Page 5 of Arcanist
The defeat in his tone makes me pause. He’s been going through a lot since Josef showed up in his life, and even though he’s a dumbass with a temper, he’s not bad company most of the time.
Deflating a little, I ask, “Are you speaking from experience or…?”
He swallows and looks away. “Not mine.”
Ah. It’s fairly safe to assume that he’s talking about Eddy. She’s the only other person he gives a shite about.
“The hospital?” They can be pretty soul-sucking places.
He looks away. “Yeah. She felt like she was a fucking burden or some shit. I told her she wasn’t. But…yeah.” He gives another heavy shrug. “Easy to say the words, harder to make her believe them, I guess. Josef was holding her cure over my head, and overnight, her life went from partying every week to a brutal cycle of endless hospital treatments. The doctors couldn’t let her leave, and a handful of kind nurses couldn’t fix it… It was tough.”
“Yeah. I can imagine.” I pause, not knowing what the feck else I can say.
“She got help,” North finishes lamely. “Obviously she had to keep some stuff secret, but it was good for her to talk about it. Someone impartial who could see all of the self-blame she was piling on herself, then help her dismantle it.”
Lucky for her.
A lot of arcanists who become therapists won’t treat ÓRinn patients. I’ve never worked out if it’s because of the ever-present cloud of doom that tends to hang around us, or the risk of falling victim to the curse.
Probably both.
The reminder puts my hackles up. “At least Eddy didn’t try to use Lambert to end her life.”
I turn away so he can’t see the guilt on my face and start walking again.
“True,” he agrees quietly.
We hurry across the foggy parapet without another word, through the open red door, and onto a rickety wooden staircase, surrounded by beams and stone. I’ve never been up here before, and it’s odd how barren the staircase is. I suppose Kyrith must never use it.
Most of the time she just pops up wherever she feels like it. Curiosity burns as I wonder what the space she described as her ‘sanctuary’ will look like.
We don’t make it the whole way up before we come face-to-face with the others.
“Eddy kicked us out,” Jasper explains, as Dakari shoulder-checks me on his way past. “She’s getting Kyrith cleaned up.”
North turns to follow him, asking the obvious follow-up question. “Is she?—”
“She’s alive, but not awake.” I can’t read the McKinley heir’s expression because I’m too focused on the slouching blond behind him. “I think she’s fine, but we won’t know for certain until she wakes up.”
Lambert’s steps slow to a stop as he reaches me, leaving the two of us behind as the others trudge downstairs, still discussing what just happened.
“The Arcanaeum hasn’t done anything,” he says dully, the moment they’re out of earshot. “Not a peep since she…”
Now that he mentions it, the buildingisquiet.
“You think it’s a bad sign?”
No answer.
This. This is what I was afraid of.
Lambert has a huge heart, and Kyrith trampled all over it. When he leans against the straight beam on his left, I mirror his posture, but I don’t follow his gaze back up to the mysterious room above.
“Hey, do you know how to treat a panic attack?”
The question is so out of the blue that I can’t do more than frown at him for several seconds.
“A panic attack? Yeah, I used to get them as a kid.” The curse came with its own ever-present anxiety, and my grandfather had no sympathy.
