On this night, Cyrus entrusted me enough to lead me to where all the secrets were held.
The light from the lantern he was holding flickered.
I hoped only the air in the room rattled it and not something else.
We walked between a row of coffins to the other side of the room and stood before another door, adrenaline pumping through me.
On the other side was the Crypt of Secrets. I tucked my hair behind my ears, fidgety. Then we walked in, and only a round wooden table stood in the center of the circular room.
“Look up,” Cyrus said, closing the door behind us. My head fell back, and there was an infinite tunnel hovering above, appearing as if night had fallen from the atmosphere. It looked like someone had punched out a circle from the star-dusted sky and hung it from the ceiling. A smear of gray clouds moved across the black like a living work of art. “It’s the Portal of the Hereafter. It reflects the future. Like a mirror.”
Cyrus set the lamp down on the round table, and the butter-glow of the flame cast a dim light into the round room, revealing embossed spines lining every inch of oak-stained shelves that swiveled around us, from the floor to stories above us that stretched on as far as I could see. Many library ladders of different heights were hooked on to rods at each shelf to move from one level to the next.
“There are as many books here as there are souls in Weeping Hollow,” he said. “Many are long gone, while others are still forming in their mother’s womb. Either way, these books represent all who belong to this town.”
Cyrus didn’t need a ladder. He lifted his hand, and with a quiet chant from his lips, a thick, gigantic book wiggled from one of the shelves above and floated into his outstretched palm.“They always say Weeping Hollow has a soul. Town Square for the heart and tunnels for the veins that run beneath the skin we walk on. How it inhales and exhales and holds us close. And,oh,how it bleeds.” He set the book down on the weathered table, dragging his long fingers around the edges.
Book of Weeping Hollowwas embossed into the leather.
The town had its own book.
Cyrus faced me. “Marriage doesn’t give you access to the secrets. Decoding the messages inside requires Cantini blood. And these messages are constantly changing.”
He paused, leaning over the book, palms on the table. The look on his face seemed like he was questioning himself—if he should keep going or stop.But can I trust her,I imagined him thinking. And I studied the flex of his jaw, his locked elbows, eyes flicking across the leather, thinking and deciding.
“Nothing is going to be the same after this,” he said, voice dropping, all confidence backing out of it. He curled his fingers and turned his head to look at me. “Things will only get harder.”
I took a step forward. “Show me.”
He sucked in a breath, steeled his spine, and slid a finger between the pages, cracking open theBook of Weeping Hollow.
And then, “Visfuturus,” he commanded.
A tunnel of light shot up from the pages and speared into the ceiling.
I followed the light, dropping my head back, where an image began to form in the Portal of the Hereafter. Blurry at first, then cleared as if an invisible hand had swiped across a fogged window.
It was Town Square, with the diner, Oh My Stars, and even The Strange & Unusual Bookstore on fire. Chaos erupted, and smoke billowed from burnt bodies that were blanketing the grounds around the gazebo. Cries echoed in the distance. The kind of cry that pierced my chest and made my stomach tighten in knots. “Cyrus, what’s happening?!”
He grabbed my hand. “This is what will happen if we don’t fix things.”
This was my home. The Shadows wouldn’t just bring it to its knees. The Shadows would burn it to the ground and destroy us all. Weeping Hollow would be nothing but dust.
A scent of decay drifted into the room, and a ghastly cord of anger wrapped around my spine. This anger, which I’d come to know well, was the guardian of my sorrows. The protector of my tears. It flexed its chest and punched through walls.
“This won’t happen.” I shook my head, gripping his hand tighter. “Cyrus, we can’t let this happen.”
“The only way to stop it is to either kill the Shadows or change our course, but it’s impossible to figure out.” The mirage vanished when his gaze fell on me. “I’m trying.”
“Have you shared this with Sacred Sea? They need to know.”
“Adora,” he said, leaning into me, brows slanting, his expression turning serious. “You can never share anything that happens in this room with anyone.”
“They have a right to know.”
He shook his head. “No one has a right to know their future. No one.”
“Sacred Sea is our coven.”
