Shaw shook his head. Honey-gold strands tumbled into his eyes. “You weren’t broken. Not even then. Everything I know you to be has always been there: that goodness, that loyalty. That desire for justice which matches my own.Thatis who you are, Lux. It doesn’t mean you’re broken if you’re only buried.”
Lux’s eyes held his. Even though he did not blink. Even though hers welled. “I’m afraid,” she whispered. “I don’t like to say it, but I am.”
“I know.” Now he did kiss her fingers. “But you can’t lose hope yet. I demand it, actually, and we both know you’re always quick to do as I say. It doesn’t make sense; the timeline is too suspicious.”
She dug a retaliatory nail into his hand until his nose wrinkled. “But I told you about that bandit’s revival.”
“Yes. And you told me about how it energized you afterward. Tell me, what sort of madness makes a person feel alive?Where’s that oversized book of yours? It must have some sort of note in there to explain.”
“On the writing desk. You won’t find anything. I already looked.”
Shaw abandoned her side anyway, and she physically cringed at the loss of his warmth. Maybe she’d become accustomed to the coldness of these walls, or maybe it was the yawning loneliness she’d decided to embrace again, but regardless of how acclimated she’d grown, it was decimated now. She couldn’t go back.
“What is this?”
“Hmm?” She glanced to where he stood near the balcony door, her pack open and a prettily wrapped book in his grip. “Oh! A gift. For you. I bought it in Loxlen. From the Mothlock booksellers.”
Shaw’s eyes remained on her as the wrapping came free. They dropped to the black spine. His finger ran carefully along the length and Lux bit into her cheek. “This is a book of art.”
“I’d wanted to find you one. Something that would maybe teach you as mine taught me.”I hope he isn’t offended.She didn’t think he would be.
And she was proven correct when his head lifted, grinning at her with wonder. “This is the best gift I’ve ever received. Or even imagined for myself. Thank you.”
Lux couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped over her triumph.At least I’ve accomplished one thing.Her smile was slow to fade, but it did fall away entirely when he added, “Your book isn’t in here.”
A distant buzzing echoed in her ears. Lux scrambled to her feet and raced to the bag where she dug through its depths. She flipped it over, shaking its contents onto the desk. Writing utensils. Flint. Twine. Paper and coins. They tumbled andscattered. A berry rolled free at the end. Followed by a feather. Lux watched it float to the lacquered wood below.
“No. It must be here.”
“Maybe you stowed it in the dressing room?”
She shook her head. “No, I’ve left it in the same place for weeks. Since I left Ghadra.”
She could feel Shaw’s stare against her profile.
“Did any of them know?”
“They didn’t. I never said a word about it. Maybe they assumed? But even so—oh, deviltakeher. That conniving wench!”
Shaw blinked in alarm. “Who?”
Lux tore at her hair. Her teeth clenched so hard she was sure they’d crack. She hissed, “Thatbandit. Their leader.Magda.” She couldn’t hear Shaw’s response, and maybe it was for the best. She could make no room for anything but the roaring in her ears. “She knew of it. I stupidly told them of it. Why I did…No, I heard the name Alesso that night. I can’t believe I didn’t recall it until just now. She knew the name of their dead leader. She knew the name of—”
“He is my brother.”
Devil take her. Their current one?
Corvin Alistair. CorvinAlesso? He could never be Mothlock’s mysterious overlord…could he? The boy whom she’d assumed was hardly a man but had been cursed to never age. Their voices hadn’t matched while she’d been sequestered within that cart in the healer’s workroom, but of all the things she’d witnessed thus far, the ability to harness two distinct voices hardly seemed far-fetched.
“They’re going to destroy it,” she said.
“Why would they do that?”
“Because how else can they dole out their tampered copies if the real one still exists? Even if they don’t destroy it outright,they will lock it away in their vault where it’ll never again be opened. Where I will never—” Lux shoved her fingers into her eyes. “I can’t believe he took it.”
“Tampered copies?”
The cover ofBrilliant Brushstrokesfell open in Shaw’s hands. He scanned the pages long enough that Lux recovered. She came to peer curiously around his arm.
