I need to find this spell book. Every minute that ticks, he gets an edge to find us before we can raise the Ancestors from the dead. We need solutions and soon.

I search through the back room where I used to hide out and read, but it’s a pile of overturned storage bins and stained walls. Nothing of use. I step over shreds of pages ripped from their spines, burned. So many ashes. I pick up a partially intact book and scan.

Pictures of fists clasped, wrapped in threads of blood, catch my eye.

Blood oaths, unbreakable, punishable by death.

What secrets are you trying to erase, Chancellor? I glimpse Grag outside the windows. He could have left but hasn’t, because that would make him look guilty, I gather. And for whatever reason, he’s determined to make us trust him.

Zora’s hand is warm on mine.

“What else has he not told us, you think?” I ask.

“Mother Yakanna says identify the opponent’s vulnerability and use it. Watch me.” We meet him outside and she squats in front of him. He tries to shrink.

“Do you sleep alone?”

“Huh?”

“The bed at night when you are safe at home. Do you share it with anyone?”

“M-my sisters and I all bunk together because of space.”

“Ah, and what side do you sleep on? By the door, protecting them as they sleep? Or like a coward on the inside, hoping they protect you?”

“I-I…”

“Let me ask you, who is there to protect them now?”

He stops breathing.

“Jelani is not your enemy unless you make her so. It is your choice. If there is anything else you know… sharing it would be a show of good faith.”

“Uh… uhm…,” he stumbles over his words. “Okay, so, the Loyalists, they meet in the Web. But not the Chancellor. He keeps a distance for plausible deniability, I guess. This bookstore was at the top of the hit list, a high-priority item… when the City started coming apart. But he didn’t say why. So, a lot of guys took it on, hoping to get in good with him. This shop owner probably had twenty or more trying to get to her first, cash in the prize the Chancellor promised. That’s all I know. I swear.”

Zora winks at me. “Very good.”

“Nicely done,” I say. “I bet you regret not leaving when you could have.”

He smiles nervously.

“Get out of here, Grag,” I say. “Before I change my mind.”

He stumbles up and backs away, bowing in thanks before booking it down the street. Back inside, Bri’s lifted blood samples from the floor and is stuffing them in a vial in her bag.