Page 94 of The City of Stardust

Aleksander turns at the same time she does, and they lock eyes for an endless, terrifying moment.

Don’t you feel sorry for him?Ambrose had asked.

“Don’t,” he says. “Please.”

“You don’t owe me an explanation,” she says quickly.

After a fraction of a second, he pulls on Ambrose’s shirt, as though nothing happened. But she can’t unsee the angry red scars crossing the width of his back, shoulder blade to shoulder blade, like lightning strikes. She thinks about the way he cringes at small, dark spaces. The knowledge makes her feel sick.

She’s still furious with him. But suddenly it’s so much harder to hold on to that white-hot rage, and burn with its purity.

“We’d better go,” he says lightly. “Your uncles will be waiting.”

This time Aleksander doesn’t offer his arm to her, though he tenses every time she stumbles over her own feet. At the bottom of the landing, she massages her left ankle, wincing as something crunches in itssocket. It’s just a sprain, she’s certain, even though every part of her aches.

“We were about to send a rescue party,” Ambrose says, when they return to the kitchen.

Violet can’t look at Aleksander. “We’re going. I know you don’t like it, and I’m sorry.”

But it won’t stop her.

“What if you get separated?” Ambrose asks. He tries to rise from his chair. “We’ll come with you.”

Gabriel watches his brother struggle for a second before he slumps back into the chair. “You’re in no bloody position to go anywhere.” He turns to Violet. “I would come with you, but…”

“No,” Violet says.

She won’t put her uncles in more danger. The sight of Ambrose on the floor, the split second where he hadn’t risen… There’s no amount of strength that could overcome that awful image.

“Take my key, then,” Gabriel says.

He unloops a silver chain from his neck and hands it to Violet. A key dangles on the other end, its stem twisted and engraved with a whimsical ivy pattern. It weighs heavily on her palm. For years, she’s wanted to travel between worlds. Has imagined in vivid detail what it would be like to finally possess one of the keys that would let her do that. Her daydreams told her it would feel like a victory lap, like holding a galaxy in her hands.

All she sees are the scars on Aleksander’s back, Penelope’s wings exploding into smoke and flame.

“We won’t be able to follow you without it,” Gabriel warns. “If anything happens to you—”

She cuts him off. “Then I’ll deal with it.”

She doesn’t say that nothing will happen to her, or that she’ll be fine. She won’t lie to them, not now.

“Christ Almighty, kiddo. You don’t take the easy route, do you?” he says, sounding both exasperated and proud at once.

He pulls her into a bone-cracking hug that leaves her feeling slightly dizzy. Then it’s Ambrose’s turn. He embraces her tightly,smelling faintly of candle wax and old books, like he always does. Like home.

“Be careful, Vi,” he murmurs. “Remember where his loyalties lie.”

It takes Violet a beat to realise he’s talking about Aleksander. But then Ambrose is releasing her, squeezing her arm just once before letting go. Gabriel folds his arms.

Aleksander finally meets her eye. “Are you ready?”

Violet has never been more ready for anything in her whole life.

She’s not ready for this at all.

Aleksander loops his arm around hers, and pulls the key from around his neck. He slots it into the kitchen door—the one Violet’s walked through most days of her life—and she feels the change in the pressure around them. Ice crackles along the edge of the doorway. Golden sparkles dance in the air. She closes her eyes, as an unfamiliar wave of air ripples over them. Her stomach dives in free fall.

Snow, mountains, sky.

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