She said nothing, quieter and quieter as we descended, that black pit on my right seeming to grow thicker the deeper we went.
But we reached a path of stacks that veered into the mountain in a long hall, faelights flickering into life within glass globes along the wall as we passed. Nesta scanned the shelves while we walked, and I read the titles—a bit more slowly, still needing a little time to process what was instinct for my sister.
“I didn’t know you couldn’t really read,” Nesta said as she paused before a nondescript section, noticing the way I silently sounded out the words of a title. “I didn’t know where you were in your lessons—when it all happened. I assumed you could read as easily as us.”
“Well, I couldn’t.”
“Why didn’t you ask us to teach you?”
I trailed a finger over the neat row of spines. “Because I doubted you would agree to help.”
Nesta stiffened like I’d hit her, coldness blooming in those eyes. She tugged a book from a shelf. “Amren said Rhysand taught you to read.”
My cheeks heated. “He did.” And there, deep beneath the world, with only darkness for company, I asked, “Why do you push everyone away but Elain?” Why have you always pushed me away?
Some emotion guttered in her eyes. Her throat bobbed. Nesta shut her eyes for a moment, breathing in sharply. “Because—”
The words stopped.
I felt it at the same moment she did.
The ripple and tremor. Like … like some piece of the world shifted, like some off-kilter chord had been plucked.
We turned toward the illuminated path that we’d just taken through the stacks, then to the dark far, far beyond.
The faelights along the ceiling began to sputter and die. One by one.
Closer and closer to us.
I only had an Illyrian knife at my side.
“What is that,” Nesta breathed.
“Run,” was all I said.
I didn’t give her the chance to object as I grabbed her by the elbow and sprinted into the stacks ahead. Faelights flickered to life as we passed—only to be devoured by the dark surging for us.
Slow—my sister was so damned slow with her dress, her general lack of exercising—
Rhys.
Nothing.
If the wards around the Prison were thick enough to keep out communication … Perhaps the same applied here.
A wall approached—with a hall before it. A second slope: left rising, right plunging down—
Darkness slithered down from above. But the inky gloom leading deeper … fresh and open.
I went right. “Faster,” I said to her. If we could lead whoever it was deep, perhaps we could cut back, right to the pit. I could winnow—
Winnow. I could winnow now—
I grabbed for Nesta’s arm.
Right as the darkness behind us paused, and two High Fae stepped out of it. Both male.
One dark-haired, one light. Both in gray jackets embroidered with bone-white thread.
I knew their coat of arms on the upper right shoulder. Knew their dead eyes.
Hybern. Hybern was here—
I didn’t move fast enough as one of them blew out a breath toward us.
As that blue faebane dust sprayed into my eyes, my mouth, and my magic died out.
Nesta’s gasp told me she felt something similar.
But it was on my sister that the two focused as I staggered back, tears streaming the dust from my eyes, spitting out the faebane. I gripped her arm, trying to winnow. Nothing.
Behind them, a hooded priestess slumped to the ground.
“So easy to get into their minds once our master let us through the wards,” said one of them—the dark-haired male. “To make them think we were scholars. We’d planned to come for you … But it seems you found us first.”
All spoken to my sister. Nesta’s face was near-white, though her eyes showed no fear. “Who are you.”
The white-haired one smiled broadly as they approached. “We’re the king’s Ravens. His far-flying eyes and talons. And we’ve come to take you back.”
The king—their master. He’d … Mother above.
Was the king here—in Velaris?
Rhys. I slammed a mental hand into the bond. Over and over. Rhys.
Nothing.
Nesta’s breath began to come quickly. Swords hung at their sides—two apiece. Their shoulders were broad, arms wide enough to indicate muscle filled those fine clothes.
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” I said, palming my knife. How had the king done it—arrived here unnoted, and fractured our wards? And if he was in Velaris … I shoved down my terror at the thought. At what he might be doing beyond this library, unseen and hidden—
“You’re an unexpected prize, too,” the black-haired one said to me. “But your sister …” A smile that showed all of his too-white teeth. “You took something from that Cauldron, girl. The king wants it back.”
That was why the Cauldron couldn’t shatter the wall. Not because its power was spent.
But because Nesta had stolen too much of it.
CHAPTER
31
I laid my options before me.
I doubted the king’s Ravens were stupid enough to be kept talking long enough for my powers to return. And if the king was indeed here … I had to warn everyone. Immediately.
It left me with three choices.
Take them on in hand-to-hand combat with only a knife, when they were each armed with twin blades and were muscled enough to know how to use them.
Make a run for it, and try to get out of the library—and risk the lives and further trauma of the priestesses in the levels above.
Or …
Nesta was saying to them, “If he wants what I took, he can come get it himself.”
“He’s too busy to bother,” the white-haired male purred, advancing another step.
“Apparently you’re not.”
I gripped Nesta’s fingers in my free hand. She glanced at me.
I need you to trust me, I tried to convey to her.
Nesta read the emotion in my eyes—and gave the barest dip of her chin.
I said to them, “You made a grave mistake coming here. To my house.”
They sniggered.
I gave them a returning smirk as I said, “And I hope it rips you into bloody ribbons.”
Then I ran, hauling Nesta with me. Not toward the upper levels.
But down.
Down into the eternal blackness of the pit at the heart of the library.
And into the arms of whatever lurked inside it.
Around and down, around and down—
Shelves and paper and furniture and darkness, the smell turning musty and damp, the air thickening, the darkness like dew on my skin— Nesta’s breath was ragged, her skirts rustling with each sprinting step we took.
Time—only a matter of time before one of those priestesses contacted Rhys.
But even a minute might be too late.
There was no choice. None.
Faelights stopped appearing ahead.
Low, hideous laughter trickled behind us. “Not so easy, is it—to find your way in the dark.”
“Don’t stop,” I panted to Nesta, flinging us farther into the dark.
A high-pitched scratching sounded. Like talons on stone. One of the Ravens crooned, “Do you know what happened to them—the queens?”