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He’s doing this for me,I thought.Leading away the guard before they find me. Letting me know his blood has spilled.

“I know why you’re doing this.” Master Ostrum’s voice came from his office now, but was loud enough to carry down to me. “I’m being damned for my blood. But you’re fools. I’m the only person who could have helped you.”

Not theonlyperson.

“My daughter and my wife both died of the plague,” the master of the guard said. “And the Emperor says the plague isn’t natural, that it’s caused by someone like Wellebourne.”

“Still scared of the word?” Master Ostrum mocked.

A heavy cracking drowned out whatever else he was going to say as the guards slammed their fists into Master Ostrum’s body again and again.

•••

It was hard to tell how much time had passed. After Master Ostrum was carried away, some of the guards remained behind, shuffling papers, moving books, shaking out boxes. Their footsteps pounded over me. I strained my ears to listen for the big clock in the tower, wondering how long Ernesta had been alone in the quarantine hospital. Wondering if she was still alive.

Have faith in me,I prayed.I’m coming.I had all the ingredients now. I could make a necromancer’s crucible. I could become a necromancer. If a necromancer had created the plague, surely one could stop it. I would find a way.

I can save you.

•••

After the last guard left, I counted to a thousand. Then I counted a thousand more.

I climbed up the ladder, my bag strapped to my back. The floor panel crept open.

It was dark.

Debris and papers shifted as I slid the floor panel all the way open and crawled out. I readjusted it, then kicked some books with broken spines over the entry.Father would be so disappointed in my treatment of books lately,I thought. Then I remembered where my father was.

I moved to the table with a streak of red blood across it. Clever of Master Ostrum to alert me to its presence. I used a glass slide to scrape some of the blood from the table, then let it drip into the bottom of the copper crucible I had retrieved from the subbasement.

The price had been paid. The copper crucible, once empty, now contained a bony, dried-up hand. The crucible cage I needed.

Outside the lab, I heard a sound. Glass crunched. I froze.

Someone was entering the office.

FORTY-NINE

Nedra

“Hello?” A voicesaid softly in the dark.

“Grey,” I breathed.

He didn’t hear me. Flickering candlelight flowed into Master Ostrum’s office, and I stepped out of the lab.

“Who—” Grey started, cursing. The candle shook in his hand as he let out a relieved sigh. “Nedra,” he said. “I’ve been wondering when you’d return.”

“I arrived today,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. I stuck to the shadows, remembering my reflection.

“Is everything all right?”

I laughed aloud, perhaps a bit hysterically.

“Nedra?” He stepped closer; I shrank further back. “Are you okay? How is your family?”

A knife to my heart, twisting. I couldn’t answer. “What are you doing here?”