lap.
I’m not quite sure how I get from there to bed, or at what point North and Lambert replace Dakari.
Being cared for is a new indulgence, and a full belly makes me sleepy.
It isn’t until I realise that I never finished checking over the plans for the dinner that I jolt upright.
North’s hand clamps around the back of my neck, gently—but firmly—forcing my head back to the pillow. I try to ghost out of his arms, but Lambert is still pressed against my back, making it impossible.
I’m naked, and I don’t remember how I got this way, but I’m keenly aware of it now as North drags me against him and our bare skin meets.
“I have to—”
“Sleep,” he grumbles. “Or I’ll spank your ass.”
Lambert cuddles closer against my back as I open my mouth to respond, only to close it again.
A devious gleam enters North’s eyes, a silent dare, and I bite my lip in response.
“Be a good brat, and in two hours, Lambert and I will reward you.”
“And if I don’t?”
He raises one brow. “You really want to risk missing out on what we have planned?”
As if to punctuate his point, Lambert grinds his semi-hard-on into my ass, pressing a kiss to my shoulder.
Leo’s accusatory glare when he discovered Dakari and me up here earlier flashes across my mind. Am I doing it again? Falling into them to avoid my problems? Shouldn’t I be working right now?
North silences those thoughts with a kiss.
“Wherever your mind just went, you’re wrong. Now go to sleep.”
“But we’re all awake,” Lambert protests. “It’s technically daylight. Can’t we get started on the surprise?”
North rolls his eyes, shifting so I’m sprawled over his chest. “Two. Hours. Go to sleep, both of you.”
Decree given, he closes his eyes, and I turn my head, meeting Lambert’s mischievous gaze with curiosity.
“Better do as he says, boss.” He throws an arm across his face, muffling his next words. “Wouldn’t want to miss out on your first-ever threesome.”
With that last tease, he drops effortlessly back into slumber, leaving me to gape at him in stupefaction. North’s fingers tangle in my hair, stroking through it in a gentle rhythm. I don’t mean to yawn, I really don’t, but it’s like he’s found the off switch for my brain.
“You better not be teasing me,” I mumble, then let the soothing motion pull me back under.