Page 24

Panic seized me. Any chance of controlling my breathing died as I began to hyperventilate.

I’m going to die here .

I’d thought it would be worth it. That I needed to continue on this journey. Stupid. Survival above all else. Now I would die for my godsdamned curiosity.

“Samara. Slow your heart.”

“Raphael?”

“I’m right here, just a few feet to to your left. You’re nearly there.”

“I-I can’t,” I stammered. It was hard to even speak between breaths.

“You can,” he insisted. “Keep going.”

Hesitantly, I slid my foot forward. Into the dark. But just like in the light, the path was smooth. I moved my other foot, and resumed inching.

“That’s it.” His voice was soothing, like the night sky. “Just a bit more.”

I followed the sound of his voice, my galloping heart slowing to a canter.

“Good. Nearly there. Now just step forward and you’ll make it.”

Just another step . That was all I had to do. My foot slid off as the lip ended. I was there. I tried to hook my leg to catch the opening.

I lost my balance.

I was going to fall. The awareness hit me a second before I began to drop—an immediate, absolute certainty that I was done for. My hands slipped off as I fought to regain my balance, my foot trying to come back but missing, and I was falling, falling, falling—

Strong hands snatched me from the air itself. Raphael threw me back against his body, sending us both tumbling. I landed atop him. There was no light save the faint, unnatural glow of his red eyes.

In the dark, every other sense became more acute. This close, I inhaled his scent with my rapid breaths. Cedar, spice, and something more dangerous than the dark. My fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, like he was the only thing stopping me from falling into the pit.

“Told you that you’d make it. ”

I didn’t have to see his mouth to know it was curved into a smile.

Me, I couldn’t smile right now. Not with my heart still slamming in my throat.

I couldn’t even force my fingers to unclench from where they were still fists in his shirt.

My head told me I should be getting off him, that if I was close enough to feel the rise and fall of his chest beneath me, I was too, too close.

But my legs were shaking too much for me to move.

“You caught me.” Three words. The most I could manage in this position.

“I did,” he agreed. Like it was nothing.

Like of course he had saved me from certain death, and how could I even doubt it?

How, indeed.

“As much as I enjoy having a woman on top of me, we should continue.”

His teasing jolted me out of the remnants of panic that had caged me.

My chest was flush against his, my legs sprawled over him.

Even riding together on Alphonse didn’t compare to this.

I scrambled to stand, pressing my hands into his chest to leverage myself up, but in the dark I was moving blindly.

His hands rose to my sides, steadying as he guided me up, and I told myself my heart was pounding only because I’d nearly fallen to my death, not because of his touch.

“The torch?” I asked.

Wood brushed my fingers as he offered me the discarded branch.

It took a moment to figure out which card I needed, but eventually I managed to relight the flame.

It was even smaller than before, as if the magic struggled to stir this deep in the temple.

I stuck closer to Raphael as we ventured farther.

Even as the shock faded from the prior trap, I couldn’t let go of one thing. “You can turn into a bat.”

“Yes.” And your point is? was the silent continuation.

I recalled the time we’d been in the inn, and he’d let himself out the window. I’d looked and seen no sign of the vampire. But I hadn’t been looking for a bat.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

His steps slowed as we hit another trap. “I’ll tell you my secrets as soon as you start volunteering your own.”

Absently, my fingers threaded around the pendant on my neck. Fair enough.

But still… “Can all vampires do that?”

“No.”

That was a small relief.

We continued along the winding path. We crossed a few more traps that Raphael navigated—sliding tiles, trick walls—but no more near-death experiences. At some point, we started going down, the ground beneath us sloped.

“We’re here,” Raphael announced.

Even if he hadn’t said so, the change was obvious.

The pitch black of the hallway changed as blue glyphs covered the walls.

At first, they were sparse, thickening as we went deeper.

The runes glowed, lighting the space enough that I could finally see.

Few knew Old Runyk of runes, but my mother had made me learn the basics at a young age.

Power , one said. Death , said another. The rest, I couldn’t decipher, but their magic charged the space.

Even the air felt different, like it was charged on a stormy day and waiting for lightning to strike.

The hallway was wide enough for us to walk side-by-side, so I could better see the path ahead.

The runes seemed to call me forward, a siren song that was hard to resist.

I lifted a hand to them, wanting to trace the magical shape with my fingertips.

Raphael snatched my hand back. “Remember what I said—don’t touch anything.”

I drew my hand back from the wall, but Raphael didn’t release his grip. He pulled me forward while I glanced wistfully at the wall.

Then I shook myself. What was I thinking?

This temple was devoted to the goddess of death, and she seemed intent on killing trespassers.

Why would I try to activate the magic guarding the heart of the temple?

It was thoughtless, and I was never thoughtless.

The magic seemed to cast a haze over my mind, and even the vague awareness of it wasn’t enough to stop the desire.

The blue glow bounced off the black stone, brightening as the long hallway widened the farther we went. Conspicuously empty.

Until it wasn’t.

It was really here .

Even with the Librarian’s assurances, I hadn’t really believed we’d find the Black Grimoire.

It was a myth, lost to time. Yet there, at the end of the hallway, a book sat on a black stone lectern that seemed to be carved from the floor.

Whatever magic was in the temple and the runes was magnified tenfold here, a magnetic pull tugging us closer.

Raphael’s pace increased. His face reflected something nearing surprise—as if he, too, hadn’t expected to find it here. In a matter of moments, we stood before the book, shoulder to shoulder.

The cover was ornate, inlaid with shining black stones that formed the shape of a skull, twin rubies in the eye sockets.

The grimoire itself wasn’t so large, but it practically pulsed with magic.

Raphael lifted a hand toward it, then withdrew his fingers suddenly, as if burned.

He let out a vulgar curse, something I’d never heard from him before.

“I can’t touch it,” he hissed. “It’s enchanted so no vampire can.”

I pulled my hand from his grip and flashed him a grin. “Good thing the weak little human is here, then.”

Raphael glanced between the book and me. I forced my fingers to clench at my sides, when all they wanted to do was grab for it.

“Fine. But Samara—”

I was already reaching for the book. The second my fingers grazed the cover, its magic slammed into me.

Touching the wall had been like something waking up inside me.

Touching the book was like I was waking up after sleeping for years.

Sensation overwhelmed me, blocking out the rest of my senses.

There was no sound, no sight, only the book between my hands, beckoning me, as if to say, At last, I am found .

I need more . I had to get more of this, whatever it was. It was the same as being a void when you used enchanted cards for the first time, except a thousand times more potent. All the magic I could ever crave, all the power , and it lay just inside this book.

Unable to stop myself, I began to lift the cover.

Distantly, I heard a voice cry out, “Samara, no!” but it was too late.

Three things happened at once.

First, as I opened the book, the magic soured. What had been lively and joyful turned dark, as if it were disgusted with me.

Second, I was knocked to the ground, the book falling from my grip.

Third, Raphael cried out as a whoosh cut through the air. The book gone, I glanced up in time to see arrows spring from every side of the room. Right toward the spot I’d been standing. Raphael had shielded me and absorbed the blows.