Chapter 13 Jayne
I woke up to Sin staring at me. His look was so intense, I was instantly awake. “What is it? Is JJ all right? Are you all right? Where are the cats? Did something happen?”
“Mama’s funny.” Spider jumped into my lap, startling me further because I hadn’t seen him on the floor.
I took a breath to calm my racing heart.
“Everything is fine,” Sin said. He held up a slim black book. “But I forgot about this.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a book I took from the archives.”
“You took something from a crime scene?”
“Not—well, maybe technically.”
“What is it? Why did you take it?”
“I took it because it was a fraction out of line with the rest of the books. Enough that I thought it might be important. Turns out, it was. But not in the way I thought it would be.”
I squinted at him. “Maybe I’m still asleep, but none of that made any sense to me.”
“It was a couple shelves above Delton’s body, and all the books and boxes were perfectly lined up, exactly even. Except this one. I managed to grab it just before Ezreal showed up, but then with everything else and the pain meds, I forgot about it.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t see you with a book.”
“I stuffed it in the diaper bag.”
“Oh.” I thought I had the gist of it now. “You’d better hope Crispin hasn’t noticed it missing or Constable Larsen will be knocking on our door.”
He laughed. “You’re probably right.”
“So what’s in the book? Anything worthwhile?”
“Well, unfortunately, not anymore. But it was a record of all the past guests from previous naming days.”
“Was?”
He opened the book to show me the first few of pages were torn out. “Someone got to it before we did.”
“Snowballs.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
I really needed some sugar, but this was more important. I held my hand out. “Can I see it?”
He passed it to me.
I opened it and ran my fingers over the torn edges where the pages had been.
The remaining pages showed guest lists from my grandfather’s time and earlier, all handwritten.
Whoever was doing this was trying to hide someone my dad had to know.
“So someone basically removed the guest lists from my Naming Day and my dad’s Naming Day.
And … one more page, but I don’t know whose that would have been because my grandfather’s Naming Day guest list is here. ”
I set the book on the coffee table, unable to make sense of it. “So much for that. I’m going to check on JJ, then get some cake and a Dr Pepper. You want anything?”
“If he’s awake, bring him to me. I’ll hold him.”
“Okay.” I got to my feet just as the door chime sounded. I veered in that direction instead of the nursery. Ezreal was at the door when I opened it. He had a box in his hands.
“Hi, Ezreal.”
“Good evening, Princess. I hope I’m not disturbing you. I only wanted to see how you and Sinclair were doing and if you needed anything.”
“We’re good. He’s doing all right. His mom cooked for us, so we’re in good shape.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.” He held out the box. “I brought a little gift from the kitchen. Chocolate peanut butter pie.”
“Oh, thank you.” I took the box, already anticipating a slice of the pie. “You want to come in? See JJ? I was just about to check on him.”
“I would love to see Prince Jack.”
“Come on.” I moved to the side and called out to Sin. “Ezreal’s here.”
Sin met us in the kitchen, where I’d just set the box on the counter, lifting a hand from his crutches to wave. “Hey, Ezreal.”
“I just stopped by to see how you both were doing. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“You’re not,” Sin told him, leaning on his crutches. “I see you brought Jayne something.”
“Chocolate peanut butter pie,” I answered with a smile. “Or, as I like to call it, dinner.”
Sin shook his head. “Any news on the investigation, Ezreal?”
“I haven’t heard anything new. I hope Constable Larsen is able to get to the bottom of this quickly.”
“I do, too,” I said. “Something uncool is definitely going on.”
Ezreal looked at me. “Can I ask what you were doing at the archives, Princess? In all the commotion, I don’t think you ever said.”
“We were there to look at the guest lists from past Naming Days. To see if we could figure out that redacted name.”
“The one that only you can’t see?”
I shook my head. “Not just me. Sin’s mom can’t see it either. No Holiday, just a jumble of moving letters.”
“That is odd.” His brow furrowed, then relaxed again. “Where you able to find anything out?”
“No,” Sin said. “We found Delton instead.”
“Well … Sin did find a book that had the guest lists in it, but the first three pages had been ripped out. Someone got to it before us.” I got a Dr Pepper out of the fridge.
“The same someone, I’m guessing, who doesn’t want us to know whose name that is.
Do you think Crispin would be able to supply us with the names of all the visitors the archives have had?
Is that something they’d keep track of?”
“I don’t know but might be worth asking.” Ezreal crossed his arms. “That is very odd about the pages being torn out. But the archive only has the handwritten copies of the guest lists. Not the actual lists.”
About to take a drink, I hesitated. “Those weren’t the actual lists?”
