Chapter Twenty–Seven
ENZO
I glance at the clock on the wall for probably the hundredth time, trying not to grind my teeth.
“I’m telling you; it has to be the Aetheran Star Society. They make constellation maps all the time,” Soren argues.
“It’s not the Star Society,” Lola groans, mopping a hand over her face.
We’ve been arguing over the location of Nocturne’s first clue for nearly two hours.
At first, I found it practical to consider every option, but now, as our window of time to travel to the enclosure diminishes, trepidation has my throat in a chokehold.
We’ve narrowed it down to these two choices, but Soren, in all his stubbornness, will not budge, and we’re approaching eleven thirty and running out of time.
“It is, though. The clue says ‘writing our maps’ and then ‘stars and their gaps.’” He emphasizes each point with a jab of his half-eaten cream-filled pastry. “It’s talking about constellation charts. There’s no other explanation.”
“And, as I’ve said four thousand times,” Lola retorts, “the University of Aethera has a whole astronomy department in its library where they also draw out constellations.”
“But the library is used for other things. The Star Society’s only job is to make the maps.”
“Why does that even matter?” I jump in as I finish off my tenth croissant. “The two hundred laps part of the clue clearly is talking about two hundred laps around the sun. Right? And the university library was built two hundred years ago.”
Soren glowers at me, clearly enraged I’m taking Lola’s side. “The growth and collapse part has to be about the Star Society. It grew wildly for several years, and now its funds are collapsing. They declared bankruptcy last month!”
“No. The growth and collapse part is talking about the documentation of the growth and collapse of stars and galaxies,” Lola snaps, splotches of pink rising in her cheeks. “Which the University of Aethera astronomy department studies at their damn library.”
“We don’t have time,” Jade puts in from where she sits behind the counter. “We could split up. Half of us go to the Star Society, half to the library.”
“No.” I shake my head. “We need as many of us in the game as possible. We’re going to the library.”
Soren frowns. “I still think it’s the Star Society.”
“The library fits everything in the clue,” Lola says. “The Star Society has no connection with the two hundred laps thing.”
Soren shoves away from the group and stalks toward the wall, cursing. “Fine, but if you’re wrong, don’t look my way.”
“I swear to you, I’m not wrong,” Lola mutters as she, Jade, Arden, Isla, and I follow him.
“We’ll have to catch a cab. The university is across town,” I point out, grabbing two more pastries and wrapping them in parchment paper before stuffing them in my pocket.
“How are you not sick?” Lola asks. “You’ve eaten at least thirty of those.”
“I am a man of many talents,” I say as we pass through the wall.
Reclaiming corporeality in the shadows, we jog to the end of the alleyway and cross out to the nearest street.
“Do you see a taxi?” I ask, looking up and down the street for any sign of the sleek black cabs that clog this block during the day.
Arden frowns. “They’re probably already carting other players to wherever they think the enclosure is.”
I sigh. “Right. So we run?”
“We run,” Lola agrees.
“I hate running,” Jade mumbles.
I pull off three rings and hand one to each of them. “Those are full of strength. Fresh. We’ll run a lot faster that way.”
They slip them on, and we take off down the street, angling toward northeast downtown, where the University of Aethera’s sprawling campus awaits.
It takes far longer than I’d like for us to reach the university’s campus, even with my rings. The clock tower juts out above the school’s bell tower, its long hand only minutes away from the twelve as we leap over stone benches and duck under the leaning branches of the campus’s old oak trees.
The University of Aethera is one of my favorite locations.
While the rest of the city is bustling—its buildings growing ever taller with each passing year, its streets clogged with motorcars and people, its air thick with exhaust billowing in from the factory sector—this campus is a place trapped in time.
A world of old stone buildings, ancient zenithic cathedrals turned into study halls, and trees whose branches embrace like lovers.
My father and mother met here long ago when they were both studying theology. As I dart through the shadows cast by the old abbey turned liberal arts building, I imagine my mother perched on one of these benches with an Odelion open on her lap.
The clock begins to toll as we dash up the library steps. With a shout, I launch myself at my Tentacles, thrusting Lola and Jade through the front doors. We topple onto the old marble tile before the bells finish chiming.
As the final one rings, a wall of impermeable shadow rises outside the library, and I gasp, watching it through the still-open door.
“I told you,” Lola heaves, leaning against the wall, panting.
“Yeah, well, good thing Enzo doesn’t give a shit what anyone besides you thinks, or we’d be in trouble,” Soren mutters.
I whip around. “Want to repeat that, Soren?”
He grinds his teeth, then shakes his head. “Sorry. I’m just tired.”
“We don’t speak like that to one another.” I jab a finger in his face. “Ever.”
He fumes, eyes boring into mine just like they did yesterday morning when he discovered Lola had been sneaking out alone. “Won’t happen again.”
“It had better not.”
“What do we do next?” Isla asks, gathering her false blond tresses off her neck and fanning at the sweat glistening there. “We’ve got eight hours to find our way out.”
“We could split up. Look for clues,” Lola suggests quietly, avoiding Soren’s eye.
“Enzo?” Jade doesn’t look Lola’s way either.
I frown.
Ignoring the obvious tension, Lola looks toward the grand staircase, a massive granite masterpiece leading past a stained-glass window the size of the entire front facade of the Liar’s Den.
Though the barrier outside has cast all the windows in shadow, the interior lights buzz with electricity, illuminating the scene depicted in the glass from within.
