It really was a stunning work of art in itself. The pages were not regular paper but coated in thin gloss.There will be no notetaking in this.The script wasn’t like anything she’d seen either. The letters were pristine, blocked, and while they were devoid of personality, the uniformity was simple to read and orderly. The character came instead from the illustrations: a mix of black and silver, all of them. Depicting everything from instructions to samples to nondescript flourishes she could find no meaning for. And saints.
Full pages were dedicated to them, faceless and sprawling. Lux curled her lip at the note beneath the illustration Shaw turned to.
“Dedication to the Saints will overcome all limits.” She huffed.“That cannot possibly be in the original. I’m sorry. If I’d known it wasn’t a true edition, I wouldn’t have bought it for you.”
She glanced at the opposite page.
To serve the Saints with one’s brilliance is to be blessed into the Beyond.
Shaw thumbed through the pages, passing topics of portraits and poses, until he paused over an illustration with a sharp intake of air. Lux’s mouth formed a perfect circle.
“What isthat?”
But the answer came from the writing below and Shaw’s mouth, both. “The devil.”
The Devil will devour those who do not honor the Saints, casting them into a wretched ending.
Shaw brushed the pad of his thumb over a wide horn. A sagging, grotesque face. “It reminds me of what I painted during my worst nights. I burned them all.”
Maybe we should burn this too,Lux thought.
She said, “What good does this messaging do? Is this what’s to become ofThe Risen? For saints to be drawn into its pages, demanding some sort of hurdle be jumped before any successful revival? For the devil to make you fear any mistake? I can’t allow it.”
Shaw didn’t answer her but flipped to the end.
Property of Mothlock
For the purpose of achieving a fulfilled enlightenment
“May Your Mastery Be Limitless”
“What is his brilliance? This Corvin Alistair.” Shaw looked down his shoulder at her.
“I’ve not asked.”
Shaw grumbled something she didn’t catch. He returned to the fireplace, but this time he took the solitary chair. There, he sat in silence and worried his lip. His elbows rested on his knees, his fingers steepled beneath his chin. The book lay forgotten in his lap.
Lux watched him for a moment. How the firelight coaxed every strand of gold in his hair into shimmering. How his brow furrowed above a deepening scowl. She did not mind being alone, but she would gladly never feel loneliness again for the rest of her life. She didn’t think she would—if she was able to keep Shaw in it.
She stepped near him and bent to take the book. She wanted to peruse it closer. To see what other messages might lurk inside. Shaw allowed it to leave with hardly a shift, and she turned away.
A strong arm looped around her waist upon her next step; her breath hitched. With her next heartbeat, Shaw dragged her backward and into his lap. He pulled her higher, situating her ashe wanted, and only then did he lean back, stretching his long legs out before him.
Lux noted his fingers tracing slow patterns on her thigh.
“I have something to tell you,” he said, the words rumbling against her back. “But I don’t want to.”
The statement should have seen her straightening, but she couldn’t. Shaw’s warmth permeated through her nightgown, and the fire flickered blessedly across her front. It would take more than words to move her now. But she did close her eyes. Her nails sank preemptively into her palms.
“Of course you do. What is it?”
His chest pressed against her back with his deep breath, and Lux’s stomach twisted further. Shaw’s voice softened as he said, “I left Ghadra for two reasons: to infiltrate the Society of Saints at their invitation, and to hopefully encounter you along the way. Before leaving, I checked in on the only two trees I cared to.”
He paused.
Lux could feel his hesitation; it seeped into her. She shifted enough so she might scan his eyes. They were too anguished, she thought, and her stomach became a pit of fear. “And?”
“Riselda is alive.”
