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“You scrubbed information about the Empress from the realms, those you could affect.”
“Yes.”
“Whoever Lore is, whoever is conjuring the banshees, they used rituals from the Between, much as the Wolf did. I’m guessing Lore isn’t another word for Silver in some language?”
Silver snorted.
“No, not to my knowledge. You might want to ask Jack about it.”
“I’m back to square one.”
“How so?”
“Someone took elven rituals and gave them to humans to summon banshees. Fucking hell, that’s convoluted.” Silver lifted a perfect gunmetal eyebrow at Adam’s language but did not protest. “Then you cast your spell, redacting information about the Empress, which caused the paper with the rituals to go blank.”
“That makes sense, colorful language aside. Any rituals regarding the Between would invoke my mother’s title.”
“Then there’s this,” Adam said. He took the bit of white antler from his pocket.
Silver blinked. Adam explained their hijacked return from the Archive.
“Bone wraiths,” Silver said.
“They reminded me a bit of you.”
“They are distant cousins, in a way.” Silver turned the bit of antler over in his hands. “Did you think I would do this to you, this ‘aggro’?”
“No. I knew it wasn’t you, that part at least.”
“Why not?”
“The bone wraiths failed. You know what I’m capable of, Jack and Daff too. It was too clumsy. You’d have made certain there was no chance of escape.”
Silver nodded and passed the antler back.
“So who did it?” Adam asked. “Who is Lore?”
“I cannot say. Let’s speak to Jack and see if he can find a lead hidden in the name.”
31
They emerged from the pool and the ice thawed, flowing back into place. Adam imagined it was still freezing, but Silver wouldn’t mind.
Adam followed him out of the natatorium, into the pale twilight of the amusement park’s grounds.
His father was the avalanche after a blizzard. His mother was a glacier, and yet somehow, he was kind. Somehow, he cared for those beneath his rule.
Adam felt lighter by one secret.
Now only North and Ian remained.
They were nearly to the crystal palace when a familiar sound broke over the park. It came from all directions.
“No . . .”
Silver clapped his hands together and the noise faded.
The fence around the park twisted. Bands of it spiraled overhead, orbiting the sphere of the tower’s defenses. Still, they buckled. Elves were running toward them.
