Page 102 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

Rynn sighed but reached up and slipped her slender hand between the bookcase and the ceiling. I held my breath as she pursed her lips while searching the tight space. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she slowly pulled her hand back, revealing a slender, gold crown.

“I’m so happy you shoved that asshole into the bookcase, Rynn.” I stared at the glittering Fae artifact with a mixture of relief and awe.

Rynn let out an amused snort and glanced down at Ryker. “I guess violence really is the answer sometimes.”

Bastian laughed and bumped his shoulder against Ryker’s, who was still staring daggers at Rynn as Cade lowered her to the ground.

All of us gathered around and looked at the simple yetelegantly crafted crown. Despite sitting up on that shelf for probably decades if not centuries, it still gleamed in the light with absolute perfection. Most of it was comprised of three gold bands woven together, and occasionally an ornate gold leaf would flow out from one of them, looking so dainty that I was worried Rynn would accidentally snap it off, but when her fingers carefully swept over one of them, it seemed clear it wasn’t so easy to break.

“I can feel the magic,” she murmured, flipping the crown around as she studied the inside. “But I don’t see any glyphs anywhere, so I have no idea how it works.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “We need to destroy it.”

Rynn pursed her lips. “I know but . . .”

I shook my head. Rynn didn’t like mysteries. While I could appreciate that from an academic standpoint, even if this half of the crown was the lesser of two evils, it still couldn’t be allowed to exist, especially considering the Moroi Queen had the other half, and nothing good would come from them being reunited.

“Sorry, Rynn.” I waved at the rest of the room. “You’ll just have to settle for the greatest find in probably all of Lunarian history.”

She grinned sheepishly. “Fair enough.”

“The question is, how do we destroy it?” Vail looked at Cade. “Melt it down?”

“We could try.” The large Velesian grimaced. “Something tells me it won’t be that easy.”

“Even if we are able to melt it . . .” Rynn pondered the crown, running her fingers along the inside. “We don’t know exactly how the magic works. Usually there is a glyph, but in this case, I think the entire crown is spelled. I don’t know if melting it down would destroy the spell or just change the shape of the crown.”

Vail held his hand out, and Rynn passed the crown to him,then we all watched as he tried to snap it. Muscles bulged along his forearms, but the crown didn’t so much as crack. He passed it to Cade, who also had no luck.

“I think melting it will be the only chance we have of breaking it apart,” Vail said. “We could melt it and separate it into a few different pieces while it’s in liquid form, then scatter those chunks afterwards.”

“Dump some into the ocean and bury others,” Cade suggested.

“If the spell persists in the gold even after it’s melted though, will splitting it apart weaken or destroy it?” I grimaced. “Or will each piece retain the full functionality of the spell?”

“We might have to use the crown to test it.” Rynn sighed. “And then again after we split it up.”

Everyone tensed at the suggestion. Sure, we used the remnants of Fae magic regularly. Our wards were reactivated Fae spells and the glyphs that we used around our fortresses were all repurposed Fae magic, but something about this crown felt different. Everything else we used was for defense or making our lives easier.

The soul crown was made to see into the souls of others and control them. It was made to doharm.

“Maybe we can find an answer in here?” I looked around at the wealth of knowledge surrounding us. “In the meantime, we need to keep the crown hidden and safe.”

“We could leave it here?” Bastian suggested. “Nobody else knows about this place, and the spell keeps it secure. Thousands of Velesians have walked past it, and none of them detected the spell the way you did.”

“How did you do that, by the way?” Ryker asked, eying me suspiciously.

“I don’t know.” I thought back to how it had felt when the spell had skittered across my skin. “Something about the glyph,the salvation one, called to me. I didn’t feel anything else while going through the passage or in here.”

Rynn hummed, and my lips twitched in amusement, knowing I’d just given her another mystery to solve.

“I think you should take it, Rynn,” I said seriously. She jerked slightly as my declaration and looked at me wide-eyed. I held the crown out to her. “This place has remained hidden for a long time, but there is a chance that someone followed us here or will detect our scents above. Velika likely has spies everywhere, and we don’t know if the wraiths avoid this area because they don’t like it or because they can’t come here. Until we know for sure, I’d be more comfortable with you keeping the crown on you at all times.”

“Alright.” She looked at the crown and then down at the shirt she was wearing before walking over to one of the shelves on the wall and grabbing a leather satchel. She carefully emptied the contents and then strode back over to Cade with her hand held out. He passed her the crown and Rynn dropped it into the bag.

Vail averted his eyes as she raised the shirt, flashing her goods at all of us, and wrapped the bands attached to the satchel around her waist. I’d seen Rynn naked more times than I could count, so it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

An annoyed sound slipped from Rynn as she tried to hold the shirt up while also tying the bands together.

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