He fell to his knees and sunk his head into his hands, his fingers digging into his scalp, pulling at his hair.
That gesture alone solidified her resolve. If it was truly that bad, then she needed to know. They would survive this. They would...
She’d told herself so many things since she’d met him. Some were still true. This could be true as well: they would survive this.
Seraphina took the ledger from the table and slammed it on the floor, in front of Rune.
“You,” she said, feeling the power of the apex relic run through her. “Read the item on the list that I deserve to know.”
He wailed but couldn’t fight the compulsion. He took the ledger in his shaking hands and read between tears.
“Eyes, Seraphina Bell, bone shard technician at Krähenstein Academy, member of the Sarumite Order, born in London, England, died at twenty-two years of age, on September 9th, 1816.”
She screamed.
She wasn’t aware of it, of her doing the screaming, she only knew that her mouth opened of its own accord, and a howl came out from deep within her, the sound projecting across the room and launching itself through the window toward the sky.
Seraphina screamed until her throat was raw and her lungs exhausted. She stopped at some point, not because she wanted to... Her mouth was still open, she just wasn’t able to make the sound anymore.
She grabbed a dagger, threw herself over the table, and pushed the blade under Mayer’s chin as she pressed her free hand to his chest, holding him in place. Not that he was going anywhere.
“You... Why?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Because the Lord Harvester needed the hands of a master weaver and the eyes of a bone shard technician. We’d followed you since you crossed through Ebersberg.”
“Why did you take Matteo’s body and not mine? You didn’t even bother to check if I was dead.”
“We only needed your eyes. Matteo was used almost in his entirety.”
Stomach acid lurched into Seraphina’s throat, and she had to push it down hard.
“He has more than Matteo’s hands,” she said.
“No. The master weaver was divided between the other revenants.”
She sobbed, the air leaving her in a rush. She was aware she sounded like a wounded animal. A wounded beast. She couldn’t help it. She pressed the blade into Mayer’s skin and drew blood. She felt him shake, and that made her feel like she could do anything. A month ago, she hadn’t been able to take a life. Now she was.
“Tell me the names of the others. I know Viktor Eisengrau. I need two more names.”
“Otto Krause and Leopold Holzer.”
“Locations. Where do I find Eisengrau, Krause, and Holzer?”
“Major Eisengrau left for Munich two days ago. He is to report to the Lord Harvester directly. Captain Krause and Captain Holzer were sent to Neuburg.”
“And you are here... why?”
“To find the ledger. It had been lost during the fire. It turned out it was hidden in a niche in the wall, and it survived.”
“Remember what I told you? Today is the day you die. Any last words?”
On second thought, she didn’t let him utter them. She sliced his throat from left to right and felt his blood splash onto her hand and chest. A few drops landed on her lips, and her tongue darted out to lick them. He didn’t deserve to have any last words attributed to his name.
“No...” Rune whimpered from the floor. “No, you shouldn’t have. I was supposed to do that for you. You soiled your hands with his blood, and I... I was supposed to kill him for you.”
The sound of his voice had the effect of a bucket of cold water being dropped on her head. She was on the table, and she knew she had to get down, but all her strength had left her. She crawled away from Mayer’s unmoving body, but also away from where Rune was kneeling. The table was big enough that she could lie on it and wait for providence to decide what she should do next.
“I’m sorry,” Rune said.
