A Hundred Vicious Turns (The Broken Tower Book 1) by Lee Paige O'Brien

Author:Lee Paige O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2023-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The walk back up the stairs was long and quiet.

Jinx and Agatha split off to the third floor, and then Rat was alone in the stairwell with Harker.

Rat looked at him for a moment, unsure of whether or not they should say something, and then, they turned and started back toward the second floor.

As soon as Rat made it off the stairs, they cut back through the building. They didn’t stop to think about where they were going until they’d made it to the widow’s walk.

The late-night chill broke over them as they let themself out onto the roof. Overhead, the stars pricked against the sky, too crisp after the dark of the tunnels.

Rat shut their eyes and drew in one deep breath, and then another.

Until tonight, they’d assumed that Harker was their only problem. They didn’t know what to do with the fact that there was someone else now. Someone with enough power to break the wards on the tunnels. Someone who knew to search the War Room.

Rat didn’t know if they should be relieved or not that whoever they were dealing with was a step behind him, too.

They leaned out over the rails, steadying themself.

They wanted to push Harker in the lake. They wanted to grab him by the shoulders and ask how he’d even pulled it off, stealing the Holbrook Map in the first place.

They wanted to know what he’d found.

Behind them, there was the low rush of air as the door swung in.

They tipped their face up at the sky. “Friend or foe?” they said, half expecting Jinx’s footsteps on the walk behind them.

In answer came the quiet rush of wings.

Rat’s pulse skipped. They turned back to see a bird, a square of paper clutched in its talons.

Behind it, where the entrance to the widow’s walk had been, a new dead passage had opened like a slash across a veil. Flecks of light drifted through the air, curling away from it in shifting currents. Beyond, where the staircase should have been, lay the mouth of a narrow stone passageway, the air damp and stale with the smell of magic.

Like remembering a dream, Rat knew that it would take them back into the tunnels, even if they couldn’t say where.

The bird blinked up at them, and Rat realized they’d taken a step forward without meaning to.

Holding themself steady, they knelt down. “What do you want?”

They bird tilted its head as Rat reached down to take the piece of paper from it. The page was stiff, like it had been torn from an old book, the edges dusted with aether.

Something slid out as Rat unfolded the paper, revealing a spell diagram too complicated for them to read, let alone use. They didn’t need to read it to understand though. It was a taunt.

The knight could send them a thousand spells. Rat wouldn’t be able to cast a single one on their own.

They glanced down to see what they’d dropped, and their hand tightened on the page.

A bracelet. One of a set.

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