Cain's pulse thundered in his ears. He felt heat crawl up the back of his neck as if every word she had spoken had been a spotlight cutting straight through him. Gaius was silent now, though his presence pulsed at the edge of Cain's mind like a held breath.
The Librarian studied him for a long moment. Her gaze was sharp enough to make him feel as though she were turning over the layers of his thoughts one by one. Then she exhaled softly and set the last of the books on the table beside her.
"I have no interest in exposing you," she said at last. "If I wanted to, I could have already done so. But you should understand something. Secrets inside one's mind are like locked rooms in a burning house. They may survive the fire for a while, but eventually, the heat finds them."
Cain swallowed, his fingers flexing against the grimoire's cover. "So, you are just going to… let this go?"
