Page 84 of Liminal

Come on, I silently urge them.Leave. Go to bed. Just go away.

The Arcanaeum isn’t doing anything to encourage them, and I draw on the magic of the building to disappear all of the chairs in the room.

If that doesn’t get the message across, I might have to create a dungeon and seal them into it until morning.

Fortunately, Dakari is already heading for the door. “Hey, Jasper, weren’t you supposed to take some tonic or something before you slept?”

He grimaces, and I want to raise my eyebrows at him. I made those potions taste like raspberry specifically to lessen the burden of taking them. Talk about ungrateful.

“Fine.” He lets out a tired sigh. “See you tomorrow, Leo.”

They disappear, and I track their footsteps through the halls.

But Leo doesn’t leave.

If there’s one arcanist in the world whom I don’t want walking the halls of the Arcanaeum while I’m…indisposed, it’s Galileo Ó Rinn.

Yet there he stands, hands in his pockets, his book abandoned on the table as he surveys the room like he can spot me hiding behind a shelf or something.

I open the door that Lambert left through, and he raises a brow.

“You seem nervous, Kyrie.”

Ooohhhh, I am going to…

I don’t remember giving him permission to shorten my name, and an objection lingers on the tip of my tongue—not because I don’t like it, but because when he says it like that, all touched with that Northern Irish brogue, it’s all too intimate.

Nope. Do not interact. It will only encourage him. Better to pretend that I’m so unconcerned that I left.

Unfortunately, ignoring him doesn’t work. He’s still here, still waiting. A hawk waiting for the mouse to leave her burrow so he can strike.

Fine. I’ll seal him in here until morning.

Except I don’t trust him not to break out, either.

“Please leave,” I whisper, letting the sound move through the books like the rustle of paper.

“I agreed to help you find a cure for your affliction, and yet, you’re still keeping secrets,” Galileo points out. “This isn’t the first time you’ve ushered us out of the Arcanaeum early, either. One has to wonder just what happens here after midnight?”

I don’t like the way he’s putting things together. Another lock slams across the vault door, but in a few minutes, it will be open and waiting for my nightly descent. Vulnerable.

Leo crosses his arms as he awaits my answer. Magic, I can’t even lie and say this isn’t pertinent to the cracking.

Because the cracks on my ghostly form are so clearly echoes of the cracks on my preserved body down below. They’re related. I’d be insane not to believe it.

Am I desperate enough to trust him with this?

Dakari’s words of warning echo in my mind, and a sense of foreboding skitters along the shelves.

On the one hand, Galileo has access to resources I don’t. He’s intelligent, and we have an agreement. I believe his self-interest is tied to his remaining on my good side.

But my own re-enactment is deeply painful, leaving me exposed in a way someone so cutting and ruthless wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of.

If he discovers that the Vault is left open, unprotected, for a brief window every single night, he will undoubtedly use that. And the Arcanaeum would let him in, because it seems determined to undermine my wishes in everything related to these men.

My eyes flick back to the clock. Two minutes.

That’s all I have left to convince him or force him to leave. I’m tempted towards the latter, even though I know that will destroy any remaining goodwill between us.