Page 81 of The Shadow Sanctum

“How did you⁠—”

His hand snaps up as he jerks his fiery eyes to me. A flash of annoyance cracks as hard as a whip. “Can you just…” He gestures to the screen. “Help me. Please. Before I’m responsible for murdering a dozen children?”

Closing my mouth, I stride behind the desk to join him and lean down to the computer. I stare at the screen, locked behind a single password field.

“Move,” I mutter, pushing Angel gently aside. He pops from the chair and hovers by the desk while I sit down and pull the computer closer.

“Have you checked the desk? It could be written⁠—”

“Of course I checked the fucking desk,” Angel snaps, though he’s more anxious than agitated. I don’t respond other than to start typing things as recklessly as Angel had.

“I already checked the obvious,” he says. “The Shadow Sanctum, Shadow Sanctum, Aurelius, I have no fucking idea where to go from there.”

My fingers pause over the keyboard. I close my eyes.

It could be something completely random… A mix of numbers and letters, a date I could never guess, some phrase I’d never know.

I think of Zephyr. Of the nonsense she used to spit.

AllIsAsItsSupposedToBe.

AIAISTB.

TenebraeVincunt (the shadows conquer).

I type four more before pausing yet again. It’s too obvious how ill-fitting that line of thinking would be for Aurelius.

He’s a sociopath who uses bullshit to control people. The Shadow Sanctum is his empire, not his soul.

I would never have made Paradise Island my password.

What does Aurelius truly care about? Besides money.

I peer around the room and land on the record player. “Go see what record is on the turntable.”

Without a moment of questioning, Angel strides to the records, his mind syncing with mine. He picks through the records until he finds the empty case and calls it out. “Sinatra.”

I type it in. Wrong.

MyWay

FlyMeToTheMoon

LuckBeALady

TheBestIsYetToCome

NewYorkNewYork

“Next.”

We go through the records one by one, starting with the most worn record casings first.

After a few minutes, it’s obvious we’re wasting time.

“Books.” I never look up from typing. It’s lucky there’s no password limit.

Persephone.