Page 48 of The Breaker of Stars

Silence hung around me as I waited for an answer. But the Fates only continued to stir wickedly within my mind, strumming along my veins, like a poetic melody. Giving no answers.

“Here you are,” the guard said, returning with a long rectangular box. “May the stars guide you.”

“Thank you.” With a demure nod, I disappeared into the nearest alcove and pulled the curtain, leaving a gap to watch him retreat. I lit the candles but not the incense. Not until he was far enough away.

Only then did I ignite the smoky haze, filling the space to give the illusion that I was reading within, and slip out before it could take me.

I scampered quietly back up the aisle, clinging to shadows. The door to the archives was unlocked.

As I tugged it softly against the jam behind me, strong arms wrapped around my waist. I gasped, but that bergamot scent had me sighing. I held tight to his wrists as I craned my neck, his blue eyes shining beneath his hood.

“I wasn’t aware lock picking was on your list of skills,” I whispered.

“I have a wealth of talents you’ve yet to see, Stargirl.”

Though nerves still jittered through me, I laughed softly.

Peeking around him, I nodded down the corridor. “That staircase leads down to the archives.”

“Ninth level,” Cypherion said, checking over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

We descended, low-ceilinged chambers crammed with stacks of books waiting on each floor. Offices, tutoring rooms, and session halls branched off the aisles. Despite the chill above ground, mystlight kept the archives comfortable for the long nights that acolytes worked or read. As students of the temple above us, they lived in the attached dormitories and were required to attend an absurd number of lessons, sessions, and trainings, making nights the best time to study.

Fires flickered in grates, scholars and warriors lining each floor, chatting, reading, and working. No one even thought to look twice at us, and we did not care to disturb them. If my magic wasn’t straining so aggressively to be used, I might have liked it here.

But the pounding of the Fates intensified the deeper we got, spiraling down that staircase in the center of the archives.

Until we reached the sixth level down.

When I looked around the curved stone corner, my gaze caught on an office door at the end of the first aisle.

On the words etched possessively into the wood.

Chancellor Titus Verian.

“Chancellor?” I muttered.

“What’s that?” Cypherion said, reaching for a weapon as he spun. His eyes narrowed on the plaque, and he immediately stepped to block me from view of anyone on this floor.

When he spoke again, his voice was darker than before. “He has a study here?”

“I…didn’t know…”

I didn’t know.

I was Titus’s apprentice, supposedly the only student he saw as worthy of holding that position. I attended Capital Council meetings with him, conducted readings at his request, and yet…

I had not known of this office in the archive temple.

Disappointment and abandonment crashed over me in icy waves. The worst was the shock, though. Because I shouldn’t have expected anything else.

It sliced through me like each letter on the door was being carved into my skin.

“Vale?” Gently, Cypherion reached for my hand.

The stairs to the lower archive levels were just behind us. Only three more. I should get to the ninth level so we could leave.

But I couldn’t stop whatever force pulled me toward the door, dragging Cypherion down the aisle behind me. Couldn’t resist as my hand raised and drifted across the letters spelling out his name and title.

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