The Complete Trilogy: The Books of Conjury, #5 by Kevan Dale

Author:Kevan Dale [Dale, Kevan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kevan Dale Fiction

10

A Shadow Among Shadows

As midnight neared, I sat back and yawned, bleary-eyed from my studies. Books spread out around me, their pages marked with scraps of paper, with ribbons. I’d only half focused on my work, my mind returning again and again to Francis, to witches and their wells, to the letters, to the demonmere. The house was quiet. I’d convinced Swaine to go to bed soon after dark, his chills turning to a fever, his mood scratchy and self-pitying. He’d surprised me by agreeing. Robert Twelves puttered around in the workshop until a few hours later, then knocked a goodnight on the door jamb to my room as he headed to his own room, our bond based in part on mutual exhaustion.

I reached for more tea, but had long since finished it. The hearth was down to cinders. Wax trailed out from the bases of the candlesticks. I was done for the night. Before I snuffed the candles, I took a cloak down from the hook by the door and stepped into the hallway, needing to use the outhouse before I slept. I stepped softly to the stairs. As I reached the bottom, I stopped. A figure sat on the floor outside the door to Swaine’s study: the revenant of the young woman, the one who unnerved me with her constant lurking. I plunged my hand into the pocket of my dress and took hold of my skeleton key.

“Get back to your spot,” I said. “In the cellar. Now.”

She lifted her head, giving me a demure smile. Her hands were on a book in her lap. “You’ll find the answer in here.” Her voice was a silken whisper. A tremor ran through her—a demon might dawdle, but they must obey a command. As she turned to the kitchen and the stairs to the cellar, she clasped her hands around the book and held it out toward me.

“Don’t touch any books from now on,” I snapped. “And while you’re at it, stay out of any place that isn’t the cellar. I forbid you to leave that spot. Do you understand?”

“I’ll always be there for you.”

“You’ll always be there—you’re right. Now give me that.” As I reached for the book, I pulled up short, yanking my hand back. “How did you get that?”

The book in the young woman’s hand was the Occultatum Ostium. I’d seen Swaine lock it away earlier.

“Answer me!” I lifted the key from my pocket and held it out before her. The demons found direct line of sight to the key to be woeful.

She recoiled. “I plucked it from the air.”

“Liar. Tell me the truth.”

“The air. It floated down the hallway. It spun.”

“You’re forbidden from entering your master’s study.”

“I didn’t.”

I wasn’t about to get drawn into a debate with an insidious, lying demon. “Put it down. On the floor. Now.”

“Your answers are here.” She grimaced at the nearness of the key, but placed the book on the floorboards.

“The cellar, now. Go.”

She headed to the cellar door, still watching me.

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