Sin’s brows shot up. “Where are the actual lists?”
“The royal vault,” Ezreal answered. “The official lists are engraved on ice tablets and kept in the cold storage section.”
Hope sprang to life within me. “So we could still find out whose name that is?”
“You could.”
Sin looked at me. “Could we go right now?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Ezreal, could we go now?”
“You’re the Winter Princess. The vault is open to you every hour of the day and night.”
“Would you go with us?”
He blinked. “If you invite me, yes. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be my place. Generally, only royals are permitted in the vault unless a member of staff is given special permission.”
That was good. That meant whoever had beaten us to the archives wouldn’t have been able to get into the vault. At least, that’s what I was hoping.
“I’m inviting you.” I grinned. “Sin, call your parents and see if they want to babysit.”
Of course, they did, and while I was getting JJ changed and fed before dropping him off, Ezreal went to corral some Segways, which were often used for more extensive travel throughout the palace. They’d make the trip to the vault shorter and easier on Sin.
Before long, we were motoring toward the vault, Ezreal leading the way, since my last visit had been ages ago. Literally when I was sixteen and my mom took me to pick out a tiara for my birthday party. Of course, Sin had never been.
We went down into the lower levels of the palace, past the recreational levels that housed the pool, bowling alley, and gym. The temperature dropped a bit as we reached the vault.
The enormous round door looked like a cross between a medieval gateway and a space-age portal. The burnished metal shone blue in the dim light, the rivets darker against the gleaming steel. In the center of the door was a panel of sparkling ice, the color of a winter sky.
I looked at Ezreal, wanting to make sure my memory was correct. “I write my name on the ice, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I picked up the diamond-tipped stylus attached by a thin silver chain and wrote my name across the ice. Jayne Frost. There was no point in adding Crowe. The magic knew me as Frost, which was how, someday, I’d be coronated.
My signature disappeared into the ice as I slipped the stylus back into its holder and retreated a few steps. A single cracking sound, like a frozen lake being stepped on, broke the stillness.
With a shush of air, the door slid away. A decrease in temperature wafted over us. Even if JJ was half winter elf, I was glad we hadn’t brought him.
Lights flickered on inside the vault, illuminating the interior of it. I stepped across the threshold, Ezreal and Sin following. As soon as Sin came through, the door slid shut behind him.
I looked around. The vault of my memories didn’t jive with what I was seeing. I didn’t remember it being this large. It was almost like a warehouse. Maybe two warehouses. It was the same thing that had happened at the archives. “Has it always been this big?”
Ezreal shook his head. “No, Princess. It was expanded ten years ago. Actually, it was expanded fifteen years ago, with a second expansion ten years ago. And it will probably be expanded again in a few more years.”
Good to know I wasn’t losing my mind.
“This is huge,” Sin said, the curls of his breath preceding his words.
I had to nod in agreement. The vault was carved into the depths of the frozen tundra that made up the North Pole, the walls reinforced with steel panels riveted together just like the door.
More steel covered the ground beneath our feet. Thin tubes of light ran in strands across the ceiling, giving everything an almost industrial blue-white glow that seemed in stark contrast to the treasures I knew this place held.
“I can turn more lights on,” Ezreal said, starting toward a panel near the entrance.
“That would be great.” Row after row of cabinets lined the walls and made up two center aisles until about the halfway point of the space. Then tall shelves took over. They held storage boxes and crated items.
Ezreal flipped a switch, and two more rows of lights came on. These were softer, warmer, and somehow made the space feel less frigid.
“We’ll need to go into cold storage for the guest lists,” he said.
“This isn’t cold storage?” Sin shivered as if punctuating his point.
“No, but there are parkas to put on.”
“Let’s get this done.” Maybe it was the post-pregnancy hormones again, but I was suddenly aware of how far away I was from my son.
“This way,” Ezreal said.
We walked to the start of the tall shelves, then went right through a small corridor invisible from the entrance.
Thankfully, the floor wasn’t icy, so Sin was doing fine on his crutches.
Another vault door, this one of ice, greeted us.
I had no memory of this, so I doubted I’d ever been in here before.
Next to the door hung four blue nylon parkas lined with fleece. We each put one on. They were all one size. Big. My hands disappeared under the cuffs.
“You’ll need to write your name again,” Ezreal said.
“There’s no stylus.”
“You have to use your finger and your magic.”
Interesting. Like a final test to be sure I really was who I was supposed to be.
I focused my winter magic, stuck my finger to the glass, and signed my name. Just like before, my signature vanished into the ice.
Then the ice forming the door disappeared, too.