Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. Especially when it comes to pushy, arrogant male arcanists.
Galileo’s hand drops casually—too casually—to the grimoire at his hip. Has he sensed my thoughts, or is he thinking the same?
“I don’t wish to cause you harm,” he murmurs placatingly, as the books around him leave their shelves, hovering menacingly.
An interesting thing to say with his hand literally millimetres from a weapon.
The door on his left flies open, the invitation clear.
One minute.
He sighs, both hands reaching down to his pockets this time. He mutters something under his breath as he heads for the door, pausing at the threshold to give me a reluctant nod.
Leo, giving up so easily? I don’t trust it.
Not even when the door closes behind him and nothing immediately changes in the room. I waste precious secondsclosing and locking every single door, then checking to make sure that, yes, Dakari and Jasper are sealed into their room.
So, when the ineluctable force takes hold of me and drags me back to the Foyer to die all over again, I don’t resist.
It’s onlywhen I’m curled around myself, hugging my knees protectively as I rise out of the Vault to land behind my desk, that Galileo’s suspicious behaviour comes back to me.
In a daze, I lift my head, eyes trailing around the Rotunda, then up and down the Botanical Hall, searching shadows for someone I hope not to find.
Nothing.
My shoulders sag in relief, but the prickling awareness doesn’t ease.
The Arcanaeum sags slightly, tugging lightly at my consciousness with sadness and…guilt? I look up. Slowly, I take in the Gallery directly above and freeze at the tableau before me.
This is so much worse than I feared.
Dakari is there, his hand firmly banded around Lambert’s upper arm because the usually happy Winthrop heir is poised to throw himself over the balcony. His hair is wet like he’s just showered and hanging wildly around his face, which is sporting an impressive bruise. Galileo has both arms braced on the marble as well, but his expression is dark and contemplative as he regards me.
And Jasper and North are here, too, hovering at the back, like they’re not sure they should be there at all. They’re mired in pity. It radiates from their every pore. I would’ve thought North would be halfway towards the open Vault trapdoor by now, andat the reminder, I slam it closed with a loudthunkthat makes them jump. Good.
I want to scream at them to get out. To rage at them.
Right now, I’m so weak I can’t find the energy to do either.
Besides, they’re not to blame here. The building is sending me waves of apology, of pain and sorrow. It allowed this. Worse, I get the feeling that itencouragedit. Otherwise, how else would Lambert and North have entered when I specifically checked that we were closed? How would Dakari and Jasper manage to pass through a locked and warded door?
Leo is sneaky enough and clever enough that I could believe he managed this by himself. The others, while powerful, don’t have the motive nor the skills to bypass the building’s magic.
“Why?” I ask it, softly.
Why would it do this to me? Humiliate me like this? What reason could it possibly have to take my macabre personal hell and put it on display for the five arcanists above me?
Not for the first time, it’s betrayed me. I’m lost. More and more, I feel like we’re all pawns in a chess match. And the Library is the grand master orchestrating our every move. But against whom, and for what purpose?
Of course, the Arcanaeum doesn’t answer, so I take a breath that I can’t feel, squeeze my eyes tightly closed for a second, and force myself to stand.
“Get. Out.” I meet each of their stares in turn as I say it.
“Boss lady,” Lambert says, but the nickname is shrouded in softness and missing its usual cheekiness as he reaches for me. “Let us?—”
“OUT!”
The word is a boom that ricochets across the gap between us, blowing their hair back with the force I put behind it. Unfortunately, it saps what little strength I have from me, and I collapse backward, falling through the desk until I’m forced todissipate into the Arcanaeum itself to save myself from falling back into the Vault.
