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If they’re fortunate and work together, they might live through this. They might survive long enough to research more. And from that, they’ll put up an even greater fight.

Searching her expression, Malice plucks a few specks of glass from her locks. In return, Wonder untucks her blouse and tears the length of its hem, then winds it around his chest, feeling his gaze rivet on her bent head.

His body flinches when it hurts, so Wonder’s careful. And when she glances at him, she discerns the enraptured expression, having been trained to recognize it.

“No one’s ever done that,” he husks.

She swallows the bulb in her throat. “Now someone has.”

The experience is mutual for her. With any hope, they’ll flee and have plenty of chances to dress each other’s wounds, introducing each other to tenderness, learning what it’s like to be cared for and how to return the gesture.

Malice seizes Wonder’s hip. Hauling her against him, he crushes his mouth to hers, kissing her hard and fast before letting go. Thinking twice, he groans and surges in for another kiss, but Wonder leans back. As much as she wants to taste him thoroughly, they’ll have to wait.

Later. Soon.

The way they entered this gallery will deposit them into The Court’s lap. Possibly, others have joined the rulers, keepers and archers having scattered throughout The Archives when the hunt began.

Wonder collects a long shard of glass, then accepts Malice’s hand, which closes around her fingers with the strength of an iron fist. They barrel through the second exit and past the door’s threshold, which leads into a tunnel, where a stairwell waits at the end.

Another door stands at the landing, so they bolt—then slam into the partition.

Wonder grunts, staggering from the impact. Malice grips the knob, using brute force to try and wrench it from the hinges.

When that fails, he slams a hand against the edifice. “What the fuck?”

“They must have taken precautions,” she says.

Above, a starlit lantern spotlights Malice as he slumps against the corridor wall, bows his head, and grasps his hair by the roots. It’s not one of his default responses. Rather than plotting an alternative, the demon is at a loss.

Sadly, evanescing isn’t an option with the rulers present in this complex. Malice and Wonder may be out of range, but they’re still in the same vicinity.

Wonder paces the landing, then pauses. “What if we—”

“—back up,” Malice hisses, his head suddenly snapping to attention.

Seizing Wonder, he tacks her to the opposite wall as the door shudders. Shielding her behind him, the demon whips around, his broad frame obstructing her view. In protest, she skitters to his side while brandishing the glass shards she’d collected.

The door whips open, a spectrum of light flooding the passage. From beyond the veil, brass archery and a curtain of sage hair emerges, followed by an older face that gazes upon Wonder with a mixture of reproach, exasperation, and relief.

It’s the same countenance from decades of training and meditating. The last time Wonder had seen it, she’d been hiking through the forest to The Archives, and she had attacked this female, not recognizing the opponent until rendering the female unconscious.

Her Guide holds up a set of quartz archery. “You forgot this.”

The glass shard hits the ground, the makeshift weapon slipping from Wonder’s hand. She leaps forward, throws her arms around the elder, and wraps her in a suffocating hug. “Harmony!”

“Wonder,” the mentor says, embracing her and then pulling back to offer Wonder the longbow and quiver. “I found it before The Court did.”

“How did you know…”

Mild amusement shines in Harmony’s features. “Did you think I wouldn’t eventually recognize your moves?”

During the forest battle, Wonder and Harmony had wavered, vaguely registering the singularities of one another’s fighting tactics. After Wonder stuffed that bloom down Harmony’s mouth, the Guide should have awakened thinking she’d hallucinated.

Wonder should have known not to underestimate this female. At some point, Harmony must have concluded who attacked her.

“I wanted to convince myself otherwise,” the Guide confesses.

“But the alert verified what I had suspected after you knocked me out. A breach in the Chamber during Stellar Worship could only be you.” She glances at Malice.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever crossed paths, yet you look familiar.

Best to save explanations for later, though.

It’s a marvel they didn’t hear you attempting to break down the door. ”

Wonder harnesses her weapons. “We didn’t have—”

“—this?” Harmony holds up a phial of seed-and-blossom fluid.

Quickly, the mentor explains how The Court had called upon her, trusting she’d be able to scout for Wonder more successfully than anyone, should Wonder turn out to be the trespasser. Harmony had found the liquid while searching the dorms, pretending to hunt along with everyone else.

Rapidly, Wonder divulges how Malice created the Asterra Flora and enabled them to breach The Archives.

“Perceptive concoction,” Harmony compliments, handing the blend to Malice.

“I do like perception.” He swings his gaze to Wonder. “So your Guide is the one you laid out in the forest, eh?”

“Did I forget to mention that?” Wonder asks, feigning innocence.

Footfalls rush across the level, punctuated by hollers. Indeed, the details must wait. Wonder, Malice, and Harmony spill into the stacks. Two levels above the restricted section, they bolt through the aisles just as the first arrow flies their way.