Page 83 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

No,Remy signed back, his mouth twitching.But nobody will know that.

We entered the castle like we belonged there, walking past the guards, through the familiar halls of stone and banners. My heart beat faster the closer we got.

When we reached the corridor outside the vault, I hesitated. “Are we going to just walk right in?”

“Of course,” Remy said, completely casual. “I have access.”

I nearly choked. “You what?”

We approached the vault doors. Two guards stood at attention. Remy didn’t break stride.

“The king asked me to retrieve a map,” he said smoothly. “I’ll only be a moment.”

The guards glanced at each other, then nodded.

Remy pressed the symbols in sequence to unlock the door.

We entered the vault, shadows flickering against ancient stone, and the door closed behind us.

I turned to him, heart pounding. “Remy, why do you have access to the king’s vault?”

He looked at me with that maddening half-smile.

“Because the king trusts his weapons,” he said. “And I was his sharpest blade.”

The vault smelled of ancient ink and dry parchment, the scent of secrets too long buried. Rows of leather-bound tomes and rolled maps were stacked in precise columns, all carefully labeled in the elegant, sharp script used by the royal archivists.

Remy moved with uncanny familiarity, brushing his fingers along a rack of scrolls until he plucked one from the middle without hesitation. “Start here,” he murmured.

I nodded and joined him, unrolling each scroll across the long obsidian table in the center of the chamber. Candlelight flickered over aged vellum and faded fae markings. Some were indecipherable, others I recognized from Cordelle’s notes. Ancient borderlines. Pre-Fall divisions of power.

Then I saw it.

A delicate, gold-inked rendering of the isle as it had been before the corruption. The sigils of the Light Courts circled a central, gleaming symbol, one I didn’t recognize, but somehow knew.

The Sanctuary.

“This is it,” I breathed, already folding the parchment with trembling fingers.

I slid the map under my armor, tucking it into the hidden inner pocket. The paper was cool against my skin, but it felt like fire in my blood.

Remy snatched another scroll, wider and less detailed, but easier to pass off if questioned, and rolled it tightly in his hands. “Let’s go.”

But as we turned toward the door, a ripple passed through my chest. A faint pulse like dragon fire curling behind my ribs.

Then—

A whisper.

Low. Unmistakable.

Zander’s voice.

Where are you, Ashlyn?

My breath caught, heart skipping as the sound slipped like silk through my mind.

Chapter