“Will he be okay?” Zura asked, her green eyes wide.
“He’ll be just fine. He doesn’thaveto do anything, but he likes to. This is fun for him,” Quinn said.
“Let’s not waste time then,” Nova added, rushing for the door. She placed her hands on the wood, closing her eyes and letting out a sort of faint hum. It reminded me of the stars. “Got it! That was a pathetic ward.”
“Everyone starts off bad at them, Little Void.” When she looked over her shoulder at me, my breath caught. Her eyes were so beautiful, that honey brown shade making my heart race. I’d missed them.
“Not me,” she said with a wink.
“Eye fuck each other later,” Priya hissed as she pushed past Nova into the office. I laughed, gesturing for everyone else to follow. The mood shifted drastically as we entered the office.
Maybe it was the darkness. No sunlight breached the room, the black curtains blocking it out. Clearly, Maitoza wasn’t a fan of tech, because it didn’t float around the room.
But I wasn’t sure that was what actually unsettled me. Something else. Something sinister I couldn’t quite explain.
Quinn lit the room with tech before the feeling could really settle, all of us looking at each other for a moment, as if to acknowledge the fleeting aura.
“Zura, Quinn, and Priya. All three of you take a separate watch position. Nova and I will search the office. If we’re lucky, Cal will be able to stall the guard long enough for us to find what we need. But we need to know the second that anyone gets near this door.”
“If someone does get near, do your best to cause a scene or distract them. Az and I will need to get out of here and replace the wards without being spotted,” Nova chimed in as she began pulling her curls into a sort of knot at the base of her neck.
It’s so hot when she strategizes with me.
“Bossy,” Priya muttered, grabbing Quinn’s arm and tugging him towards the door. He reached out and held it open, gesturing for Priya and Zura to both go first.
When all three of them were out and the door was shut, Nova and I began moving. She headed straight for the shelves on the left hand side of the room, whereas I moved to the right and went through the long cabinet.
Everything was meticulously organized, labels on every box and book cover. She had wads of parchment wrapped in twine, rolled up pieces stacked on top of one another, and even loose pages fanned out.
I sorted through it all, reading quickly and returning each back to their place. Every single page was stars-focused. It was the kind of religious text that one might find in the cathedral—had it still existed.
“Nothing here. The whole cabinet is basically a shrine for how to ass-fuck the stars,” I said, scrunching my nose in disgust. She sure knew how to go overboard. “Fanatic, like I said.”
“Every book here is normal. Nothing that proves she has ulterior motives, at least. Desk next?”
“Yes, let’s be quick.”
We met in the middle of the room, sorting through one side of the large desk each, the actions reminding me of our frantic search through Father’s desk. My side had two drawers, both deep. Nova’s had four smaller, more shallow ones. When I opened the top drawer, all I found were blank sheets of parchment. The next was locked. I stared at the lock, picturing it twisting and clicking open. Imagining how the mechanics of it worked and willing them to rotate. A second later, I heard the latch give.
Inside the drawer was only one thing. A journal of some sort. “Nova, look.”
She turned, her eyes lighting up when she spotted the brown, leather bound book. “Yes!”
With a smile, I opened it, laying it flat on the desk in front of us. The first page was blank, but the next contained a single date with the number twenty-one. Below it, the wordshangingandFarighwere listed. Flipping through the pages, I skimmed the rest of the words, the contents horrific.
“She has kept track of eadi murders for decades,” Nova said with a gasp, her finger landing on a page. “This right here was the hanging in the Sham District right before the shadow ritual. It followed a pretty major protest in the shops near my home. We left the apothecary right as it started, and I saw Commander Maitoza. I mean, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was her. She told my dad he deserved to walk. After, a handful of eadi were hanged.”
“But why is she keeping track? What does it do for her?” My mind raced ahead, desperately seeking an answer. “This was in a locked drawer, which means she doesn’t want anyone to find it. Why?”
Nova scrunched her nose, running the pads of her fingers across the page. “Well, it wasn’t just core family members who killed these eadi. It was officials. Elites.”
“Shaytan,” I muttered. “Shaytan killed these eadi.”
“Shaytan have always been the problem in the eyes of the rebels. When they chanted during the protest, they chantedif we die, so do you.And that thing Avery said when we did the first haya drop—”
“Even the stars can’t save you now.I remember it.” The chilling, throaty way the woman had said it stuck with me. Like maybe she’d eat us alive.
“Yes, that. It reminds me of what one of the signs at the protest said.Even the stars can’t save you if you kill us all.”Just hearing it had the hair on the back of my neck standing up, chills breaking out across my skin. “A bit too similar for a coincidence.”
