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I knelt down next to Fina, watching her work as she picked the lock. Fina shot me a sideways glance, almost apologetic, but I just briefly shook my head. She was right—Adora was surely the frontrunner. I knew Fina and I had a lot in common, but I wished I’d known earlier we had the same curiosity about the Fae here, too. I’d been so used to only having Griffin as a friend in Daybreak, but he wasn’t exactly interested in history the way I was. He’d listened politely when I uncovered an interesting bit of history or folklore when I’d come across it, but I couldn’t imagine him ever trying to pick a lock to see what Fae magic was behind a closed door. It was nice to have someone like Fina. How many friendships like this had I missed out on, locked up in Daybreak?
“Almost…” she muttered, adjusting the hairpins with her nose now right up against the lock. “There!” The lock clanked open loud enough that the sound echoed around the hallway and made Adora start. The door swung open of its own accord.
“Whoa.” Fina stood up and took a step back. Behind the door was a wall of darkness, as if the door opened into an abyss. It was so dark, it was like the light from the hallway hit a solid wall and couldn’t penetrate it.
Well, I’d already almost died once this week. Might as well keep the fun going. The Fae magic crackled around me. I grinned at Fina, ignored Adora’s protests, and stepped into the dark room.
As soon as I crossed the threshold, the magic raced over my skin like a curious, sparking touch. It made my hair stand on end, and my wolf alert and attentive internally. Not fear, just—intensity. Curiosity. Then, as I squinted into the inky darkness, torches lining the walls sparked to life.
Light flooded the room. I gasped, my eyes widening as I drank in the sight in front of me.
This wasn’t just a room. This was a vault.
It was a small room, low ceiling, with stone walls lined with shelves. Where there weren’t shelves, there were glass cases, lining the space like the books in the library. It was crowded, stuffed with items, and the whole room crackled with energy.
“Wow,” I murmured.
Fina and Adora stepped in behind me, both equally shocked. “What is all this?” Adora asked.
“Fae artifacts,” Fina said. “A lot of them.”
“These are all Fae?” I asked.
“I would assume so,” Fina said. “That’s why the energy is so strong. The magic has nowhere to go, it’s just bouncing between all these artifacts. I wonder where the owners are…”
“What do you mean, owners?” I asked. I walked to one of the cases near the back, which was full of fine jewelry.
“Well, my tutor used to tell me that each Fae had a special item they used to help channel their power from Faerie into our realm,” Fina said. She leaned so close to one of the wall shelves that her breath fogged the glass shielding an immense golden dagger. “If you separate a Fae from their channel, they’re a lot easier to kill.”
So why would all these items be here? If the Fae were gone, why were their artifacts beneath the Nightfall manor? And why did the magic still work? If the magic still worked… Did that mean the owner was still out there? Or was it just an echo? The questions rolled over in my mind.
“This is crazy,” Fina murmured. “I didn’t even know you could still find items like this. I wonder what the king plans to do with them.”
I peered at a small golden ring, resting on a white pillow under the glass case. It had a tiny gem inlaid in it, so small it was like a single drop of blood. My fingers itched with the desire to touch it. It was like the magic in the ring was calling to me, specifically. Briefly, crazily, I wondered if the glass case opened.
“What’s this?” Adora asked. She was leaning over a small table tucked against the opposite wall. This one was not shielded in glass. “A record?”
I straightened up. “Like a ledger?”
“I think so,” Adora said. “It looks old, too.”
With some effort I pulled my attention away from the delicate ring and hurried over to join Adora. The book on the table had a dark leather cover, with no title or wording on it. The front cover was blank, too—no title, no author, no date. The other pages included careful illustrations of each item in the room. Enchanted dagger. Armored brace. Ring of unknown power. Some had names next to them, too. No dates.
At the back of the ledger, there were maps drawn—maps like the ones I’d seen in Blaylock’s book, and in the library. Maps that showed the Efra shrinking over time. Under one of the later maps, a section of forest that was once neighborhoods was circled in dark ink, with a question scrawled next to it. Why no evidence?
It seemed like whoever had last used this ledger had the same questions I did. But it offered no answers—nor even a hint to who had written the question.
“I haven’t seen a book bound in this style in a long time,” Adora said. “This is an old ledger.”
I nodded in agreement. “I wonder how old.”
Who brought these artifacts here? Was it Nightfall? Or—were these already here when Nightfall took power? I kept thumbing through the ledger as Fina peered at the artifacts. I was absorbed in the detailed drawings and maps as the questions folded over each other, leading only to more and more questions like ripples in a pond. I had no idea how much time had passed, until Adora finally cleared her throat.
“Um,” she said, “it’s been a little while now, and we do have an appointment with the tailor…”
“Oh, right!” I snapped the ledger closed.
Fina looked just as startled. “Right—shouldn’t be late.”
