Sonata of Shadow and Thorn by Thomas K. Carpenter

Author:Thomas K. Carpenter [Carpenter, Thomas K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Moon Books
Published: 2022-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

The investigation into the laptop had to wait until the winter break when Victor was out of the family suite on business and Mr. Thule was out visiting his favorite ramen shop. The pretense for clustering in Moriganne's room was a fashion consult before the Winter Ball being held by Silence that weekend.

Before anyone spoke, Kitty laid privacy enchantments on the room. Her sisters, Moriganne and Andromeda, stood near the old desk, covered in planets and stars, staring at the laptop as if they expected it to jump up and bite them in the face. Kitty didn't quite believe that her sisters were telling her the entire truth—there were too many shared glances, gaps in their explanations, and unusual bouts of surprise like when Tejas' name had come up—but for now, she was willing to go along.

"The room is secure," said Kitty. "If Mr. Thule can see through my wards, then we've bigger problems."

The open laptop was on the password screen, the cursor blinking.

"Any ideas?" asked Andromeda with her arms crossed.

"Before we start," said Kitty, "are you two sure you should be involving Audrey? She's out of her league and doesn't have a family name to protect her."

Her sisters shared a knowing glance. Something had happened but neither was willing to explain.

Moriganne spoke for them. "She's good. You'll have to trust me on that."

After everything that had happened in Montanhas, Kitty wished she was closer with her sisters. It had brought them together briefly, but now that they were back at home, it felt like their cooperation had been smoke and mirrors.

"How far did you get with the password?" asked Kitty.

Moriganne shifted her mouth to the side. "Not at all."

"Did you send it out? Get some expert help?"

The tightening of the lips and narrow squeezing of the shoulders suggested her sister was formulating a response, which made no sense to Kitty. How could they have gone through the trouble of acquiring Kavano's name from a known criminal like Radoslav, but not have pushed the laptop angle more?

"I thought I could do it myself, since I knew her best. Any ideas?"

"Did you search for a sticky note with the password?"

"Of course," said Moriganne, glancing surreptitiously at the desk.

Andromeda reached out to the tomes on the back of the desk. "What about these?"

"A good place to start," said Moriganne. "Everyone grab one."

There were five tomes: A History of Magic, The Metaphysical Truth, Eighteen Times the World Almost Ended, Invictus: The Man, and A Short Treaty on Faez. The topics didn't surprise Kitty. Solstice had always expressed an interest in knowledge for knowledge's sake. It was why Arcanium had been a perfect fit for her.

Kitty paged through A Short Treaty on Faez. Her sister had made notes in the margins whenever the Undercity was mentioned and marked other words with a highlighter, but they didn't seem to have a relation to the notes.

"There's some stuff here about the confluence of faez in the Undercity, speculation on the dangers it implied, but nothing that would suggest a password," said Kitty.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.