Page 230 of Librarian

“Just be grateful he pronounced it correctly,” Pierce mutters, but there’s no heat in the insult. “And don’t forget, she and I have a reservation at the theatre in the evening.”

Kyrith’s lips twist into a tiny smile as they bicker. I lean over and unravel her wet braid so I can wash her hair. Pierce is already playing with the fancy bottles over on the counter, reading labels like he actually understands what half of the crap in them is.

Eventually, he tosses me one and another to North, who starts washing her little toes as I work the shampoo into her scalp.

“All good?” I check as her eyes flick open.

Her sigh is everything I need to hear, and she stretches out against Jasper. “Better than good.”

I silently promise she’ll never have to give me a different answer.

Sixty-Four

Kyrith

For the first time in decades, there’s no Ackland parriarch knocking on my door on October first.

Instead, North is tangled in my sheets, groaning as he tries to avoid his inevitable return to his studies.

“You’ve had all summer to relax,” I remind him, sitting on the edge of the bed with my toes pressed into Jasper’s chest as he laces up my boots.

“Wasn’t long enough.” Lambert flops over, elbowing North in the face in the process. “Can’t we have a year off?”

I shrug, smiling down at Jasper as he presses a kiss to my knee above the brown leather, then switches feet. “You’re past the gap year application deadline.”

The Arcanaeum helpfully summons their books into the room, dumping them onto North and Lambert’s bare stomachs.

It’s not a small pile.

“Ooof,” North groans. “What the fuck?”

“Not cool, man.” Lambert shoves himself onto his elbows and stares at the tower of books in dismay. “Please tell me I don’t actually have to read all of these?”

Jasper finishes lacing my boot and stands, holding a hand out for me as he ignores the two of them. “Are you sure you don’t want to bring a couple of assistants on for the new term?”

I let him pull me up. “No. The Arcanaeum is eager to get back to normal and so am I.”

The volunteers helped in the beginning, but I let them all go last month when there was nothing for them to do. The first day of term is always busy, but the Library and I are used to it.

Today will be a day of answering knocks at the door, admitting or denying prospective new patrons, and setting up their paperwork. The building is already bristling with anticipation. Books straighten on the shelves, preening as it tries to give the best first impression to the new intake of students.

I let Jasper tug me down the stairs to the kitchen, where the others are already gathered.

“I still think you should’ve taken my offer of a teaching post,” Leo mumbles munching on his toast as he takes in the pencil skirt he selected for me with an approving twitch of his lips.

“I’d have grown bored after the second year of teaching the same subject,” I rebuke. “Besides, it would’ve meant at least one of you in my classroom at all times.”

After some experimentation, it’s become clear that I can only leave the building when I’m with one of them, and I can’t ghost when I do. I could hold my class here, but accommodating so many lectures in the Arcanaeum during Mathias’s ban was a stretch. Now that we’re only hosting Hopkinson’s first year class, a little bit of calm has been restored.

Even if that wasn’t an issue, I’m busy. A new term means the quieter summer period is finally over. I’m also midway through redecorating the Arcane History section, taking inspiration fromthe chateau in Burgundy. Not to mention my work helping Leo with his reforms and our continued tutoring sessions.

I simply don’t have time to become a professor.

“Breakfast,” Pierce announces, pushing a shiny sweet pastry and a mug of tea across the island to me. “Eat fast. You haven’t got long.”

True. A glance at the clock above the fridge reveals there’s only ten minutes until we open. Cuddling has become something of an addiction recently, which is how I end up sitting in Dakari’s lap while I devour it. He strokes my back distractedly as he uses his tablet to chase down leads on the book the Arcanaeum asked him to collect yesterday.

I still feel the imprints of their kisses as I set everything up behind the desk, the pens on the leather top rolling with excitement as the building waits to welcome the next generation of arcanists.