“Seventy-one, seventy-two, seventy-three,” she said aloud, counting the leviathan’s teeth.
For the past three days, Zofia had tracked every movement within the ice grotto. Every day at noon the grotto moon turned full, and the mechanical creature surged out of the water, placed its head onto the ice, and opened its jaws. For sixty minutes, it would stay still before sliding back into the water.
Zofia considered the leviathan a calming presence. The machine never deviated from its schedule. It was not alive, but the quiet whirring of its metal gears reminded her of a cat’s rumbling purr.
As of this morning, Zofia’s recorded observations had convinced Séverin that the leviathan followed a pattern, and that the grotto was safe to explore. From there, Order members had removed the dead girls from the walls, leaving behind a Mnemo projection that outlined their original positioning and the symbols carved into their skin. Laila had not watched the removal process, but Zofia knew that she would be with the girls now.
The thought turned her stomach, reminding her once again that Laila could die. She couldn’t let that happen, and yet she didn’t know what to do. Lately, Zofia suspected she had more in common with the mechanical leviathan than anyone in the Sleeping Palace. She understood what it meant to be powerless, treading the same routine, the same path. She had felt it with Tristan. The night he died, she had sat in her laboratory for hours, counting all the objects that could not save him. She had felt it with Hela when she had gone back to Poland, unable to do anything but hold Hela’s hand and watch as her sister fought to breathe.
She would not do that with Laila.
Zofia reached up and held onto one of the leviathan’s fangs as she took one step into its mouth. The waters of Lake Baikal rushed around her ankles. Beneath her shoes, the surface was flat and grooved for traction.
Zofia snapped off a Forged button from her coat, and it lengthened into a small unlit torch. Ignite, she thought, and a flame rasped alive. For the first time, she could seedownthe metal creature’s throat. The terrain changed, opening into a flat space, then a steep drop, followed by another flat space… like a staircase. Above her, splayed against the back of the creature’s throat lay deep grooves, symbols clearly engraved in the metal—
It looked similar to the symbols Enrique had discovered on the dead girls’ mouths. Zofia pressed the record function on her moth-shaped Mnemo bug. Enrique still hadn’t cracked the code. Maybe this could help. In her other hand, Zofia drew out a pendant, Forged to detect the presence of a Tezcat door within a fifty feet radius. The pendant lit up slowly, and Zofia’s pulse kicked up.
There was a Tezcat presence inside the grotto. Where did it lead? Outside? Or somewhere else entirely? Zofia eyed the leviathan’s throat. It might even be farther inside the leviathan. She was about to take another step when someone shrieked: “What the hell are you doing?”
Enrique ran toward her, nearly skidding on the ice. Zofia paused. She’d thought Enrique was in the library. Instead, he ducked his head beneath the leviathan’s jaws, grasping her by the shoulders and tugging her out until she stumbled and fell against his chest.
“Wait!” she cried out.
The Tezcat pendant in her hand went flying, skidding acrossthe ice and landing with a metallic chime against one of the three shields on the far wall.
Enrique’s brown eyes looked hectic, and sweat sheened his face. He was—as Laila would say—“in a state.”
“Are you all right?” asked Zofia.
Enrique stared at her. “AmIall right? Zofia, you nearly got swallowed up by that… thatthing—” he said, flailing a hand at the leviathan. “Wh-what were you doing?”
Zofia crossed her arms. “Testing a theory.”
“A theory of what?”
“A theory that there is a Tezcat portal presence within the grotto. The leviathan does not stay on the ice for more than an hour, thus it was the highest priority to explore. After that, I was going to test the three metal shield plates on the back wall,” she said. “The leviathan deserves further examination. There appeared to be stairs inside it, and I plan to see where they lead.”
“I thinknot,” retorted Enrique. “If there were stairs to hell, would you venture down those?”
“It depends on what was inside hell, and if I needed it.”
At that moment, Enrique’s expression became unreadable. Zofia searched his features, feeling that same pulse of awareness that now followed when she looked at him too long.
“You’re something else, Phoenix,” said Enrique.
Her stomach fell. “Something bad.”
Enrique’s face warred between a scowl and a smile, and she could not decipher it.
“Something… brave,” he said finally.
Brave?
“But that’s notalwaysa good thing,” he rushed to say. Hiseyes darted to the leviathan, and he shuddered. “That thing is terrifying.”
Zofia disagreed, but she understood. “Why are you here?”
Enrique sighed. “I can’t crack those symbols. I’m sure it’s a coded alphabet of some kind, but I thought perhaps leaving the library for a change might give me a burst of divine inspiration.”
