Page 100 of Liminal

Lambert reacts to Eddy walking into their tutoring session like he’s just scored on the Magiball court, throwing his arms up and warbling a ridiculous cheer that makes Jasper look up in panic.

“I thought you didn’t know how to use those things!” he teases, picking her up by the waist and swinging her around. “Next, you’ll be shaving them and painting your toenails and tap dancing and shit. Did you do this, boss lady? I told North he should just ask you in the first place!”

The unashamed pride and affection in his gaze cuts, and I look away from him instead of answering, keeping an eye on my newest patient. Magic, at this rate, I might as well turn the library into a hospital.

Eddy wobbles a little as he sets her back down. The jeans she’s wearing are a little loose on her, but she’s sipping slowly at a restorative muscle tonic for her legs that took me two hours to brew. She’s wearing a white shirt, cinched at the waist with a wide belt, both of which she conjured for herself.

Surprise, surprise, Eddy is already obsessed with everything magical. She badgered North into explaining how magic worked while I was working on the injury to her spine, and of course that led to her demanding a grimoire of her own. The Arcanaeum was only too happy to oblige, presenting her with a scarlet monstrosity that made her squeal like a delighted piglet. The first thing she conjured was a mess, naturally, but eventually she managed that belt, followed by her ankle boots. Then the rest of the outfit, makeup…

Ordinarily, girlish giggling in the library would have my fingers itching to give the perpetrator a strike.

Eddy’s slightly wheezy laughter seems to be the exception.

North’s twin is his polar opposite. She’s quick to smile, much like Lambert, and even quicker to move now that she has the use of her legs.

She’s still wobbly, but the second the Arcanaeum closed, she was flitting around like she had to seeeverythingwith ajoie de vivrethat’s more endearing than I thought it would be.

I just don’t understand how someone so…vivacious, can be tolerable. I suspect that beneath it all, it’s because she reminds me a little too much of myself. Eager to learn magic, excited about the library, and completely vulnerable to the machinations of the parriarchs. Just like me, Eddy was considered expendable by an Ackland.

Unlike me, she has a brother who wants to protect her.

Approving of anything that North has donegrateson me like sandpaper, but I get it a little more now. He was protecting his twin, and Josef played on that. Eddy’s here now, and safe, but people like the parriarchs search for weak spots and exploit them over and over again. As long as North is useful—as long as he’s heir—Eddy is leverage.

At least the situation, and Eddy’s sparkly personality, has happily distracted me from the distressing state of both of my arms.

That doesn’t last long. Leo makes a noise in the back of his throat that’s midway between disbelief and frustration, and clasping my hands behind my back isn’t enough to stop every eye from following his gaze right to me.

“What happened?” Lambert forgets about Eddy entirely as he reaches for me, only to be intercepted by North.

“It was a mistake,” North mutters under his breath. “An accident.”

Lambert shoves past him, eyes fixed on my arm. “What did you do, boss?”

“Are you okay?” Jasper asks at the same time.

“You call her boss?” Eddy coos, voice rising. “That’s adorable!”

“A fecking accident?” Galileo grinds his teeth together as he runs a hand through his hair but is ignored.

“He has nicknames for every woman in his class,” I correct coolly, stepping out of Lambert’s path and drifting towards the booth where the others are seated. “It’s nothing special. And I am fine.”

Dakari’s eyes have narrowed, looking between my shattered arms and North like he might interrogate him further, but I shake my head subtly to stop him.

“Drop it,” I mumble. “Did someone get food?”

“Burritos.” Leo pushes a brown paper bag in the direction of the Ackland twins. “And I believe I’ve found a lead that may help you.”

“Help me? How?” I was sure I’d run out of options.

Lambert shuffles into the bench, leaving me as the only one still standing. He waves me into the space beside him, but Ipretend not to see and perch on the edge of the opposite bench, beside Jasper, instead.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” Leo begins, pulling out a torn page. “But this was in my family library. It’s a reference to a complex set of spells that could hypothetically be used to bind one’s life-force to an object.”

The Arcanaeum shoves forward, snatching the paper from him and adding it to the collection without my approval. The heading is a single word, written in beautifully illuminated script that doesn’t exist in modern day texts.

‘Liches.’

Frowning, I trace the letters, unfamiliar with the term, and then skim through the rest of the page.