“Do you even realise what this does to me?” He waves a hand at my kneeling form. “This…elegance. The comfort of having you close, on your knees, like a good little sub. So trusting, intelligent, and mine—” He cuts himself off with an uttered curse. “It makes me want to tie you to my bed and debase you until you scream and cry and beg me to stop. It would be too easy to fall for you, Kyrie.” He delivers the sentence like a guillotine, cutting and final.
“If I do that, I’ll doom you. I’m already facing losing Lambert. That would destroy me. If I lose you…” A darkness overtakes his expression, and he changes course. “If the world loses the Librarian…”
Oh. Right. I’m allowed to matter as a public figure, but not as me. Not as a woman.
“And when the ensorcellment is broken?”
He runs his free hand through those red-streaked curls. “Then, if you’ll still have me, we need to have a long fecking talk about safe words and your limits. These checkboxes are a good start, but when we get into a scene, I want your total and unconditional surrender.” He pauses. “I can’t sign it. Not even platonically. Because that would be a lie. There’s absolutely nothing friendly about the way I want you.”
His final words are delivered so darkly that it’s almost scathing. Is that emotion directed at me or himself?
“You don’t think I can handle it.” North said the same thing.
“I know you can. But why should you? I’m not stupid. What I desire from you requires your trust, and I’ve banjaxed that with some of my behaviour. Worse, I’m not able to offer you the same in return until the ensorcellment is broken.”
I stay silent. That’s a suspicious amount of self-awareness coming from the man who seems to have a one-track mind.
Almost like…some of his callousness has been intentional. For the first time, I wonder how much of the Leo we know is a calculated act to keep us all from getting too close.
“If you think I don’t know that this curse might cost me everything before it’s even broken,” he whispers. “You’remistaken. I can only hope, when it’s done, you’ll offer me this again. If I even still deserve it by then.”
With that, he releases my hair and passes the contract back to me. The tidy move and my gentle acceptance of the document belie the talons his words have sunk into my chest.
On the front, a small scrap of paper containing a single line has been neatly stapled.
‘I, Galileo Ó Rinn, waive my right to be included in this relationship contract, and will not interfere with any other relationships that the Librarian may choose to pursue.’
His neat, swirling signature is right beneath, along with the date.
Leo’s focus has already returned to the books and charts, but mine is shattered. At least, it is until he brings me out of my roiling thoughts with a simple statement.
“Apparently, Mathias has already managed to break the first and second levels of my ensorcellment and promises to work on the final one.”
My head jerks up, burning eyes widening as they meet his cool ones. How did Mathias get a copy of the second runeform? We only discovered it days ago. A hundred possibilities flash through my mind, none of them good.
“It’s undoubtedly how he plans to bring my house into line. If he manages it, or starts on others’ ensorcellments…”
Ó Rinn could easily fall to the lich in their gratitude, leaving more than half of arcandom under his thumb. As heir, breaking Leo’s would grant the most publicity, but if Mathias freed enough key members of the family, it would have the same effect. Then, only Winthrop and McKinley would remain outside of his influence. The latter might hold out, but Georgina wouldn’t.
Lambert’s aunt is a creature of gossip and alliances, following the tides of the other parriarchs as they ebb and flow to maintain her tenuous hold on her position. It won’t takemuch for her to drift to Mathias’s side. Even the McKinleys, with their powerful nullifiers, couldn’t hold out against the combined force of all five of the other families.
Without meaning to, I glide to my feet and begin pacing the room.
Leo says nothing, letting me connect the dots.
“This is his plan,” I whisper. “Unite the families under him by bribery or force.”
What does that mean for the Arcanaeum? How does the Library factor into this? There’s no force in the world that could break in here, even with all of that power. Once the doors are sealed, the place is impenetrable. Unless he had the dagger or some other link to the building’s magic, there would be no way in.
There’s no question of him leaving us alone once his conquest is complete. Benny confessed that he’s still bitter over the loss of this place. Power aside, everything I’ve read about liches describes an impossible thirst for knowledge. The only question that remains is when.
How long do we have until he makes his move? Is it safe to assume he’ll consolidate his power over all six families first?
“Kyrie, you’re floating.”
Oh. I suppose I am. I didn’t even notice that I’d switched forms. In my defence, it’s easier to think—to remain rational under the weight of the fear sparked by his announcement—when I’m a ghost.
My stomach flutters with poisonous butterflies as I sink to the floor and become physical again. I sigh. If he’s not going to sign the contract, he really should stop calling me Kyrie.
