Page 61

My hands rested on the codex, fingers spread against the worn leather. The workshop had gone completely silent now. This was the part no one had taught me, because this wasn’t restoration.

I closed my eyes. Life. Death. Rebirth. The amulet warmed; it was the first time it had been around my neck and next to my skin when I restored a book. Normally it was wrapped and hidden in a small pouch inside my cloak.

My palms stung, and a faint surge ran through my spine and out into my fingertips. Heat followed that, and then the warming glow of phoenix ink returned to the pages.

I had to hurry.

Words spread across the surface. This wasn’t like all the times before—it wasn’t just the amulet on my skin—but what else had changed? The ancient books had never reacted this strongly to me in the Grand Library.

The anklet. The one Kit had removed. Perhaps it had been far more powerful than just a glamour to hide our identities.

“Fates,” I said, though I didn’t pull away. “This could go bad…”

The codex shifted slightly beneath my hands; the spine hummed some more.

Then pain gripped deep inside my chest, just beneath my ribs. I sucked in a breath, clutching the amulet.

“What do you want?” I said, pressing a hand to my chest to stem the pain. “You don’t get to take anything from me.”

Everything paused, and then the pressure eased. I swallowed hard, forcing my breathing to steady. There wasn’t time to think too closely about what had happened; I needed to read the codex before anyone else did.

“What do you know?” I opened the book to the first page.

For a moment, nothing moved. Then the codex blossomed to life. The hairs on my arms lifted, and my shoulder heated with its warning.

The little book vibrated a warning: someone was coming.

I raised my head. Torran was striding towards me.

“It’s readable now?” he asked.

I ran a finger over the oath mark on my arm before my gaze dropped to his wrist. The bandages were gone, exposing the red veins of Harrow Root poisoning.

“Must be important for you to get dressed up and help me steal it. Why?”

There were so many other questions that I wanted to ask him. But Aster had taught me well, so I focused back on the book and ran my fingers over the cover. For now, I would be the obedient little princess book restorer.

He didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze flicked to the amulet around my neck. “He gave you that? Do you know what it is? What it really does?”

I knew a lot more than he thought, but he wasn’t going to get that out of me.

So I changed the subject. “The book’ll be finished… soon. Then Aster will make sure that it gets to Bronwen and my oath is fulfilled.”

Ancient Annatalian was neatly scrawled over the first five or six pages, but as Torran leaned closer, the script disappeared.

“Books are expert judges of character.” I smiled up at him.

“We have libraries in some of the Towers. The Sky is so strong that books are visible. All the time.” He was making a point, and it wasn’t about the books. I was visible now, and the slight flex of his index finger told me he was enraged by it. His gaze narrowed and then, ever so slowly, swept over me. “What are you really up to, princess? What are you and your cousins really up to?”

I met his gaze and held it. You’ll not find out until it’s too late. I wanted to scream it at him, but words were never my weapon—silence was—so instead I rose from my stool and turned to put away the glue.

“When the book is restored, you can all fight over it.”

By then I would be long gone.

27

The codex was almost restored—those nine hours had slipped past in a calm, quiet bubble. I had never lost time like that in the Barren. There, I always had to be on high alert, but here… Here, there was Aster. And even after everything, I still trusted him with my life.