It’s a vibrant representation of some kind of battle between the Gods Above—whose goodness is represented by glowing starburst shards of glass around their heads—and the Gods of the Deep—whose eyes glitter blue-gray and whose bodies feature scales and fins, gills, and razor-sharp teeth.
Dozens of people mill about just beyond the lobby, some of them lounging on desks, others searching the library shelves.
“How many players do you think made it inside?” I ask.
Arden follows my gaze and frowns. “I bet there are even more on the other floors.”
“All right,” I say. “I agree with Lola. Let’s split up and search for clues. Meet me back here by five. Unless you find something earlier, in which case . . . come find me.”
Lola nods, as though relieved, and darts down the hall. Arden climbs the stairs.
I turn and grasp Jade’s elbow. “What’s going on?”
She pulls out of my grasp, shrugging. “Nothing.”
“You’re acting weird.”
“No, I’m not.”
I cross my arms. “We’ve worked together far too long for this kind of thing. What aren’t you telling me?”
She sighs, nodding at Isla.
“Isla . . . ?” I prompt.
Isla faces me. “The lumenoring equipment is missing.”
I blink. “What?”
“The equipment we’ve been stealing over the past several weeks. The lumenoscopes, the mirrors, the diffuser, all of it. Gone.”
My mind whirls, stomach churning. This is not possible. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know. But there were illusions left behind that looked like them.
Probably to make us think they were still there.
” She pauses. “And when Lola and I staked out Salazar’s office this morning, she went to investigate some gunshots and disappeared for a full twenty minutes. I nearly got caught looking for her.”
“Where did she go?”
Isla shakes her head. “I don’t know.”
“Wait, what?” Soren says, stalking closer. “She disappears, and then our treasury is mysteriously robbed?”
“Also . . .” Jade chews on her lip, glancing from Soren to Isla to me, freckled cheeks pinking.
“She came up with an idea for us to split up sometimes when we go out. I thought she was being nice to give me opportunities to visit my gran, but this last time, she seemed a little . . . I don’t know.
Off. Like she was in a rush to get somewhere. ”
Unease rises in my stomach like bile. Could Lola have been deceitful?
Could she have stolen from me? But as soon as those thoughts surface, something settles, cool and calming in my blood.
Her words after the tournament echo in my head.
I trust you. She has always had my back, always been on my side .
. . even when I was being less than honest. And she has never lied to me. If she trusts me, then I trust her.
“It must have been my brother who stole the equipment,” I say.
Isla frowns. “How would the Liar get into the Brig?”
“What if the magazines’ reports about Lola and the Liar’s affair were true?” Soren asks, brows rising. “What if she helped him get in? What if they’re working together?”
“She’s not involved,” I say. “It had to have been my brother. Alone.”
“Are . . . are you serious?” Soren gives a sharp, incredulous laugh.
“What?” I snap, hackles rising.
He shakes his head. “Unbelievable.”
“Say it,” I bark.
He glares as though something is boiling over inside him. “Why do you trust her?”
There it is.
“If you shared a heart with her,” I say coolly, “and if you’d been through what the two of us have together, you would, too.”
Soren’s nostrils flare. “Always with the heart.”
“I can understand you feeling betrayed that I did not tell anyone about her until four months ago.”
“That’s not what—”
“And I don’t blame you,” I forge on, “for being wary, considering who her father is. I honestly expected it. After all, it was Magnus St. James who had Ithlo killed.”
Soren hisses at the mention of the Tentacle St. James had assassinated in my place, but he doesn’t remark on it. “None of that is what worries me. She’s keeping secrets.”
“Everyone has secrets.”
“What is she doing when she sneaks out?” Soren’s voice is sharp.
“Her father,” I say, trying to keep my voice measured even though I feel like barking the words through my teeth, “kept her imprisoned her entire life. So forgive me for wanting her to stretch her wings some.”
“How do you know she’s not using those wings to fly back to that father? Whisper our secrets into his ear?”
“She isn’t. I would know.”
His eyes flick down to the pendant pulsing purple against my chest, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Would you?”
“Yes.”
“Magnus St. James didn’t get to be as powerful as he is by being careless,” Soren replies, voice measured. Jade keeps her own gaze on her shoes, as though trying to disappear entirely.
Isla speaks up. “Soren’s right. What if St. James planted her for you to find? What if she’s as cunning as he is, manipulating her emotions to make you believe what he wants you to?”
“She’s a spy,” Soren says.
Anger flares in my blood, and I step closer so we’re eye to eye, nose to nose. “Do you trust me, Soren Wolfe?”
Soren’s glare blisters, and his hands clench into fists once, then twice, before he gives a single nod. “Of course I do, Enzo. You know I do.”
“What about you, Isla? Jade?”
They glance at each other, then nod.
“I’m not asking you to trust her,” I reply, cool and calm in spite of the heat blazing through me. “I’m asking you to trust me. I would never let my Tentacles down.”
“But—” Soren begins.
“That’s an order.”
He blinks, and a flicker of guilt tinges the fire in me. I don’t talk to my Tentacles like this, not ever. I run this team like I’m on equal footing with them. I don’t require their deference, and I certainly don’t give them orders.
But I don’t take back the words, and I do not apologize.
As I hold his gaze steady, his lips purse, and then finally he nods. “Fine.”
“Thank you,” I say. “Now. Go look for clues. We’ve got a game to win. We’ll worry about finding the missing equipment later.”
They nod, Soren still avoiding my gaze as he stalks sullenly past me. Jade and Isla disappear down the hall, leaving me alone in the now-abandoned lobby with nothing but my guilt to keep me company.