Not that it matters. Isidora has apparently been fed half a story and decided to demand her due.
I could simply deny him. Pierce Carlton has no need of tutoring, and his mother knows it. What can she really do besides make noise? This is my domain. My pride insists I do just that and teach the parriarch where she can shove her ultimatums.
Hardly the actions of an impartial figure, but the defence of the Arcanaeum is my primary concern. Its welfare supersedes my neutrality.
Still… There’s a reason they say keep your enemies close…
I only realise I’ve started pacing behind the desk when Pierce clears his throat, dragging me to a stop. “I’m willing to swear a covenant promising no violenceifthe other heirs will do the same.”
“A covenant is impossible for me. I don’t have a body.” My denial is instant, yet false.
One perfect, regal brow rises. “Don’t you?”
He knows.
Magic.How? No one, aside from the other heirs, has seen my body, unless he somehow suspected when he cracked me that it wasn’t going to kill me. His grandfather’s knowing smile from that day still haunts me, and I have to wonder how the two of them fit into all of this.
There are too many unknowns here. When I ask the Arcanaeum for its input, it simply echoes back my own unease and distrust.
All the more reason to keep Pierce close.
Leo leans too-casually against the desk. “I’ll make the covenant with him.”
Lambert frowns through my translucent body. “Wait? You will? But you two hate each other.”
Neither of them denies it, and I want to groan at the thought of yet more quarrelling. Isn’t it enough that I mustendure Dakari and Galileo scowling at each other whenever they’re in the same room?
Pierce’s antagonistic presence will only dial up their aggression.
“Swearing not to harm one another in the Arcanaeum would reinforce its status as neutral ground.” Leo shrugs one shoulder with calculated disinterest. “It would protect theLibrary.”
The subtle emphasis he puts on the last word is accompanied by a flick of his eyes from Lambert to me and then back. It’s almost comical watching the realisation sink into the Winthrop heir’s features, and I suppress a groan when his smile returns, brighter than ever.
“Oh, yep! Sure. Great idea. We canallpromise not to do any violence to each other in the Arcanaeum, if that’s what you want, Kyrith?”
I raise one brow. He’s so transparent that I’m struggling to believe he’ll ever become a parriarch. Pierce is only offering a covenant because he probably suspects the six of them will do something that gets them all banished if he doesn’t. It’s the equivalent of offering to take their fights outside.
Or at least, the physical ones. The verbal sparring will undoubtedly be interminable.
My pacing resumes. What does Isidora stand to gain from this? No doubt Pierce has orders to uncover whatever secrets he can. They already have inside information they shouldn’t, and this would be the icing on the cake.
To test the theory, I say, “If the covenant includes swearing yourself to secrecy about anything you might see or hear that isn’t public knowledge about the Arcanaeum or myself, then I’ll consider it.”
He won’t accept it. He’s a spy. It’s so obvious?—
“Naturally. My parriarch would expect nothing less.”
I freeze, caught in haughty gunmetal-grey eyes.
I think…I might’ve just miscalculated.
“You’ll still have to get the other heirs to swear it,” Leo adds.
“I’ll leave that to you, since you’re so keen to protect the ‘Library.’” Pierce’s mocking tone makes the books around us shuffle restlessly, but he’s already turning on his heel. “I’ll be here at closing.”
Without waiting for my reply, he disappears into Hopkinson’s class.
“Arrogant pig,” I snarl under my breath.
