31. Lucy
Lucy
I t’s so late it’s early by the time Midnight and I sneak back into House Inferos. Tonight was… incredible. Which is why it was also awful. I have to stay strong, keep my emotions locked away, I can’t risk falling for Midnight, not if it means losing my power.
But the way she worships my body, empowers me by giving me control. It’s rewiring my brain. Changing my chemistry and I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.
In the face of my goal and how much closer we are to finding out what Ignatius did, how can I give up because she’s dangerous to my heart?
I can’t contemplate the fact it’s her I dream about, her I wish I drank my morning coffee with and her I wish I fell asleep next to.
She is dangerous, this whole fucking thing is. But what if it leads to my freedom?
Vetch raises his stony judgemental eyebrow at us as the door creaks open.
“I think we need to talk,” Lex says, her hand on her hip, foot tapping as the foyer lights flick on.
Bastien winces behind her, raising his hands in defence.
“Where have you been?” Lex says. “I told you about the rune and you vanished. It’s been hours. And why are you investigating celes?—”
Midnight lunges and plonks her hand over Lex’s mouth.
“My apartment,” I say, resigned to the fact we’ve been caught, but I’d rather it was Midnight’s friends than Ignatius.
We schlep up the stairs and I close us inside, putting the kettle on. We sit around the dining room table, sipping tea and picking at biscuits.
“Is this anything to do with Malifax the other day?” Bastien says.
Midnight hesitates. “We’re not sure. Probably is the best answer. They’re convinced Lu— sorry, Professor Corvine has something to do with the resurrection.”
“Lucy?” Bastien says, a smug expression sliding into his features.
Lex’s gaze flits between me and Midnight, settling on me. “The celestial runes were for you?” she asks.
“It’s…” Oh gods, I can’t tell them. It puts my job on the line, it puts Midnight’s place at Finis in jeopardy. If they were to tell someone, it would destroy everything.
Bastien leans forward. “Look, you might as well tell us, we’ve worked it out anyway.” He slides his middle and index fingers over each other in a scissoring motion.
Vile.
Why are men like this?
Midnight slaps him upside the head.
“Can we focus?” Lex yawns.
I glance at Midnight. “Should we trust them?”
She nods at me. “They have my back.”
“They need to have mine too,” I say to her.
“I trust them.”
“Okay.” I nod.
Midnight explains everything. The additional training in exchange for helping me break my contract.
She tells them about my contract and the fact that when I orgasm, she can read the runes on my body.
That garners several raised eyebrows but no further judgement, so she tells them about Malifax and how the Societas are convinced I am linked to Architecti’s resurrection.
Lex wipes a hand over her mouth and her lips move as if she’s whispering at a rapid rate of knots.
“What is it, Lex?” I ask.
“Ignatius trapped Architecti, and in a way he also trapped you. And now your body is covered in celestial contract runes, and Architecti is…”
“Celestial,” Midnight finishes for me.
I sit bolt upright. “Shit…”
“What?” Lex says.
“I’ve never seen my contract. I’ve always hunted for it in the demonic library because Ignatius is a demon.”
Bastien grins. “But the contract runes on your body aren’t demonic.”
“No, they’re not,” I breathe.
“So your contract was never going to be in the demonic library?” Midnight says.
“I don’t think so.”
All three of them grin.
“Then I guess we’re taking a trip upstairs,” Bastien says.
“Except the Celestial Library has been shut off for years. Even my sister’s cohort didn’t have access to it,” Lex says.
“Looks like we’re going to be breaking and entering,” Midnight replies, a devious glint forming in her eye.
“We can’t. There’s no direct access to it from the campus. The floor was magically sealed off when the angels left, and they added a ton of security,” I tell them.
“What kind of security?” Bastien asks.
“The dangerous kind,” I answer.
“Sounds like my kind of evening,” Midnight says.
“I’m serious. Encoded runes seal the doors, and there’s also the minor point of the angels themselves.
