“A secret volume?” I looked at the other girls. “A thirteenth volume?”
Naomi nodded. “It’s said to carry the most dangerous secrets Castor couldn’t divulge even to the Sect. But as dangerous as it was, Castor wouldn’t destroy it. Instead, he entrusted it to the Haas family. They’ve been guarding it since, but eventually Baldric grew anxious.”
“What secrets?” Lake asked. “Like . . . like about us?”
“About you. About the phantoms. About the beginning of everything,” she said, her eyelids fluttering shut as she remembered. “Or so he told me. I can’t know for sure. He’s probably the only human alive who knows what’s inside those pages. But he’s always been a paranoid man, and he only trusted me to a point. He was the one who first told me at the beginning of this year that there were rumblings of treason within the Sect. That Saul appeared not long afterward isn’t a coincidence. Baldric was sure that the secrets in the volume were central to the happenings in the Sect, to Saul, to the attacks around the world. But he wouldn’t tell me how until he was sure the volume was safe in his hands.”
“You said you know how Natalya died.” Belle stopped by the chair Naomi had been sitting in, her hands brushing the top. “Can you tell me?”
It was only for a fleeting second—Naomi’s line of vision crossing with mine. Her eyes dimmed as she held her hands close to her sides to hide their slight tremble.
“Every generation of the Haas family places the volume in a new location to keep it safe. Baldric wanted to retrieve the volume from where he’d been hiding it—in Prague’s National Museum. But he’d fallen sick. Though he asked me to help him, if he really was being watched, it would be dangerous for me to go alone. On his behalf, I sent Natalya.” She watched Belle’s expression carefully as she spoke. “By then Natalya had already become suspicious about things. Around half a year ago, she came to me. After the Frankfurt attacks.”
“Frankfurt,” Belle said. “Sibyl told us. She confronted Saul then. Yes . . . just before the attack. Though he disappeared before she understood who or what he was.”
“I needed someone on my side,” explained Naomi. “I told her about the volume and asked her to bring it to me secretly, without the Sect knowing. But Natalya was a soldier. She was anxious about going against them . . . so I promised her what Baldric promised me—that with the volume, we’d know the truth. And that I would protect her from the Sect.”
She lowered her head.
“But you couldn’t,” Belle finished for her.
“She was intercepted and couldn’t retrieve it. Afterward, it was too risky to move. Baldric became jittery and finally fled Britain. Natalya would have tried again once the heat was off of her, but . . .”
“That’s when she was killed, right?” Chae Rin said. “She didn’t get a chance.”
Naomi took a shaky step forward. “I’m sorry, Belle. I know she was close to you. Like family.” Her eyes were glistening. “I’m sorry.”
“Do you know who killed her?”
Silence. Though Belle had sounded calm, I knew better than to take that stone mask as truth. Naomi said nothing, but I couldn’t keep this secret for much longer.
No. It wasn’t right. I had to confess.
My fingers clasped together, my body shivering from the stinging pain of my teeth biting into the corner of my lip. I couldn’t stay silent. No matter what my feelings were. No matter the consequences. I didn’t want to be a coward anymore. I had to trust Belle.
But when I opened my lips, the confession passed through Naomi’s instead.
“I did,” she said. Simple, bitter words.
The room went quiet. Seconds passed in silence.
An unbearable cold suddenly crashed into me as if I’d been caught in a torrent of wind. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, frost lined the bookshelves, clinging to the ceiling. Snow gathered on the furniture, the marble counters. And Belle’s sword was already at Naomi’s throat.
“Stop!” We all ran to Belle, but I got there first. My hand hooked her elbow, though it did nothing to deter the girl’s murderous gaze. Naomi’s bodyguards, who’d heard the commotion, were rushing through the narrow hallway, but before they could reach the living room, Belle covered the entrance with a barricade of ice to keep them out.
“Yes, I did it.” Naomi pressed her head back against the blinds, her lips trembling. “I sent her to Prague. I put her in danger. She died because of me.”
“Did you or did you not kill her?” Belle pressed her sword against Naomi’s neck just hard enough for a line of blood to form. It dripped down the edge of her blade. “Tell me. You either killed her or you know who did.”
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” Lake was bobbing up and down on her feet, freaking out. “Is Belle going to kill her? Please don’t kill anyone!”
“Belle, please stop!” I cried. “Natalya’s killer—”
“Doesn’t matter.” Naomi was looking at me now. “I killed her. My actions set her death in motion. It didn’t begin with Prague. It began years ago.” She was shaking. Tears started to dribble down her cheeks, mingling with the blood slipping down Belle’s sword. “Everything that happened . . . It’s because of my weakness. Because I can’t protect anyone. I never could. Not then. And not now.”
Did she mean Rhys? I frowned, my grip on Belle’s elbow failing. I tried to speak again, to fill in the blanks Naomi kept hidden. But as much as Naomi could against Belle’s blade, she shook her head.
“Please. Please don’t,” she said. She was talking to me. “It’s my fault. The sin is mine from beginning to end.”
“That’s not good enough,” Belle hissed.
“Stop.” Chae Rin stepped forward and grabbed the edge of Belle’s blade with barely a wince. “Stop, Belle. Enough with this crap.”
But despite her warning glare, Belle wouldn’t back down. “I promised myself that I would find Natalya’s killer. And murder them. No matter the cost. I will murder them.”
I took a stumbling step back, my feet heavy. So I was right.
“Well, that wouldn’t be productive, would it?” Chae Rin said. But they were at a stalemate. Neither would budge to the other. “Lady,” she said without looking at Naomi. “You said you sent Natalya to Prague. That’s where the secret volume is, right? What if we get it?”
Naomi spoke very carefully. “Baldric told me that the information in it could help us fight whatever is coming. And that we couldn’t allow the Council to get their hands on it. Baldric is gone. Off the grid. I can’t just ask him. We need the volume or—”
Chae Rin kept a firm grip on the blade. “Or?”
“Marian. Baldric mentioned it, that Marian knows the secrets that even he does not. I would have asked Natalya, but—” Her breath hitched as Belle’s grip tightened around her sword. “Maia . . . Maia could scry right here.”