Page 137 of Librarian

Dakari hops over the balustrade, coming closer to press a kiss to her forehead. “Sorry, baby girl.”

I murmur my own apology, then pause. “What if we want a friendly competition to see who can give you the most orgasms?”

She pins me with a look. “You can do that when I’m convinced you know the meaning of the word.”

Dakari chuckles. “It’s a hell of a lot more friendly than it was before you entered the picture.”

“Exactly.”

“You can’t both seriously want—” She cuts herself off, sighing. “You don’t want to share me like that, anyway.”

“I’m learning to appreciate the benefits,” I reply, ducking down and sweeping her into my arms. “Slowly.”

Her answering kiss on the underside of my jaw is so soft I almost don’t feel it.

Thirty-Eight

Kyrith

Ihave no idea what Lambert is baking, but it smells divine.

For the last fifteen minutes, he’s been humming and weaving around the kitchen with a cheery kind of ease, completely oblivious to the illegal magic being cast behind him.

The easy contentment wafting from him is infectious. It takes the edge off my nerves as I work, and I’m grateful.

Turning the page of the black book in front of me, I trace the letters of Pierce’s neat handwriting with one finger as I hold my other hand over the blank, but identical grimoire on my right.

In front of me, a jar of ink slowly empties as the diagrams are copied across.

Lambert sees nothing except me poring over papers filled with star charts.

The clatter of a plate being set down by my elbow breaks my focused bubble, then he kisses my cheek and returns to whatever he’s doing behind me.

The two of us are the only ones down here this early, in what’s become our ritual since we returned to the Arcanaeum aweek ago. When I get up, he’s already running circuits around the Library or at training. That’s good, because he’s not there to watch me set up my book forging enterprise.

I always have the Carlton heir’s grimoire hidden beneath multiple illusions by the time Lambert returns to the Clock Tower. Not that it really matters much. After his shower, his attention is consumed with baking something for our breakfast. He barely glances at my work.

Thank goodness.

It took three mornings of quiet study while Pierce slept, but I finally managed to duplicate the exact materials needed to recreate the book. Now, almost a week later, I’m so close to being done.

My speed is partly down to how many pages I have to leave out.

Stars, I knew Pierce used necromancy, but until I looked in his grimoire, I never really understood the depths of his involvement.

It’s probably the predominant school in his repertoire, with destruction and ensorcellment a close second. If enforcement ever got their hands on this book, he’d be executed.

Given that discovery, I’m surprised Pierce ever let me borrow it—even reluctantly. Then again, what does he have to be ashamed of? He never wanted to learn any of it.

However, he was very specific that the others can’t know.

I agree.

If this does go badly, if Pierce and I are discovered, there’ll be hell to pay. The other five should be able to swear under a truth spell that they know nothing about his use of dark magic. Ignorance keeps them safe.

As far as they’re aware, I’m working on the spell to destroy the phylactery, which Iam, but my progress on that is slower. This is more urgent.

Tomorrow, we’re reopening the Arcanaeum. That will no doubt bring enforcement running. Isidora accused Pierce of using necromancy before she died, and if he can’t disprove it, he’ll be hunted to the ends of the earth.