2026-10-11 23:59:18
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The grinding stopped, and the black door swung the rest of the way open on its own. Something came through it. It wore a human shape, but badly, tall and narrow, with arms that were too long for it. Its mouth was stitched shut, and a dozen faces were pressed up under the skin of its chest, and every one of them wore the expression of someone it had envied.The Marquis dropped to one knee on the wet stone. "Second of Envy," he said, and bowed his head down to it.Adrian felt scared, and he couldn't stop looking at it. He didn't remember anything about a Second of Envy from the first life, not a name or a story or even a warning. Maybe it never existed back then. Maybe it was one more thing that had already left his head, like the map, and he didn't know which one was worse. What was it doing here? Why had the Marquis opened a door under the river for something like this? And why did it need a Ravenshaw's blood to come out?The Second turned its head slowly past all of them and stopped
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"I'm coming, Adrian. Don't tell me to stay again." Lilly warned him. She already had a lantern in her hand, and she was already standing at the top of the shaft stairs. Adrian had told her to stay behind three times since dusk, once to her face and twice through a door, and it hadn't worked once."Lilly, it's the Gilded Hand down there. They killed Thalia's guards and nobody heard a sound.""And they took Lucas," she replied. "I waited a whole week for you to tell me about Sister, and I'm not waiting upstairs again while you go down there and get yourself killed.""I'm not going to get killed.""Then you don't have a reason to leave me behind."Adrian felt annoyed and scared at the same time, and the scared part was winning. There was no way he could carry his own sister back up the stairs in front of Crowe, and he already knew he couldn't win this argument anyway. Lilly never gave up an argument once she had decided, and she had decided a long time ago."I'm going too," Maya said fr
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The townhouse was full of Crowe's men, and Adrian couldn't go anywhere right now. He wanted to go after Lucas at once. He had wanted that for over a day already, ever since from the cellar, but there were four Inquisitors on the front step and a warrant in Crowe's hand that was, for once, signed. Adrian had read it twice from the landing, looking for a mistake in it. There wasn't one, and he had known there wouldn't be, because Crowe didn't make that kind of mistake.Thalia was holding the front door with a tea tray in both hands and a smile that didn't reach her one visible eye. Her eyepatch was back on, since there were strangers at the door. Adrian stood on the stairs, at the farthest point from the door where he could still hear, and he listened."There is tea, Captain," Thalia offered."I don't want tea. I want to come in.""My lord is resting.""Your lord has been resting for a day," Crowe replied flatly. "I have a signed warrant, Miss Thalia.""Yes, I read it." She didn't move
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Had his father seen the stumble at the end? Did he notice how Adrian's hand shook when Valen let go of it, or did he only see Valen yield and think that was the whole thing? Adrian couldn't tell from across the sand, and by the time he came out through the arena gate, Gideon was already standing there with his hands behind his back, waiting for him."You fought like a swordsman," Gideon said. "Where did you learn it?""I read a great deal," Adrian answered.Gideon snorted. It was a short sound, and Adrian couldn't tell if it meant he was amused or angry."Of course you did." He looked past Adrian's shoulder at the students coming out of the hall, and he lowered his voice. "The Empress will hear about this duel by nightfall, and she is going to ask me about the serpent."Adrian felt worried, because he knew exactly which serpent his father meant. "What will you tell her?" he asked."Nothing. I told her nothing before, and I am going to go on telling her nothing," Gideon replied. His vo
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"He is breathing, my lord."Thalia had crossed the roof before Adrian even thought about calling her. She crouched down and held two fingers under Lucas's jaw, and her red eye stayed as steady as always. Adrian cut the sparrow link, but it was already dead already, so there was nothing left on the other end to cut. The sight and sound in his head just went out. Lucas's temple was hot under his fingers, and he still didn't wake up."He burned it," Adrian said. "He looked right at it and he burned it.""Yes, my lord. I felt it go." Thalia lifted Lucas off his chest and held him against her shoulder without any trouble. "Where shall I put him?""A bed. He's earned that much."She carried him down the stairs, and Adrian stayed on the roof by himself for a while. How did Rhode know there was a sparrow on that ledge? Did he feel the link, or did he feel Adrian looking through it? And if it was the second one, then he already knew somebody from Blackwood was watching him, and he had known it
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The week Lilly gave him was almost over, and she had decided not to wait for the last day. She did it in Maya's room in the girls' dormitory with the door closed. Adrian wasn't allowed inside, so he stood in the corridor with his arms folded and his head turned toward the door. The wood was thick enough that he couldn't hear a single word, and he kept standing there for over twenty minutes anyway.He had a guess about why Lilly picked today. In two days he might lose a duel and get handed over to the Holy Empire embassy, and she didn't want Maya to hear about the catacombs from somebody else after that. He didn't know if Lilly was being kind or being scared for him. Maybe it was both, and either way he couldn't tell her to wait, because he was the one who already made her wait a whole week.What was Lilly saying in there right now? She had to tell Maya about the Seal and the Echoes, and then the part where Maya didn't remember any of it. How was anybody supposed to believe all that in
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