Page 95 of Merciless Is My Crown

“How accurate would a copy be?”

“How accurate is a story told over and over again?” She shrugged. “Depends how many times it’s told and by whom.”

“Fair enough.” I picked up my pen again. “Let me ask you a question. If I knew someone who could translate this, but finding them would be impossibly dangerous, would it be worth the risk?”

“If these markings represent the Old Gods, and these notes are not only a guide to their abilities but a list of their weaknesses?” She nodded slowly, chewing her lip with a far-off look in her eyes.

“I would search for that person to the ends of the earth.”

I bowed my head and kept writing. Not knowing if I was copying down absolute gibberish or the key to our survival.

Or our destruction.

Because if these pages held the secret to killing Gelvira and Corvus, they also held the means to our own demises. And once this writing was deciphered, we’d be as vulnerable as the twins.

By the time the ink had dried sufficiently for me to jam both pages into my coat, it was almost dawn. Bella and I found Dane, Raz, and Zor on a rampage, ready to throw every single witch in prison for killing us and hiding the bodies.

“Really, Anaria?” Dane snapped. “The fucking library?”

“We woke up alone and thought you’d been kidnapped. Or worse.” Zorander looked relieved, but also like he was about to throttle me. “I’ll tell the others you’re alive. That you’ve been researching this whole time.”

“You were asleep,” I called out after him. “And to be fair, I didn’t think it would take me the whole damn night to find what I was looking for.” Raz prowled up to me, shoved my hair behind my ear, and gave me a long, fierce kiss that clearly said, don’t ever do that to me again, and that was the end of that.

I showed Raziel what I’d found, explaining all the reasons that, even though we had weather and time on our side, our plans had to change.

And maybe I was the least experienced out of the group. Maybe I didn’t have a century of battles and fighting under my belt, but freeing Cosimo was the logical next step.

“Cosimo is the answer. He can decipher these notes and tell us what the symbols mean. And he’s trapped, Raz. He’s imprisoned by the Oracle, and we can free him.”

“We don’t even know where the pendant is, Anaria.” Raz’s patient, calm tone had me grinding my teeth. “However, we do know where the king is. We can’t call everything off just because you have a feeling.”

All of a sudden I was vibrating with anger at his words, at the condescension, even though they were said gently and without judgment. The fact they were said at all was what grated on me.

“Why won’t you listen to me? I’ve been right about a lot of things so far, Raz, by going with my gut.” I ground out every word. “I’m not saying we don’t go after the king; I’m saying we need that pendant first.”

“I am listening. It’s only that…” Regret bloomed in his dark eyes, then he dragged his knuckles down over my face. “We can’t risk all our lives on a gut feeling, Anaria. We just can’t. I’m sorry.”

Then Raz took the paper, folded it twice, and tucked the information into the pocket over his heart.

37

ANARIA

By noon the horses were ready. Our plans were set in stone according to everyone but me.

Because I wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Once, I might have settled, remained agreeable just so no feathers got ruffled.

But not now.

This morning I was ready to ruffle away.

I’d gone over everything a thousand times, picked through my feelings, dissected this underlying sense that fate was pushing us in this direction, and decided…

All I had to do was convince these pigheaded males to see things the same way I did.

I sidled closer to Dane. “If we had to go north”—I kept my tone casual—“how bad are those mountain passes right now, do you think?”

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