“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.
