Page 104 of Architecti
“Shit,” Lex grabs Midnight and hauls her out of the way as the wraith’s hand bursts through the stitching.
“Use the flare,” I bark at Bastien.
“Pocket,” Bastien says, jumping in to pick up the threads Midnight dropped.
I yank the flare out and snap it, shoving it into the gap around the wraith’s hand.Light flashes, and an explosion makes the fabric bulge, shoving all four of us back against the parapet.
Lex slips.
Bastien and I grab her as she teeters on the edge.
“MORTEM,” Midnight bellows as my stopwatch chimes.
“We’re fucked now,” Bastien says, hauling Lex back away from the edge.Three wraiths materialise, their dark sinewy bodies creeping across the parapet, mouths hung low, teeth yellowed and far too sharp.The magic that binds them to the tower is looped around them in the form of golden collars and leashes and masks.But they do nothing to slow them down in the face of an attack.
The library door clicks and swings open.The four of us sprint across the balcony.The wraiths scream; a shrill sound like the shattering of glass and grinding gears.
I make it through, followed by Bastien and Midnight.But Lex halts in the door.Her eyes go wide; she blinks once.Twice.
And glances down at her shoulder, where a wraith finger has punctured right through.
Midnight grabs her, yanking her inside, pulling her off the wraith’s finger.I slam the door shut.Blood billows down her shoulder.
“This is not good,” Lex says as she slides down the door.“Go.I’ll just wait here, okay?”
“We’re not leaving you,” Midnight answers.
“You will or we did this for nothing.You’re going to have to come back for me, anyway.The wraiths know we’re here, and we can’t go out the same way we came in, which means cutting new holes in the Veil.I just need a minute.”
Her dark skin turns grey.
Mortem hops onto her torso and licks at the wound.And to my surprise, it stems the flow of blood.
“Delicious,” he says, “Just the dessert I need after cleaning my arse.”
Lex’s skin goes from grey to green, and I swear Mortem smirks as he resumes licking.
“Go, before I commit cat-icide,” Lex says.
33
Midnight
The Celestial Library is so bright inside it feels like a spring morning.Bastien, Lucy and I reluctantly leave Lex to rest with Mortem keeping an eye on her and using his odd ghost spittle to lessen the bleeding.We spread out, searching down aisles and racks of parchment and scrolls.
It smells a little musty and a layer of dust covers everything.Such a waste.There’s so much knowledge in here, I can’t bear the thought of it going unused, unexplored, unknown.My fingers trail the spines of several texts.They burn with the need to steal, to pilfer the knowledge buried within the pages and words trapped in this shining vault.
I have spent my life believing that fate is predetermined, that no matter what I do, I fucked up when I signed a contract.But walking these aisles, the number of Architect moths still fluttering inside here, despite four decades of entrapment, gives me hope.Hope that maybe there is a way out.If this library holds a way out of the prison Lucy’s father created for her, maybe there’s a way out of the one I created for myself.
Gods.
Hope is such an insidious emotion.I want to quash it.To shove it somewhere where it can’t threaten me.But this library is filled with possibility.What if a method for breaking my contract lies in here?
I lose Bastien and Lucy for a while, only to stumble upon them back in the central aisle.
“Any luck?”I ask.
They both shake their heads.
