“I asked the same question.” Disquiet raised the hair on my neck. “But it’s her personal journal. Why would she lie if no one was ever supposed to read it?”
“Everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own story, Mirage.” I didn’t like the ragged edge of Lullaby’s smile. “And even those who like the bitter taste of murder know it is more easily swallowed with a dusting of sugar.”
“It’s the only lead we have.” Eagerness knocked my ribs. “I want to investigate. I want to find the Oubliettes. Will you help me?”
“Now?”
I glanced at the clock. I was already late for another Congrès.
“Soon. If you’re willing?”
I held my breath for her response.
Her face was like marble and her voice like an unforgiving sea. “We’ll see.”
That Nocturne, I dreamed of stony hallways.
Warm red sunlight spills through narrow windows, lighting my path. Through their illuminated panes, I glimpse perfect cities as I run, fly,dance. But there is only one city I wish to find. And here, here it is: glorious and shining, the city on the hill. I reach for it, but my hand strikes glass and the reverberation distorts my reflection until I’m looking at a stranger’s face. A singing voice whispers echo-soft in the shadows.
Oubliette, oubliette.
Fear thrums through me. The prelude to a nightmare chills my skin. A frisson of dread makes me gasp suddenly frigid air.
I jolted awake. I wasn’t in my bed.
Terror and confusion shook me. I stared around unfamiliar surroundings. After a blank, panicked minute, I recognized where I was—the dungeon alcove Sunder and I had stopped in two days ago, with its strange window to nowhere. The smooth-carved stone seeped chill through my bare feet and the echoes of long-forgotten voices seemed to hollow out my bones. Most of the torches had been snuffed out past Nocturne, but lingering smoke stuck in the back of my throat. My ambric Relic thudded like a second heartbeat against my chest, glowing.
I curled my hand around it and tried to calm my thready breathing. I peered out from the alcove. I heard the clomp of Belsyre boots, the murmur of living voices, the scrape of a metal plate being shoved into a cell.
I took a shuddering breath. This was not normal. This was notgood.How in the Scion’s hell did I get here? Even if I’d sleepwalked across half the palais, there were gardes everywhere. Why hadn’t anyone stopped me?
I closed my eyes. When I opened them, my reflection stared back at me, with empty shadow eyes above a glowing sun heart. I leaned closer to the pane of glass, tracing its edges with my finger. Behind the glass, I saw only darkness.
Scion, why was I here?
A surreal whisper of inevitability told me I’d been brought here.
But why? I turned in a circle, examining the walls, the ceiling, the floor—
My toes scuffed an indentation in the floor, caked with dust. I fell to my knees and scraped my fingers against a shallow hollow full of ancient, hardened grime. After a few minutes of work, I’d cleared it enough to see a pinwheel shape. Disbelief flared like a firework in my chest, followed by a weird, calm hope. There was no possible way my Relic would fit, and yet—
If I was still dreaming, it would fit.
Part of me wasn’t sure what was real. Part of me didn’t want to know.
I inserted the Relic into the divot.
The floor groaned, creaked, and fell out from under me.
I fell through a blackness so absolute I almost thought I’d died. Then I struck solid ground, and pain made me sure I was alive.
Panic thrust hands under my shoulders and levered me into a seated position. My head screamed and my knees ached. I touched my hands to my face, just to make sure my eyes were open. They were. Fear seared my throat. What if I hit my head when I fell and now I was—
Get ahold of yourself.
But I had never experienced darkness like this before. It had a weight and a texture, like smothering velvet. I could taste its infinity: the sweep of shadow at the border of Dominion. It choked me. My hands trembled.
Words spilled into my mind, unbidden—the Scion’s Vow.I am the sun staring at the twilight. I am the solace that banishes blight.I am the moon shining deep in Midnight.
