Page 24 of Her Shadow so Dark and Lovely
Mercias looks at me properly then. Neither of us need light to see by, and the blood is obvious.
“Fuck, Sil— Librarian. What the King’s name is going on? If this is an overdue fee collection, and you’ve killed them?— “
“It is nothing of the sort. There were intruders in the scriptorium.”
“Oh, of course. The scriptorium that you’re suddenly so interested in,” he says drily.
“Insolence does not suit you,” I say lightly. He snorts in response. “They are related to the poisoning, and given your behaviour with Striger, I hardly think your argument has much integrity.”
That sobers him up quickly. Good. I hate disposing of bodies, and I loathe cleaning up blood. I would not usually have been so quick to draw a blade. It was not even my second or third preference— if I was going to get blood everywhere, I would use my talons and tear them open. It was more satisfying. Still, I could not let the scribes return to work this morning looking the way it did.
“Where are they?”
“Down, Mercias. They are dead.”
“How many of them?”
“Three. Two Lightkeepers and a scribe.”
“Lightkeepers,” Mercias hisses. “And a traitor.”
“Mmm.” I turn and lead him from his rooms, catching the way he glances back towards the bedroom before he goes.
In the hallway, I keep walking when he stops to lock the door. He will catch up if he knows what is good for him. It does not take long for him to fall into step beside me.
“You should be more careful,” I tell him.
“I can handle my own affairs. And the Head Librarian can deal with me as she sees fit,” Mercias says. “You should worry about yourself.”
I arch an eyebrow and look at him sidelong. “I cannot think what you mean.”
“Oh, come on Si—Librarian. Your sudden interest in the scriptorium. Carrying the scribe to her room. The Head Librarian knows what I’m doing, and it won’t be long before she realises you’re doing the same. You’re only getting a pass for now because no one can be certain.”
“I hardly think I need a warning from the likes of you.” He rolls his eyes at me, and I pretend not to see. Alas, he is no longer my student, and I cannot so easily punish him for his insolence. “And I am not bedding a scribe.”
Mercias is silent for a long moment. “Honestly, somehow, that’s worse. It’s one thing to bed her, it’s another to see you being— ” He cuts himself off.
“Being what, Mercias?” I ask. I know he hears the dangerous tone in my voice. I know he always ignores it. It has always been irritating.
“Being soft,” he says. “If you were bedding her, it would at least make sense.”
“I do not see what that has to do with anything. You are hardly soft with yours,” I reply.
“He would hate it if I was,” says Mercias. Then, “Fuck.”
We don’t need to walk far into the scriptorium to find the bodies. They lie where I had left them.
Something seizes my heart in a vice grip, an echo of the agony and fear I had felt when I saw them try to grab her. If I hadn’t been following her— it hardly bore thinking about. I can still see the moment those animals had grabbed for her, had dared to layhands on her. I clench my fists, the nails biting into the soft flesh of my palms.
Everything feels more intense than it has in an age. My fury is brighter than it has ever been.
I had acted without thinking and now Lorel is in my rooms, my bargain mark on her hand and that other wretched mark on her chest. She had looked at me with such confusion, the poor tired thing. I half expect her to be gone when I return. In which case the bargain mark will demand I hunt her down. I would hardly need the bargain to do that, though. It is clear she cannot protect herself.
Mercias looks towards the desks as he walks around the space, kneeling to examine a fallen sigil lantern.
“Sil— ”
I narrow my eyes at him, and he sighs dramatically.
