Page 62 of Queen of Carrion

“M-my Lord.” It was Cecil this time, his teeth-filled eye sockets watching me apprehensively. “Perhaps I could assist.”

I glared at him, wondering what the ancient librarian could possibly do that Holga and I hadn’t been able to accomplish. I’d known him for so long, millennia at this point. He wasn’t hiding anything from me; I would have known.

“How?” I tried to keep my patience, but it was an arduous task.

“The library,” he answered slowly, thoughtfully, like Cecil always did. Normally, I appreciated his careful, articulated thoughts, but right now, it made me want to toss him off the gondola. Was he suggesting we return to Limbo to riffle through soul books?

The Library? I didn’t see how that could help us here. “We don’t have time to turn back, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”

“If magic and brute strength don’t work, an engineer could probably help,” he said.

I glared, anger burning beneath my skin. I was definitely going to throw him overboard.

“Ah yes, because I happen to have one of those in my fucking pocket.” I rubbed the patch of bone between my eyes in irritation since I didn’t have a nose to pinch in this form. I was losing the last shred of my patience.

Cecil trembled and shook his head. “You have a few in the castle library. I could fetch one and see if they can work out the mechanism.”

This ancient sack of dust and bones had officially lost his marbles—if he’d had any to begin with.

Sensing my growing frustration, Cecil cleared his throat and pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up his barely-there nose. “Allow me, Sire.”

Holga and I watched in awe as he produced a dinner-plate-sized portal with a flourish of his skeletal hands. It grew, stretching outward until it was tall enough for him to slip through. Inside it, a sliver of the Library of Souls was clearly visible.

Admittedly, I was impressed.

Cecil had some limited powers when it came to the library, but he rarely ventured from the vast hall, much less the castle. Had he always had this ability and just never had the chance to utilize it?

“So you’re going to bring me the soul of an engineer…” I ventured a guess, my eyes landing on his proud expression, “who will be able to get this fucking gate open?”

He nodded once.

“And if it doesn’t work?” I bit out.

“What do you have to lose?”

“Everything.” The fury in my voice was unintentional and made both servants flinch. My voice softened with a sigh that felt every bit as heavy as my chest. “I could lose everything, Cecil.”

“We’ll find her,” Holga assured me with the gentlest tone she’d ever directed toward me.

“Go,” I urged Cecil. My eyes slid from the soul librarian to the portal. “With haste.”

Without another word, the librarian slipped through the portal. It closed a second later, blinking him out of sight.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rayven

Every whisper of hopeshattered with the clang of the gate closing, and I felt my heart breaking all over again as Belial’s gondola melted into the darkness. Tears stung the corners of my eyes, a scream burning up my throat.

“Belial!” The sound was immediately swallowed by the hot, acrid air as we drifted deeper into Mammon’s domain.

I stared into the distance, even though any trace of Belial was long gone, hoping to see him on our tail again. I was desperate for him to get to me.

He’d been so close to saving me, and now…

“By the time Belial catches up, it’ll be too late,” Mammon’s voice mocked my internal thoughts, making my skin itch.

I whipped my head in the Lord of Greed’s direction, already working on a fiery retort, but the words died on my tongue when the forge came into view behind him. My mouth dropped in an involuntary O as it loomed, unlike anything I’d seen before.