of trust, but do not let it out of your sight. Perhaps now they will finally recognize the value of my work.”
“Yes, my lady.” Kalen’s gravelly voice spoke from the place Kate’s throat should have been. His hand reached for the book and closed it, revealing a dark purple cover with silver studs around the edges and the shimmer of polished oyster shell running in bands across the leather. A title glistened in the sunlight. One word written in faded silver leaf:
WINTERCRAFT
“Inform me the moment they send for me,” said Da’ru. “And if any of them try to harm the book in any way . . . kill them.”
“Yes, my lady.” Kate’s mind swiftly left Kalen and Da’ru behind, already searching out the book within her memory. She returned to the bookshop—to Artemis this time—and found herself looking through the eyes of her younger self into one of her earliest memories, one she did not even know that she had.
“I told you, it is too dangerous!” said Artemis, arguing with her father over the bookshop counter.
“This is not your decision, Artemis! Anna and I have already decided. It is the right thing to do.”
“They can’t ask you to do this!”
“They can. You, me, and Kate are the only ones left that carry the Winters blood. The book belongs with our family. Why don’t you understand that?”
“Because it’s not right. What about Kate? Are you going to risk putting her in danger for the sake of a stolen book?”
“Nothing is going to happen to Kate. And this is far more than just a book, Artemis. It is history, and who knows what else it might be one day. We are going to do this. It doesn’t matter if you agree with us or not. That book will be safe here with us, where it is meant to be.”
Artemis thumped his fist upon the counter, the only time Kate had ever seen him lose his temper in that way. “This is wrong, Jonathan. How do you know they are telling the truth? How do you know they’re not just trying to protect themselves by getting this thing out of Fume?”
“Because they stole it from a warden—from Da’ru Marr’s best man himself! They have already taken enough risks to get Wintercraft back. The rest is up to us now.”
“So,” said Silas, his voice breaking into Kate’s thoughts. “The book was stolen from Kalen and handed to your family. Da’ru always believed he had sold it to the Skilled to line his own pockets. She thought he was a traitor. It appears she was wrong.”
Kate was not listening to him. The veil was already taking her to the next memory she had of Wintercraft, and before she could stop it, her mind replayed the first night she ever spent in the bookshop cellar’s hiding place. A night that happened just a few days after that argument: the night the wardens took her parents away.
She remembered looking out through the eyeholes in the cellar wall, watching her parents taking Wintercraft out of a secret space beside the chimney breast. They were talking too quietly for her to understand them, but they were both afraid. Her mother hid the book in her dress pocket, wrapping it in a torn strip of cloth. Then there was a loud crack above them and the cellar door smashed from its hinges, clattering down the steps as four robed men broke their way in.
Kate remembered watching her father fighting them off and her mother drawing them as far away from Kate’s hiding place as she could, so her daughter would not be found. She saw the flash of silver as a blade was thrown through the air, stabbing deep into her father’s shoulder. She saw the warden who came to retrieve it and heard her father’s scream as the warden wrenched the dagger out.
That warden gave the order for her parents to be taken up to the cages, and as he carried the dagger held ready at his side, Kate saw the letter K shining upon the blade, stained red with her father’s blood. Kate knew that man at once. Kalen. But he was younger and healthier, before the madness had taken over his mind. Kalen had come to Morvane to find the book and clear his name. He was the enemy she had seen in the cellar that night. He was the one who had taken her family away.
The image faded. Silas was back in front of her and