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ANGELTHENE, STATE OF WITHEREDGE
“It’s the Scarlet Star,” Travis said.
“It’s a sun,” Malakai replied, as though he were stupid.
“It’s. The. Scarlet. Star.” It was obvious—the engraved face with eight rays. The shape had been carved into the wall behind a bookcase in the library of Angelthene Academy.
Their group was crowded, shoulder to shoulder, around that bookcase. Logan was here too, towering behind Sabrine, the wolf so tall it was hard for even Travis to see around his massive fucking head. Max, Malakai, Jewels, and Dallas made up the rest of their group, and Dominic, Blue, and Lace were keeping watch in the corridors so the security guards who were making their rounds wouldn’t catch them.
Malakai bared his teeth. “It’s. A. Sun.”
“They’re the same bloody thing,” Travis growled.
“Ah.” Malakai gave him an idiotic grin, canines glinting in the flickering lantern light. “So you’re saying I’m right.”
“I’m saying you’re a dumbass.”
Dallas stepped forth, wedging herself between them, elbows knocking them each in the gut. “Alright. Time out. We don’t need two brawls in a single night.”
Malakai said, “I usually prefer multiple.”
Maximus cut in. “You brought us all the way here for…an engraving?” He didn’t say it rudely; he said it with question. They’d all learned that if Sabrine had something to say, it was usually important.
“It’s not just an engraving, Maximus,” Dallas said. “This is the same symbol that’s in the Old Hall.” She turned to Sabrine. “The same one Loren wears on her necklace. Right?”
“Right,” Sabrine said. “I was studying, and when I went to grab some potion books, I found a book shelved in the wrong section—a history book in the potions section, can you imagine?” She shuddered, and Travis smirked. “Had it not been there, I never would’ve spotted it, so we owe a massive thanks to the lazy fool who put it there.” She patted the book bag that was slung across her shoulder; it was stuffed so full, books were bulging through the fabric. “I also have my preference for organization to thank for that.”
“She’s a neat freak,” Logan said. “My house has never looked so clean.”
“But what is it?” Malakai asked again, the idiot. “The sun—what is it?”
“Scarlet. Star!” Travis barked. Dallas and Sabrine shushed him.
Malakai continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “So Loren wears this around her neck. So what?”
Dallas sighed. “I keep forgetting some of you are new here. Loren’s had this necklace since my dad adopted her at the Temple of the Scarlet Star. It’s a key, but it was also enchanted with a wish her dad bought from Tempus.”
“And,” Sabrine added, “that wish is what saved all of us on Kalendae.”
“When the city blew up?” Malakai asked. The Reapers had been filled in on everything that’d happened that day, Darien choosing to trust them after they’d fought at their side during the Blood Moon—and after Malakai had helped resuscitate Loren. Travis supposed it was the one good thing the Reaper had done.
But he still wasn’t sure trusting Malakai was a good idea. Arguing with Darien about it was out of the question, though. Darien, he trusted. Even if he didn’t always agree with his decisions.
Jewels squeezed between the group, the chains on her black skinny jeans jingling. She ducked down, reaching between the fourth and fifth shelves from the bottom, and traced the shape of the Scarlet Star with her index finger. “Yeah, that’s definitely a keyhole. I can feel the little ridges on the inside.”
Travis bent his knees and dipped his head, peering past Jewels to see between the shelves. It was so small, and so heavily shadowed by the bookcases, it was crazy Sabrine had spotted it at all. “How are we supposed to get in there without Loren’s necklace?” he said.
Sabrine piped up. “I have an idea. Erasmus obviously left that symbol in the Old Hall on purpose, right?”
The group echoed her with a “Right,” though a few of them sounded lost, Travis included.
“And,” she continued, “he gave her that key—the necklace—on purpose. Not just for a wish, but so that she would have a way to find the things he’d hidden—the things that would explain where she came from and what the Phoenix Head Society did. Such as the scroll.”
She was met with several confused stares.
“The Master Scroll?” she prompted with wide eyes. “The Dominus Volumen?” She clapped her hands. “Come on, keep up.”
Travis said, “Okay, so what are you getting at?”
