She still didn’t know what judgement could be passed on Mothlock and its cloaked society. On the surface, it seemed a good thing what they did—collecting books that might otherwise be lost, binding new copies, and distributing them throughout the country. But there was a current moving underneath.
One of old money, desolate monuments, targeted murder, and vague truths.
Lux could feel it beneath her skin.
Her fingers tightened around the key. She only wanted to find the vault. To put her suspicions to rest. Whatever else went on here didn’t matter to her, so long as they’d nothing to do with Bartleby Tamish’s bad business.
She only wished it would be above ground.
You’re delaying, chastised her head.
I know,she replied, and understood there could be no turning back. If she must have some rare condition, the least she could do was see this one goal through to the end. Lifeblood might be here. It might not. But she would have an answer soon enough.
Lux stepped down—and her nightmare reached up from the dark.
Chapter twenty-four
Sheshrieked,droppedthecandle, and the only light went out.
To run anywhere in the pitch black was a poor choice. One Lux had chosen to do twice before and once more. She counted on her body’s instinct to propel her down the stairs without breaking her neck, and it mostly succeeded. She sprawled onto her front at its end.
“Of all the saintforsaken hells,” she cried, clutching the candlestick to her like it mattered.
“Isn’t it hard to be broken?”said the voice.“We will never know peace.”
“I’ve never known peace anyway. Get out of my mind!”
It wasn’t true, what she said. She’d felt peace. All-consuming. Twice in recent memory. In Shaw’s arms in the hours before she’d left Ghadra, and in a merchant wagon, a butterfly on her palm. But if she thought of those moments, and the drasticdifference to her present, she would collapse and never rise again. And she could not afford that.
She swiped out at the dark and met nothing but air. Lux continued forward on her knees, searching for any further surprises. She found nothing but flat stone.Have I finally reached the bottom?She pushed to her feet.
The voice came from behind her.“We will not last. It’s worse for us than any of the others. We’ve the darkest brilliance of all, and we will hurt everyone before we finally hurt ourselves.”
Ice burst inside her. “I won’t hurt anyone,” she hissed.
“We will hurt them terribly and thoroughly. We will again be the suffering of those we love before our end.”
A weight collapsed on top of her at those severe words. Lux staggered forward without speaking. Her throat was too tight with a forced-back sob to manage it.
It isn’t real. It isn’t real.
But why did something not real bite so hard? She felt like she bled on the inside.
Her outstretched fingers met a wall ahead. Lux ran her hands over it desperately.I must do something worthwhile.Maybe then she could shed this newfound weight.
She swept along the seams of the stacked stones. Up then down, and once she reached the edge, she went back and ran her fingers horizontal across it.
They caught.
Lux fitted her fingertips into the crack, and though they couldn’t reach all the way through, they reached something.Her middle finger snagged at a protrusion, and then the entire thingclicked,and swung in.
Blessed light doused her. Dim and far away as it was, the relief swept, palpable, in her chest. Lux spun, looking everywhere for the blighted apparition, but she found no one with her. Onlythe stone stairs she’d stumbled down and the small landing she stood upon. She turned again to the door.
To the tunnel beyond it.
Narrow and shadowed and comprised of black stone same as the rest of the manor; a torch shone blue in the distance. She huffed a fortifying breath. It no longer smelled of seaweed but of something cloying that she couldn’t identify.
She stepped through.
