Page 91 of Architecti
I reach for the door handle but my hand slips through nothing.
“Finis,” I growl.
The door creaks open, I step forward only to smack my head against the wood as it slams shut.I take a breath, call my magic ready to force shadowy threads into the lock, but the door swings all the way open.
As I step inside the clock tower, both my magic and the sinuous stalker dissipate.The creaking hinges echo out a huffy laughter that follows me all the way upstairs.
“Fucking campus.”
I haven’t told Lucy about the deal I made with Finis, and I don’t intend to.If I can win the Demonic Favour and hold the campus off long enough, it will void our deal and Lucy stays safe.So why tell her when I am going to do everything I can to protect her?But the fact she bears a celestial rune?That I can tell her.
I knock on the loft door at 11 p.m.Lucy opens it, and I wave my latest exam results at her.“I came third.The training is working.”
“Jolly good, because I brought you a load of homework.”
My face falls as she thrusts an enormous pile of books into my hands.
“I’ve marked up the key sections, but if you can read them all then even better,” she says.
“In all the free time I have, you mean?Between classes and reaping, and additional training and trying to maintain a friendship with my roommates, keeping my barely used bike running and helping research your contract rune?”
“Right, exactly.Between all those things.”She smiles.
The clocktower loft is a large room, with the clock mechanism’s cogs and dials and wires taking up much of a wall, though there are several windows level with it looking down on campus.Despite how large the clock is, the room is silent, too silent.I wonder if the building has swallowed time like it’s swallowed the ticking of the hands.
“This is the only view of campus better than my penthouse,” she says.
I approach the window and slide in next to her.The campus is stunning, even under darkness.Tonight is one of those rare evenings where the fog cloud has evaporated; the crisp bite of winter chewing up what heat is left and spitting out dotted skies and silvery moons instead of puffs of mist and dew.
As we stare out at our walled universe, our bodies press against each other.Her arms radiate heat, and gods, is it enticing.I ache to touch her.To slide my hand around her waist and pull her in.We both agreed that no matter how much we wanted it, being with each other was too dangerous for us both.But it makes every day agony.My body yearns for her in ways I can’t explain.She’s recoded my DNA, mangled my brain until I see her in every pull of magic, every cut of the Veil and every line in every book.She’s all I think about and it’s exhausting.
“Magnificent, isn’t she?”Lucy says, craning her neck to see Finis.Even this high up, it’s hard to see the top of the Tower.
“A feat of architectural genius.”
She smiles softly at me and before I can stop myself, my fingers find their way across her neck, brushing rouge streaks of hair away from her skin.
The exhaustion takes hold of me, and I am weak, so I let my lips glide over her cheekbones, one then the other.
She keeps her hands to herself, trying to resist.But we are rarely alone, and it is inevitable that her body melts under my touch.
She whimpers softly.
I press a kiss to her neck.“I know we agreed not to.But we’re safe up here, and this is killing me, Lucy.Night after night.So close to you, and yet…”
She presses her palm to my jaw, brushing her lips over mine.“You have no idea how much I want to…”
She doesn’t finish the sentence, and it slices another piece off my heart.I’ve never wanted a woman the way I ache for her.
“I have a gift for you,” I say, hunting in my pockets for the sketch of her celestial rune.
“After.”She claps her hands.“Training first.You had necromantic defence today, didn’t you?”
“Yes, those teachers from Sangui City are savage.I thought the professors here were tough.”
She grins like a sadist enjoying my academic pain and pulls out a piece of white chalk.I take it, kneel and draw a circle in the centre of the room, reciting what I know as I go.
“Professor Malrec said to draw a necro-protection circle.Then we cut a one-inch hole in the Veil and use a shade-summoning spell.”
