Page 206 of Lana Pecherczyk
“What?”
Ash held up the schematic and said, “Don’t you remember? Leaf’s mate mentioned some kind of codes or a map inside the cryptex—Nero’s backup plan. Wrong guesses opening the cryptex meant the ink inside ruined the contents.”
River’s gaze shifted to the broken eucalyptus vase. “You think he wants Blake to restore a war machine?”
“No. I don’t think it’s that.” Ash’s eye twitched. He searched the mess. “I don’t think we were listening properly.”
“What?”
“At the Shadow Market. Think about it. Think about the exact words he used. Cloud never said he was taking us to the cryptex. He said, ‘She doesn’t have it here—the cryptex. And I know where it is,’ and we?—”
“Made assumptions.”
“Like we always do.”
“I’m going there later,” River murmured, repeating another part of Cloud’s words. “That part was direct.”
“Later could mean years. Decades.”
River groaned. “This is impossible.”
“You’re just not thinking straight.” Ash moved toward the door until a breeze brushed against him, ruffling his feathered collar. “I’m not hearing chatter. The wind might be fickle, but it’s self-serving.”
“The wind,” River scoffed. “Just call it what it is—the Well.”
“Whatever it is, I don’t think this is Cloud wanting to burn the world down. Otherwise, I’d hear about it.”
“You telling me you’ve known every time we’ve thought we were going to die, you knew we weren’t?”
Ash frowned and looked away. “No.”
“So you can’t know for sure. All we’re certain of is that he still wants that fucking cryptex. Right?” River spread the map against the table. “Your ma’s second trove—where is it? Here?” He tapped at the location Blake had marked.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You lived with that psychopath for?—”
“She never revealed it.”
“But she never kept forbidden items at the place we found you, right?”
“I only know I saw her leave with a full satchel and arrive with it empty.”
River traced a line across the map, finger following contours Blake had carefully reproduced. “Surely you know if this is a second trove, the one where forbidden items are kept?”
“You tell me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Your bond. What direction did you sense her when it cut out?”
River swallowed hard. Sweat prickled his skin.
I should have said it. Should have told her every day since I saw her stabbing dick-face into a pulp.
“She’s alive. Right?” The question came out broken.
“Focus.” Ash pointed at the map, at the second location. “Did she write the word fake, or is that what you saw on the wall in Cloud’s trove?”
