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Not now not now not now.

The library fades from view entirely as I’m sucked into a glimpse of the future.

“The book isn’t here,” Quill snarls quietly. “This has been an absolute waste of time. Riven is toying with me as alw⁠—”

A sharp whistle as a bolt of silver is loosed, finding its mark with unquestionable accuracy—the dead center of his heart. Blood drips from the corners of his mouth as he clutches his chest and falls to his knees in one horrifying, bone-shuddering thud.

“You really shouldn’t have come back here, you ungrateful bitch.”

The premonition vanishes, and all I’m left with is ice-cold fear. It sloshes through me like venom as I race down and down and down into the depths of the library. Faster and faster to where Quill is searching the restricted area.

Quill, I need you to come to me right now.

What if I’m too late? What if⁠—

Quill rounds the corner of one of the stacks, colliding into me, and nearly knocks me off balance. His hands wrap firmly around my arms, steadying me.

“The book isn’t here,” he snarls quietly, and dread pimples my skin in phantom gooseflesh. “This has been an absolute waste of time. Riven is toying with me as alw⁠—”

I shove him just as the whistle of the bolt whizzes by. It lodges in his shoulder.

A howl of pain. A sinister laugh.

Vivvy steps from the darkness and into the limited witchlight, notching another bolt. Her once golden hair is loose around her shoulders, brittle and ashen as if time has been stolen from her. Moon cursed, Cress called her. Did my surviving the Embrace do this to her? Sap her youth and beauty as punishment for my immortality?

“You really shouldn’t have come back here, you ungrateful bitch.”

She fires. At me.

I’m barely able to react before I’m knocked to the side.

The second bolt pierces Quill’s pectoral. He reaches for the bolts and tears them from his flesh one-by-one, letting the silver burn his hands as he does. They fall to the floor with a savage clink.

Poison pours from his wounds. He needs my blood to heal.

My eyes meet his, and he shakes his head. Not here. Not in front of her.

I whirl toward the her in question, fangs lengthening as I block Quill’s body with my own.

“You took everything from me.” Her gaze flicks to where Quill looms behind me. “I intend to do the same to you. Starting with butchering your paramour.”

She withdraws her sword and palms a silver stake.

“How did you know we were here?” I ask, inching us backward into the endless dark.

I need to buy myself time to think.

She’s blocking the only way up and out of the bowels of the library. But there must be another way out. A basement door, perhaps? A tunnel in case of a fire?

“You’ve made some very powerful enemies as a bloodwhore,” she spits, twirling her sword as if it’s a lock of hair. “And one of those enemies feeds me information as soon as he has it.”

Footsteps thunder above. At least a dozen booted feet are rushing down the stairs.

Think, think, think.

She’s close enough now that I can see a bite mark on her neck. Another on her wrist.

Right as she lifts her blade to swing, I grab Quill’s hand and flee into the waiting darkness behind us.