As one, they clicked their heels together. The Forged stilts concealed in their shoes unclasped, shooting them straight into the air. The silver cloth stretched out from the ground, like a waterfall pouring upward until it covered the entire wall.
That done, Zofia reached for the mnemo bug. She rubbed the small button on the right wing. Every time her skin brushed against it, she felt a buzzing trill zip through her veins. Though the mechanics of the bug required an affinity for matter, its internal mechanism used affinity of the mind. The object was linked to how her brain processed an image, and with that image, it could then project the “mind’s eye” into hologram form.
“What shall I do, pretty?” asked Hypnos. “Sing? Dance?”
“Why do I have to be in the view of the mnemo bug?” asked Enrique. “Can’t I just be off to the side?”
“What would Séverin do?”
“Probably glower attractively and stare into space.”
“And chew a clove,” said Zofia.
Enrique grinned. “Definitely that.”
“Now?” asked Hypnos.
“Not yet,” said Zofia. They had to get the timing perfectly right, otherwise Séverin and Laila might be exposed.
Around them, the clock struck eleven.
Zofia adjusted the lens, then said, “Start posing.”
25
LAILA
One hour before midnight
Laila’s foot slipped on the slick floor of the catacombs. Her pulse turned jagged in her ears. Slowly, she felt her way through the dark. Up ahead, she could just make out Séverin. A tall, imposing shape that cut through the thick shadows of the bone-warped halls.
Laila did not dare to touch the bones lining the walls around her. She had never tested her ability against a skull. In India, the dead were cremated. Legend went that those who weren’t properly buried becamebhuts, or ghosts. Though she knew she couldn’t read anything living, she didn’t want to take her chances with the dead.
Above her, coin-shaped carvings in the ceilings cast green light onto the floor. Laila shuddered, thinking of the warning at the entrance to the catacombs.
Arrête! C’est ici l’empire de la mort.
Stop! This is the empire of death.
She could barely stand to look at this place. Even the air offended her. It had the unstirred and cold texture of a sepulchre, and she could feel it frosting her throat with every inhale. As she turned a corner, she saw a child-sized skull and nearly vomited. Everything reeked of acostto be paid, and Laila did not know what had been the cost of her existence. Is that what thejaadugarhad used when he crafted her body?
“Here,” whispered Séverin.
Laila crept up beside him. The closer she got, the more she felt as though a hand had pressed down on her thoughts. When they had seen the Fallen House’s location revealed in the bone clock, it had imparted more than just an image, it had given knowledge. Laila shook her head. She didn’t like how it felt, like something parasitic sitting on her thoughts, tugging the very reins of her mind.
Now, beside Séverin, she thought there had to be a mistake. There was nothing but another shelf of bones, this one hammered into an archway with a row of grinning skulls teetering at its apex. A faint slit of light shone through the hollows of skull eyes. Laila held her breath as Séverin placed his hand to the wall of bone. His hand disappeared, sinking to his wrist.
“Another Tezcat,” he said. A ferocious grin split his face. “And it’s not even protected.”
The Fallen House had relied on the secrecy of their location and not much else. Not once when she and Séverin had walked down the halls and held out their Forging devices had they picked up even a hint of additional security.
“Ready?”
Laila nodded. Séverin’s main task was to find Tristan. As for her, all she had to do was read the room. Literally. Somewhere on the other side lay not only the Babel Ring of House Kore, but also the Horus Eye stolen from the subterranean library. After that, Hypnos could relay the information to the Order, and Roux-Joubert and his accomplice would be stopped.
“I’ll go first,” said Séverin.
For a moment, Laila wanted to stop him. This place unnerved her. But maybe it was superstition. In the end, she watched him sink into that wall of bone, her heartbeat ringing loudly in her ears.