If one of them were to find you, they’d erase your memories and probably wipe your entire personality from your brain to protect their knowledge.
And that’s without the fact we have wraiths controlled by some ancient magic guarding the doors. ”
“That is a lot,” Lex says.
“Yeah,” I agree and slump against the sofa.
“Let’s not give up. You said no direct access to it from campus . But that sounds like there might be direct access to it from somewhere else,” Bastien says.
I shrug. “In theory, there should be access to it from every realm.”
“Including the Veil?” Midnight says, sitting up.
“Theoretically, but there’s no way we can do that. None of us are trained enough, and even if we had someone like Alistair weaving for us, we’d be sitting ducks in the underworld. Even if we only stepped through it and cut our way straight into the Celestial Library.”
We fall silent.
Lex busies herself in my kitchen, opening cupboards and pulling packets this way and that until she finds more tea. I almost ask what she’s doing rifling through everything, but I find it endearing that she decided to make herself at home.
As if summoned by the thought of food, Mortem strolls into the kitchen and rubs himself over my calves. I scratch at his ears and under his chin. He plonks himself at my feet and falls asleep.
Midnight is staring into space, her eyes locked onto something none of us can see. Bastien’s brow is furrowed deep in concentration.
Lex flips the kettle on and gets fresh cups out for us all.
“So the dangerous part is the underworld?” Midnight says.
I nod.
“What if we skip it entirely? We could cut a hole in the Veil to the underworld and immediately cut another deeper hole right back to the celestial world. Maybe stitch the frayed edges together.”
“Like a wormhole,” Lex says, pouring tea for everyone. She hasn’t even asked how we like it. I’m surprised when she puts a cup down in front of me and it has the hint of honey in it. Just how I like it.
“That’s impressive,” I say as she passes out the rest of the mugs.
“It’s my party trick.” She smiles.
“This sounds more than possible,” Bastien says.
I shrug. “It is in theory. Theory being the operative word.”
Midnight rubs her hands together as if itching to get going. “Plus, it would bypass the wraiths as we’d cut straight through the Veil into the library.”
“And we wouldn’t have to deal with the rune locks on the doors,” Lex replies.
“Or that,” I answer, already seeing where this is going.
“So, in theory , the hardest part is cutting the Veil twice in quick succession?” Midnight asks.
“And stepping through it without getting caught or attacked by a wraith,” I confirm.
All three of them give each other the side-eye. Oh gods, I can’t be responsible for putting three students in danger.
“No. No way. We can’t.”
But I’ve already lost this battle.
“ We can’t,” Midnight says, and her eyes fall to Mortem. As if summoned by the sheer weight of a gaze on him, his ear twitches and he lifts his head off his paws.
The scowl on his furry face is impressive.
“I do hope you’re not referring to me,” he meows.
“A wraith won’t attack you,” Midnight says.
“Are you out of your hairless minds? I’m not walking through the Veil. I’m a shade for a reason.”
“But you could also open the door for us,” Bastien says.
He slow-blinks at Bastien, only it looks less like a sign of affection and more like a sign of dismay at the sheer idiocy coming out of our mouths.
He yawns, licks his paw beans and then pads over to sit in front of Midnight and Bastien. “Do I look like I have opposable thumbs?”
“Well, you have enough attitude to open a thousand locked doors. I think you’ll find a way,” Midnight says and leans down to tickle him under his chin.
I’m about to warn her that’s a bad idea, he bites. But Mortem leans in, letting her stroke him and head butting her. His form becomes more and more dense, his colours changing from translucent to fresh snowfall white.
Then he sinks his teeth into her hand, and Midnight shrieks.
“You little bastard,” she yells and goes to bonk him on the nose, but he shifts back to noncorporeal. Her hand falls right through his face, and she head butts the table.
Bastien busts out laughing, and Lex nearly chokes on her gulp of tea.
I swear Mortem outright chuckles, though it sounds more like a hacked purr.
He dashes away down the corridor with Midnight chasing after him, leaving the three of us cackling.