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I maneuvered through the crowded space, careful toonlytouch that book and not the beige, questionable, possibly human skin cover beside it.

It was in English, something that shocked me, and the cover of it read,The Source.

“I think I’ve found it.” I held it up to show Ruben, the dust cascading off and making me cough.

Ruben made his way over and took the book from me. “This hasn’t been touched in at least thirty years, given the state. How could he have known it was here?”

“Maybe he saw it in a vision? He seems to be able to communicate through visions, so maybe he can like…astral project?”

“No. I am fairly certain he was here.”

Before I could ask Ruben why, he twisted the book to show a makeshift bookmark placed between two pages—a lollipop wrapper.

Yeah, that suggested he’d been here in person. I doubted few others would be able to—let alonewantto—sneak into a place like this and have themselves a piece of candy.

That was pure Knot behavior right there.

I opened the book to the section marked—to find nothing but a rather well drawn cartoon of a dog urinating on what had to be the crystal in the main council chambers.

Yep, that was him.

It made me feel a little better, though. I laughed.

“What is so funny?”

“If we’d opened this book—that hasn’t been touched in thirty years—and found exactly what we needed I would have been really concerned. That would have been like Knot could see into the future, that he knew what was going to happen. I don’t like the idea that he’sthatpowerful. I much prefer the idea that it was sheer chance that he could help, that he was breaking in and defacing precious ancient texts and had no idea it might prove useful later.”

Ruben ran his finger across the drawing. “He did it in ink. I don’t think this will ever come out. Do you have any idea how old this book is?”

“Well, I know that it’s been sitting in a dusty room for half a century—at least. I don’t think you’re all that worried about it. Now, can we just take it with us? I don’t really want to have to stay here to read it.”

“Normally we don’t allow the items here to be removed, but I can make an exception this time. It’s almost midnight—let’s get out of here.”

And that sounded like the first good plan he’d had.

* * * *

I flopped down on the large bed, suddenly feeling every year of my age all at once. My back ached as though each vertebra in it ground against the one on top and the one below. It made it painful to sit, to stand, to exist.

Which meant getting to stop here for the night—even if it was already two in the morning—sounded like a fan-fucking-tastic idea to me.

We’d gotten a room at a little motel along the way. It seemed to be a honeymoon destination, because all the rooms had weird themes.

Jungle. Forest. Roman. Circus.

I hadn’t cared if I had to sleep in a shoe, just so long as I could sleep.

They’d put us in Wild West, which meant the walls had cheesy western décor. A steer head above the bed—what said romance like a dead animal skull?—horseshoes everywhere, and wooden furniture that could have been out of the old prairie shows.

The only thing that made me think the room was actually perfect was the number of whips on the walls.

We could make use of those…

We got a single room, mostly because Ruben didn’t sleep much. Given that, he said a separate room was pointless, and he’d simply work while I slept. I had a feeling part of it was that he wanted to keep an eye on me, but really, what trouble could I get into?

A lot…

I went to stand, to go brush my teeth, when my calves seized up. I hissed in a sharp breath through my teeth at the cramping pain.