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“And why…?”
“Because they didn’t want him to know the Sceptre was still here right under his nose.” I wave my hand in the air. “It is a crude plot. He’s on the verge of figuring it out. So, pretty soon, the creature that stole the Sceptre will be dead and then my leads will dry up.” I lean forward again and tap the counter. “Which is why I need you, Yuri, to tell me where our double-crossing bidder is hiding.”
“Because the auction only works if the bidder really has the item they’re bidding. So they could fake their identity but not the fact they had The Covenant…” Yuri mumbles to himself. Putting the pieces together.
“Correct!” I clap my hands. “You got it.”
Yuri inhales deeply. He seems relieved. “All right,” he says. “You tell me who they are. I’ll tell you what I know about them. If I know about them.”
“Solaris demon.” I shrug. “Don’t know their name. But there can’t be too many hanging around Cambridge. They’re a rather rare breed these days.”
“Solaris?” Yuri clicks his tongue, then his lips break into a smile and he chuckles. He shakes his head, leans forward, and braces his hands on his thighs. “Well, well, well. You won’t believe your luck Mr…?”
“Call me Nix.”
“Mr. Nix.”
I wait for him to continue.
“A Solaris has been paying me to keep some crates in the basement. Came in here a few weeks ago. Paid me enough to persuade me not to ask questions, said it’d be back for it.”
“And you haven’t felt curious enough to take a peek?”
Yuri laughs again and combs his fingers through his thinning grey hair. “Hah. No chance. I locked the basement door and I haven’t been down since.”
“Why not?”
He clears his throat and suddenly looks a lot less jovial. “Because at night,” he says, “it hums.”
After explaining that the Solaris demon will be dead as soon as my brother finds out he has his Sceptre, I buy the contents of the basement from Yuri for a fair price. More than fair; enough that he can retire early if he chooses to.
Yes, I could have killed him and taken it. But he is the sort of man who can be useful and I might need him again.
Yuri takes his money and leaves me to it.
The basement is small and cold. I stand at the foot of the steps and breathe in the smell of damp and dust… and Solaris. They have a very distinctive smell. And it is not a pleasant one.
I scan the stacks of boxes. In the farthest corner, around a box with no labels, the shadows are different.
They are leaning, and shadows do not lean.
I rip open the box and pull out three layers of crap before I find it. Buried beneath them as though it is nothing more than a second-hand copy of Robinson Crusoe.
The lack of respect turns my stomach, and I hear Darius’s voice in my ears. Take care of it. You know its worth. You deserve to hold it. To care for it. You are its custodian now. It has always been meant for you, Nix.
The Covenant of Shadows is not beautiful. Which surprises me. The cover is black. No title. But when I put my hands on it, every shadow in the cellar shivers.
12
Lucien
ENGLAND, 1899
By the time I reach the house, it has already begun. Nix is on his knees on the flagstones of the great hall. Darius stands over him.
“Lucien.” Darius doesn’t turn around. “Good. You need to see this.”
Nix lifts his head. There is blood on his face, and his arm is bent in a way arms should not bend, but what unsettles me most is his expression. He looks at Darius the way saints look upward in old paintings.
