Chapter 31 #4
Another version. Deylan’s lesson returned so sharply it almost made me laugh. Three accounts of the same massacre. All of them lying differently.
“What if whoever erased her Aurora record erased the Umbra one too?”
“They may have.”
Hope sank almost as quickly as it had risen.
“But,” Eiryx continued, “they would have needed to know it existed.”
I looked at him. “And if they didn’t?”
“Then we find out what Aurora was trying to hide.”
For a moment, none of us spoke. It was the first real lead we had that didn’t come from the Codex. Not a riddle. Not a sentence appearing on a page because an ancient book had decided I deserved exactly enough information to ruin my sleep. A lead we could actually search.
“When can we go?”
Kieran answered before Eiryx could. “We aren’t.”
I stared at him. “We’re not doing this again.”
“We’re not doing anything.”
“You literally brought him here because he can access the records.”
“I brought him here because I wanted him to know what we found.”
Eiryx’s eyes moved toward Kieran. Kieran ignored him.
“And because,” he continued, “he can search the north stacks without four candidates breaking into another restricted archive twenty-four hours after the last one tried to eat Emrin’s hand.”
Emrin lifted the injured hand slightly. “I support this version.”
I looked at her. She shrugged.
“I enjoy having ten fingers.”
“You don’t even know what he’s looking for.”
“I do now,” Eiryx said.
“You know six sentences worth of information.”
“Seven, if we count Light wielder.”
I glared at him. He stopped. Good.
“This could be my mother.”
The words quieted all three of them. I hated how much that mattered.
How quickly every disagreement seemed to turn into me explaining why I couldn’t simply wait while another person decided what happened next.
Eiryx looked at Kieran. Not for permission.
That distinction was becoming easier to see.
Whatever existed between them, it wasn’t obedience.
“I’ll search tonight,” he said.
I frowned. “Tonight?”
“The north stacks are easiest to access during the division rotations. Half the Umbra instructors will be at the eastern rings.”
“And you’ll read hundreds of records tonight?”
“If I have to.”
No complaint. No dramatic sigh. He said it as though the possibility had already been accounted for.
I studied him again. Kieran trusted him.
Not because Eiryx was charming enough to make people overlook things.
Not because he was another Shadow wielder.
Not because they happened to know each other.
Kieran had given him my secret and then asked him to watch my back.
That kind of trust had to have been earned somewhere. I just didn’t know where yet.
“What if you find her?”
“I won’t take anything.”
That answer came too quickly for me to believe it was a guess. Eiryx nodded toward Kieran.
“He told me what happened with the outer ward. If the record is marked, removing it is stupid.”
“We took the note.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
His gaze settled on me. “And you should stop carrying it around.”
My stomach dropped. My eyes went instinctively to Kieran.
“I’m not.”
If Eiryx noticed where I’d looked, he gave no sign. He turned to Emrin instead. She frowned.
“Why are you looking at me?”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
He returned his attention to me.
“If the note came from a warded archive and the archive reacted when you disturbed the record, assume anything removed from it can be traced until you prove otherwise.”
That thought had not occurred to me. Judging by Kieran’s face, it had occurred to him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“And you didn’t think to mention that?”
“I told Vareena not to keep it in your room.”
I blinked. “She has it?”
“She took it when we left.”
Right. Tucked beneath her jacket while I was too busy running from an archive that had apparently decided to close itself around us.
“Where is it now?”
“Somewhere safer.”
The next bell began ringing. We were late.
“Go,” Kieran said.
Emrin caught my sleeve and pulled me toward the stairs before I could argue.
At the top, I glanced back. Kieran and Eiryx were already speaking quietly.
Eiryx’s attention had changed completely.
No faint amusement. No watching the room simply because he noticed everything.
He was working. For me. I still didn’t trust him.
But I understood a little better why Kieran did.
Vareena was waiting outside the Aurora circle with Raiden. He had her satchel over one shoulder. She was trying to take it back.
“I can carry my own bag.”
“I know.”
“Then give it to me.”
Raiden only shifted it farther behind him. Vareena reached around him. His hand caught hers for barely a second. Both of them stopped. Then he let go. Vareena looked away first. I slowed. Her eyes found mine.
“Don’t.”
I hadn’t said anything. I smiled anyway. She pointed through the open doors.
“We’re late.”
We were. And somewhere beneath the Umbra Rings, another version of that nameless girl’s history might still exist. Tonight, Eiryx was going looking for it. For once, all I had to do was wait.
I was already certain I was going to hate that.