Page 17 of Fortress of Ambrose
He grabbed the journal and sat beside her on the bed, flipping through the scorched pages. “What weird thing did he say at the shop?”
“I was just thinking about it.” She rolled onto her side to face him, her fingers lost in the edges of her red hair. Her skin looked so soft. The room was a little warm, and the walk was long, so her cheeks were flushed. She had the biggest eyes, a shade of gray that reminded him of fog-huggedmountains. There was a dark depth to them. When he realized he’d leaned toward her, he shifted to put more distance between them and tried to focus on the words she was saying.
“Dublin said he’d looked for the Scroll and learned about theplaceswhere it’s hidden,” she said. “He spoke of places as if there was more than one.”
“Right, the half you and your brother have.”
“He wasn’t talking about our House. He lived there while he studied. This seemed like multiple places that he traveledto…” She folded her legs up against her.
“He did say something weird when I tried to make a deal with him.” Yagrin hadn’t thought much of it then, but itwasodd how he’d mentioned multiple Houses.
“Eachof the Houses, right? I thought it was weird, too.” She grabbed the book, looking at the sketches again, and he stared, not at the pages, but at her. It was a shame that her position would corrupt her eventually, if she wasn’t already fully corrupted.
“No way!” She shot up and flipped through the journal, stopping three times to skim a page.
“What?”
“When Caera Ambrose discovered immortality, her greatest fear was that someone would discover it.”
“And?”
“Do you think the Uppers justlether keep a secret to something so powerful?”
His heart hiccupped. “No, they’d want to keep it as secret as possible.”
“Exactly. They’d want it protected. Hard to find. And with checks and balances in place.”
Yagrin could feel her brain buzzing. She showed him the page in Dublin’s journal just before the scorched ones. Travel notes from his Scroll search.
“He noted the unseasonably warm weather in a cliffside palace built offlowers,” she explained. “It doesn’t say where it was, but there’s only one place described as a palace of flowers.”
Yagrin’s heart thudded with knowing.
“Begonia Terrace,” they said at the same time.
“Next, his notes mention monstrous mosquitos beside a curious garden, where he attended a tea party,” she went on. “What garden could be more curious than one with black roses?”
Chateau Soleil.Yagrin pulled the journal toward him and read on. Dublin also noted an oily stench that pervaded the third and final place he visited that summer. It was the first place he’d seen a chandelier made of bone. House of Perl.
“The Scroll is not in two pieces.” Her grin was wide. “It’s in multiple pieces, one in each House.”
Goose bumps ran up his arms. He looked at the journal again.
“What other reason would Dublin, who’s seen all the Order has to offer and these great wonders in the world, visit each of the four Housesduringthe time when he was searching for the Scroll?”
“You’re right.” Ellery and Nore shared the Ambrose piece. There was a piece at House of Marionne, Oralia, and…He felt sick at the thought of going back to Hartsboro. “We should start with House of Marionne. It’s safest, since Quell is Headmistress now.”
“Is she there?”
“Last I heard, she went to try to find my brother. But regardless, with her mother dead, she is technically in charge. We should be safely received.” This plan could actually work.
She hugged the journal, still smiling. She was damn clever.
“Your brain must weigh a thousand pounds,” he said.
She guffawed. It felt odd and nice both at the same time. Until her smile melted to dread as she gaped at the window.
“They’re back,” she muttered at darker, thicker storm clouds forming outside. “We have to go.Now!”
