Page 82 of Librarian

“Did you two…?” I probe.

“No. She was drunk.” Pierce rolls his eyes like the very idea is preposterous. “But she can be…funny when she’s not guarded.”

Benny claps him on the back. “I’m glad you’re growing closer. Now, if only you could put the effort in with the rest of the heirs. You could have friends.”

Pierce groans. “I never said I wanted any.”

His grandfather releases him. “Humour an old man. It would do me good to stand at your wedding, knowing that everything I put you through didn’t stop you from finding love and companionship in life.”

I manage to smother my snort. Thankfully, Benny can’t see the way both of my brows have climbed up my forehead. To fuck with Pierce, I blow him a kiss behind the older man’s back.

“Wedding?” Pierce chokes. “I?—”

“It’s good that she’s made of strong stuff. Anyone weaker would bore you. Do you think she’s considered children? I’m not opposed to being a great-grandfather, though I might be a little young…”

There’s an edge to the old man’s tone that makes it clear he’s having fun with this, but Pierce freezes, all amusement evaporating in a blink. His grimoire flops open beside him, runeforms flashing past as the pages blur.

“They’re here.”

I move closer, peering over the edge, but I don’t see anything. My cluelessness must show, because he sighs and taps the tiny glowing runeform by his right eye. “Cast a discernment spell. They’re keeping themselves covered.”

Grunting a thanks, I switch to the right page—Fuck!

My grimoire drops to the floor, forgotten as I fight to cover my ears.

The squealing siren blaring through the fortress has everyone on the wall bent double. It’s so shrill that it scrapes my skin like razor blades. Fuck. I can feel it in my teeth.

Pierce is doing something, but his ears are bleeding as he fights to stay standing under the onslaught.

Then it just…stops.

There’s a tug in my chest, and I don’t even have to think before I’m turning in its direction.

Kyrith.

Because who the fuck else would be able to single-handedly put down an attack like that so quickly?

Is she okay? Did that magic reach the keep?

Pierce has the same thought, because his body is angled away from the threat, even though his eyes remain fixed on the white shrouds beyond the wall.

Only the dead are gone.

In their place are hundreds of navy-uniformed enforcement officers, their grimoires open and glowing.

“Fucking hell.” The words are garbled, but then someone is there—one hand pressed into my forehead.

I brush them away, but it’s Owen, the quiet, burly McKinley who was on watch farther down the wall, and he’s not deterred.

“Stay still,” he orders.

It would be easier to do that if my ears didn’t ring with every syllable.

He doesn’t wait for me to follow his order. One incantation later, the stuffy pain in my skull eases.

Benny finishes casting the same spell on Pierce, who straightens. “We need to get to Kyrith.”

“Obviously, but what about them?” I gesture at the army on the doorstep.