Page 117 of Shardless

That library held someverygood memories for him now.

“I got held up,” Skye finally said when Kato started tapping his toe impatiently. “Now what was it that was so important I had to push back my meeting with Sorin?”

Stiff-backed and tense, Kato checked the door, his hands pressing into the gnarled wood as he activated the wards that protected the room from othershadow senses, as Taly liked to call them. “I thought it was only right to tell you first, before… well.” Kato sighed as he trudged back across the room, coming to a stop in front of the desk where he shifted restlessly. “It’s about Taly.”

“What did you do?” Skye growled, his voice low as he recalled the troubled look in Taly’s eyes. HeknewKato had done something to upset her.

“What?” Kato exclaimed. “I didn’t do anything.” He held up a hand before Skye could reply. “Just listen. This isn’t easy for me either. I… I know I always gave you shit about her because she was a mortal, but I can see now why you like her so much. She’s easy to like. But… damn it, there’s no easy way to say this. She’s part of it, Skye. Taly’s a part of this—the attacks, the crystals in the gate. She’s not who you think she is. She’s a traitor.”

Placing both hands on the desk, Skye glared at Kato through narrowed eyes, just barely suppressing the urge to bare his teeth. “Kato, you are on very dangerous ground right now.”

“Think about it!” Kato pounded his fists on the desktop. “None of this started happening until she got here.”

“If that’s your only proof, then I’m just as culpable,” Skye countered, crossing his arms as he turned to look out the window. “And so are half the people down in that courtyard.”

“It’s not,” Kato whispered sadly. “I wish it was. Believe me, I do. But it’s not. There’s magic on her—layer upon layer of enchantments.”

Skye forcibly pushed down the bile that burned his throat. It was a trick. If there were magic on her, he would’ve noticed. “And how exactly would you know that?” was all he said in reply.

Kato ducked his head, a sweep of auburn hair falling across his eyes. “This morning in the library, my magic sparked when I touched her. I thought I was just tired at the time, but somethingdidn’t feel right. So when I took her downstairs after the meeting, I did a little more prodding and… I’ve never seen anything like it. Just on the surface, she’sdrenchedin water magic. The subtlety, the grace, the detail... I’ve never seen a water glamour like that, Skye. I almost gave up, thinking that I was wrong, but then I found a tear in the spell. I was able to weave my way through the overlay.”

Skye swallowed convulsively.No, he thought, shaking his head. Kato was lying. He had to be.

“And underneath?” Kato continued, either unaware or uncaring of Skye’s inner turmoil. “Shadow magic—a… a web of shadow magic. I didn’t have much time, so I wasn’t able to get a good look at it all. I saw a few aether suppression spells, memory alteration…” Kato’s voice trailed off. “I’m sorry, brother,” he said with genuine sympathy, “but I think it’s safe to say that she was involved with the incident at the Seren Gate.”

“Even if what you said was true,” Skye choked out, “I was with her all last night. There’s no way she could have had anything to do with the crystals going missing from the Seren Gate."

“You never went to sleep?” Kato pressed. “Never left her alone, even for a few moments?”

Skye pretended to study something off in the distance. They had parted ways, he realized, dread snaking its way around his heart. He and Taly. After the attack, after she had found him in the courtyard—he had sent her upstairs to clean up while he saw to his duties. And then later that night, after they had fallen asleep, he hadn’t woken up to her soft crying until well after the guards reported being knocked out.

No!his mind howled. It was impossible. Thisattack had taken an inordinate amount of planning and coordination. There would’ve been some sign, some clue before today that Taly had been working with them. As it was, she had been with someone almost every moment of every day since the harpy. If not him, then Sarina or Ivain or Aiden. Even Aimee had come up and played a few hands of cards when everyone else had been busy. And the few rare moments that she had been alone—when Sarina had been out of the house, and he had been chained to his desk—he had heard her at the piano, practicing scales, playing her favorite pieces, or just picking out a tune that she had been humming to herself since she was a child. There wasn’t a single second in the days leading up to the attacks that he couldn’t account for.

Except for that night in Della. Skye’s stomach sank. They had parted ways on the eve of the first attack when he’d so stupidly thought that sleeping with Adalet would somehow slake his growing thirst for the girl he’d known since he was ten—his friend. His match. Taly would’ve had more than enough time to send a message on the scrying relay while he had been sitting at the bar, desperately trying to figure out how to weasel his way back into her good graces.

And if Kato had sensed magic clinging to her… “Say nothing of this to anyone until I have a chance to talk to her,” Skye finally said, a dark, gaping hole opening up in his chest.

Kato raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I may have overplayed my hand earlier—tipped her off. I think we need to move on this as—”

“No!” Skye snarled. Kato gaped at him,stunned. Taking a deep breath, swallowing back his anger and fear, his voice was remarkably steady when he said, “I will not allow you to start a witch hunt until I can verify your claims. There are perhaps… other elements at work here.” Like memory alteration, compulsion, or any of a hundred other ways someone could’ve forced their will on her. “Factors that we haven’t considered. Let me speak to her.”

Kato looked like he wanted to argue, but thinking better of it, he stepped to the side in reluctant surrender. “I’ll wait here.”

Skye nodded shakily, ignoring the pitying look he could feel boring into his back as he quickly exited the office. He counted his breaths as he marched across the courtyard. The rain had tapered off to a fine drizzle, but he was oblivious to the mist that clung to his skin and the mud that sloshed beneath his boots.

Too soon, he found himself standing in front of the door to their shared room. For the second time that day, he stared at the carved surface, and his heart pounded out a deafening rhythm in his ears. This time, however, the pulsating beat threatening to tear a hole in his chest was for an entirely different reason. Dread—thick and oily and all-consuming—clawed its way into his body, constricting his throat and making his stomach churn.

Please, he pleaded with whoever might be listening,not her.Let it be a lie. Let this be just one more of Kato’s tricks.Like the time his brother had dumped him out at the northern edge of their family’s territory during the dead of winter, luring him out there with the promise of teaching him how to hunt. Only five years old, and Skye hadalmost lost a toe to frostbite.

Before he could empty the contents of his stomach across the carpet, Skye forcefully shoved open the door, the thick slab of wood creaking on its hinges as it slammed against the wall.

One step, then another, through the antechamber and then Skye stood in the middle of the main room. Alone. Taly’s pack was gone. Her weapons, which had been strewn across the entryway table the last time he entered, were gone. Her maps, the clothes she had hung to dry in the closet, her journal that he had previously spied on the foot of the bed—all gone.

She was gone.

“No,” he whispered.

In a flurry of movement, Skye tore through the room, searching for any sign that his eyes might be lying to him. He ripped the blankets off the bed, his panicked mind thinking that she could be hiding there, and the door to the washroom groaned as he flung it open. His eyes took in the white marble walls and gilded furnishings, but it was empty. Her side of the sink had been wiped clean.

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