Page 216 of Librarian

“You all signed the contract with a living, embodied version of me?—”

“And we love you, regardless. It doesn’t matter if you get your body back in ten seconds or it never happens.”

I’ll never get tired of hearing him say that he loves me. Every time he does, I’m transported back to that snowy doorstep with the northern lights shimmering in the night sky beyond.

I’ll treasure that memory forever.

“I signed that contract because it made you feel safe,” Dakari adds. “But we’ve always been more than a sheet of paper, baby girl.”

“And what about when you want sex?” I push. “I can’t do anything on the list. There are six of you, and it’s not fair to?—”

“Contrary to popular belief,” Leo says. “Our balls won’t fall off if we don’t get our dicks wet regularly.”

North nods. “What he said.”

“And you’re quite creative with your manipulation spells, lass,” Jasper reminds me, heat brimming in his eyes. “If you want to do something together, we’ll make it work.”

My mind flashes back to that hand job. It seems like eons ago that I was scared to touch him without cracking, even though it’s only been half a year.

“There are countless couples out there who can’t have sex for a million different reasons,” Lambert adds. “I’m happy with whatever makes you happy. Even if that’s just me reading you pages of your sexy little books to give you mindgasms while we cuddle.”

“Mindgasms aren’t a thing,” I mumble, even as I hug my middle.

I scan all of their faces, waiting for one of them to baulk. To say this wasn’t what they’d imagined or even signed up for.

None of them do.

“You’re ours forever, baby girl.” Dakari comes to stand directly in front of me, hands caressing shoulders he can’t feel. “Whatever that looks like.”

Lambert nods. “In sickness and in health, in ghostliness and in embodiedness.”

“However you’ll have us,” Leo adds.

If I could, I’d be crying. The shelves around us sigh, and I swallow to clear the imaginary lump blocking my throat.

“If you change your minds, I won’t hold it against you.”

“We won’t,” Jasper vows. “You’re our Librarian. Even when all that’s left of us is grimoires on those shelves in the Vault.”

The moment stretches, and I shake my head to clear that image. With luck, their connection to the Arcanaeum will give us many, many years before that even becomes a consideration.

“Speaking of the Vault…” Pierce changes the topic, diffusing the heaviness that has settled in the air. “Out of curiosity, did Anthea’s grimoire ever appear down there?”

I frown, sending the question to the Arcanaeum. What follows is…amusement and a vague negative.

“No…”

His lip quirks. “Interesting.”

“Are you saying there’s another necromancer on the loose?” Leo stands, grabbing his grimoire, but I put myself in front of him.

“I think he’s saying that…Anthea was forced to start a new grimoire by her grandfather, so it’s entirely plausible her bond to the new book was insufficient to have it summoned to the Vault.”

Leo raises a brow at my careful wording.

“She saved us,” I remind him quietly. “Her reasons might not have been noble, but as long as she remainsdead, I don’t see any reason to dig any deeper. Do you? It would be a waste of time. The others need to study for their end-of-year examinations, not chase after loose ends.”

That they already spent so much time helping the Arcanaeum and me is a constant source of guilt.