Page 118 of Liminal

And I don’t want Josef anywhere near her, or Eddy, ever again. Thank fuck he’s banned from the Arcanaeum.

“Grimoire?” Benny looks back at Josef, who shrugs.

“It was a test…”

At first, I think he’s talking about testing me, but then humour crinkles the corners of Benny’s mouth behind his grey moustache, and I realise I’ve assumed wrong. Josef was testing Benny, but why?

“After all this time, you still doubt me, old friend?”

“Old habits.” Josef finally steps away from the window. “Besides, I was curious as to the mechanics of it all. If he were dead, it would be there, and the boy is too headstrong. He needed to learn his place.”

So he doesn’t want the grimoire? He sent me to get my ass kicked for nothing? Fury boils in my veins, but I take a deep breath of the aftershave-and-tobacco scented air to control it. Losing my temper around Josef has never gone down well. Now he has allies around him, defiance will probably go down even worse.

“We need to decide what to do with this information.” Josef paces the back wall, his eyes tracing the tastefully chosen monochrome seascapes in their heavy black frames. “Does the Librarian suspect that he lives?”

“It’s possible. After all, his grimoire isn’t in the Vault. Still, it’s better to assume she doesn’t.”

They’re talking about Mathias Ackland. They’ve got to be. But he lived hundreds of years ago. How the fuck can he still be alive?

“She’s not as blind as you might think.” Pierce presses the enchanted necklace down onto the desk. “She’s watching magiball games using these. It’s possible she has other agents giving her eyes across the world.”

He’s stupid if he thinks that’s the case. Kyrith is one of the most isolated people I’ve ever met. If she had magical CCTV, she’d at least understand some of the more basic modern references we’ve made during tutoring.

I never want to see Lambert demonstrate twerking again.

My disbelief must show on my face, because Josef rolls his eyes. “She doesn’t know, or the boy would. And she’s unlikely to believe us. If I bring it before the other parriarchs?—”

“You’ll be dead by sunrise.” Benny sips at his drink.

Pierce nods grimly. “Isidora has had more than enough time to secure her position. The alliance with the Talcotts will be the crowning jewel.”

“If she can get Dakari to step in line.” Benny grins. “He was a rebel from the moment he was born, even before the incident.”

Incident? My gut sinks as I realise Eddy has been in the same building as that guy for days, and I never even thought to ask about him. I trusted Kyrith’s judgement and the fact that Lambert had no problems with him.

“Anthea will get him to come around,” Pierce mutters. “When she gets her head in the game and realises that being a trophy wife is safer than Mathias’s protégé.”

“Isidora’s moves are undoubtedly aimed at retaking control of the Arcanaeum,” Benny mumbles to himself. “To succeed, she needs to take out the Librarian. The news of her affliction must have my daughter giddy with joy.”

“I overheard her saying that touching the heirs is what’s driving them,” Pierce interjects.

Benny’s face lights up, and he turns to Josef with a grin. “How powerful is your son?”

Josef looks me over. “His potential is easily twice mine. His drive to learn, however, is lacking.”

My jaw aches from how hard I’m grinding my teeth. I’m too out of the loop to understand half of what’s going on here, and what little I do, fills me with dread. The feeling only amplifies as all three of them turn speculative gazes on me.

“If you’re plotting to do something to Kyrith, leave me out of it.” I’ve had enough of being pinned to the floor like an ant beneath a magical boot.

If any of them are surprised that I used her name, they don’t mention it. No doubt Pierce has already told them everything he’s learned from his attempts to bully her.

“Pierce is more powerful than his sister, which is why Isidora was so keen to keep him to herself, despite knowing he would eventually have to take his sister’s place as heir,” Benny muses. “The Ó Rinn heir is an incredibly skilled divinator, already on the verge of being proclaimed a magister, or so I’m told.”

“And the Talcott heir is powerful. That was why they sent him to live with his grandfather,” Josef adds. “Winthrop, too, though he’s a flashy little show off about it.”

“It took six powerful lines of magic centuries to establish the Arcanaeum,” Benny says, sitting forward with his gaze pinned on me. “Six lines of magic were present every time they reinforced the building.” His mouth turns down. “Pierce, have you touched her?”

The blond frowns. “Aside from when I joined? No.”