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.
Thirty-Eight
Galileo
The books start pelting me barely four steps down the hall.
Not little ones either. Massive fecking tomes that might as well be bricks. The first one thwacks me in the back of the head. The second smacks my arse.
“Hey! Ouch! Stop it. Oi! Knock it off!” I bat at the books, but the Arcanaeum doesn’t give two shites what I want.
When the books finally stop attacking, I come face to face with a stack of them that’s taller than I am.
Why Your Relationship is Failing: A Guide for Male Arcanists
So You Fucked Up, and What To Do About It
100 Magical Ways To Say I’m Sorry That Actually Work.
More and more books are being added to the pile by the second. When it reaches the ceiling, it starts again on the left, forming a wall.
Worse, when I try to dodge around the fecking things, they keep pace with me.
“Will you cut it out!” I bat away a copy ofShow Her: Why Apologising is Meaningless Without Actionand glower at the walls. “I’ve got shite to do.”
It’s remarkably hard to argue with a building, but at least it stops throwing books at me.
Sighing in relief, I take a step towards the nearest door.
Crack. It disappears. Along with all of the other ones in this hallway.
Every. Single. One.
The Arcanaeum is crammed with doors, but apparently, it’s decided I’m not going to be using any of them.
“Look, does she want me to leave or stay?” I demand. “Because I’m getting mixed messages.”
In answer, a staircase tumbles into being before me. I’m willing to bet this isn’t Kyrith’s doing. I’m dealing with the Library now, and it wants me to go downstairs, where she said Dakari, Jasper, and the ‘good’ Carltons would be waiting.
A Talcott.
My gut twists.
I’m not in the headspace to deal with this. At least with Mathias, I had a plan.
