Chapter 96

Deidre

“Who was that?”

“Kira,” Benjamin replied, rifling his hand through his hair for what must have been the twentieth time. He had descended the stairs behind me a moment later, lost in thought. I wasn’t sure if it was Marge coming back for something and didn’t want to be spotted, so I had hid upstairs behind one of the first rows of stacks as he answered the door. I couldn’t see who it was, and the whole thing had felt rather foolish, but I was exhausted and didn’t care. These days weren’t going to get any easier and if I didn’t start being more careful, it wouldn’t end well.

“What did she want?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing,” he said dismissively, taking his seat once more. I noted that he looked slightly agitated, as though something had gone wrong between them. But he hadn’t raised his voice, nor had I heard hers raised.

I accepted that he wanted to drop the subject and moved on. “Well, I thank you again for your discretion.”

“No need, Luna.”

He had agreed to close the archives