Page 192 of Wings of Sacrifice
“No—”
He pressed a finger to my lips.
“I’m coming. Sam cleared me an hour ago, and I’d love to see Lucy rip your ass a new one. It’d brighten my day.”
I swatted his hand away.
“Weren’t you just against her going?”
“Yes. Doesn’t mean our stubborn girl isn’t going to give you hell. And I’m not missing the show. My muscles have healed. Sam surgically and magically restored ten out of twenty percent of my ligaments. Five percent is unhealable, and the other five may be restored over months of magical intervention and reconstruction, eventually determining my flying ability. For now, I’m flightless and in need of a good distraction.”
He would use his sob story against me.
“You’re still working on this afterward.”
“Yes, General,” Alexei mocked.
“Should I have someone move all these books to your room?”
Alexei looked taken aback.
“Are you kidding me? No. There are some hot assistant healers here that love to dote on the injured warrior. I’m going to milk that as long as I can.”
Why did I even ask?
“Did you tell them you jack off to your magazines nightly?”
“No. But I did offer to buy one of them a costume.”
“Yeah? What’d?—”
Lucille’s fear ripped the rest of my words from my throat.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Lucille
Isat on the settee in my sitting room, running the end of the quill across my lips as I homed in on my notes. Early morning moonlight streaked across the numerous papers, sharing space with the crackling firelight. They spotlighted my mocking words, taunting me with answers I didn’t have.
Harsh circles marked Tsal-mawet four times in my descriptions of the doors’ images. Two from before I rescued Aspen and two after. It was safe to assume Tsal-mawet would be needed to open the gates, just like I had needed it to open Portal Lake. Good thing I knew where it was… Unfortunately, I had no idea how I’d steal it from Cato’s office.
That led me to obsess over the rune on my father’s neck. Cato had my information. But based on how he reacted to finding me in his dream, he wasn’t going to tell me. There was only one way I could figure out what he was hiding. Only one way I could steal Tsal-mawet.
I slumped back into the floral cushions. If only I could just get to the last damned chapter in Cato’s book. I pulled the leather-bound annoyance onto my lap, tugging at the final page of the Inviso Chapter. The pages vibrated, and I jerked my hand back before they burned me.
Cato knew what I wanted from that last chapter. The only way I’d ever figure out how to use Praetervado was with the information the cloaked female had. But then I’d have to try dream-walking to Miriam for the fourth time without failing.
I was starting to think I needed something more personal, something from Aspen instead of the list the female had given me.
Thinking about the cloaked female haunting my thoughts reminded me of another in maroon. On a hunch, I wrote down the dream-walk I had to my mother and the one to Melanie, listing everything I could remember. Then I placed it beside my other notes.
“Anastasia,” I said as I wrote down Lilith’s name for her.
Something itched at my mind, insistent in its intensity.
“Anastasia,” I repeated slowly, drilling holes into my notes.
