The sun had risen, but the wraiths remained.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

CHAPTER

27

Claire and Sophie sprinted out of the stained-glass chamber and clattered into the hallway. Slipping a bit on the marble floors, they sprinted down the corridor and toward the “Forbidden” sign that Claire had previously ignored. In the growing sunlight, she realized she did actually recognize this portion of the Citadel. If she and Sophie were to continue down that way, they would reach a spiraling staircase that descended deep into a large cavern filled with stone statues of warriors: the Memorial of the Missing, a remembrance for all the Gemmers whose bodies had never been recovered in the Guild War.

“This way!” Sophie called over her shoulder as they tore down another hallway. Sophie had somehow found the tail end of the abandoned B.P.S. and was frantically winding the yarn as they retraced their steps. Claire, meanwhile, had her hands full with the Crown of Arden.

Even though it hadn’t been blessed by a unicorn’s horn and still did not sing the way it had in the pencil’s memory, the crown remained a powerful example of jumbled magic. And with the approaching onslaught of sunlight-immune wraiths, Claire knew the guilds would need every last bit of help. But the crown was heavy, and that in combination with her Hollow Pack slowed her down. Up ahead, Sophie was already turning the corner—

“Ah!”

“Sophie!” Claire cried as her sister’s shout echoed down the stone hallway. Fear pushed her legs faster. Had the Royalists come back for Estelle and caught Sophie instead? With one last gasp of breath, Claire flung herself around the corner … and saw familiar faces.

“Claire!” Zuli said, the Gemmer apprentice’s tight curls bouncing with joy. “It’s so good to see you!”

“You mean, it’s great to see her!” Zuli’s twin brother, Lapis said.

“Stupendous,” Zuli shot back.

Behind the Gemmer twins stood Nett, Sena, and Thorn, all panting heavily.

“Slug soot,” Nett wheezed, “I’m so glad we found you! We thought the Royalists might have gotten you—”

“There was an infiltration!” Sena jumped in. “But this preamble”—she reached behind Thorn and pulled Lyric into view—“sounded the alarm and they were caught pretty quickly. That’s when Nadia and everyone realized that you two had disappeared, along with the Crown of Arden.”

“We thought you might have been kidnapped!” Thorn said, his voice tight. “But Lyric found me and told me she thought you were still somewhere inside Starscrape. She described it for us—”

“—and we guessed where you were,” Lapis finished.

“How did you do that?” Claire asked Lyric.