Not that Dario would even think of that. He seemed to take automata as just part of the landscape.

“I don’t like this,” Jess said. “It’s too open, too obvious. Sphinxes. Call it off. We can meet somewhere safer.”

“I can’t call it off, and I didn’t pick the spot,” Dario said. “This is my one chance to get this book. Go if you’re too afraid. But I’d think someone so well versed in criminality would have a little backbone.”

“There’s a difference between courage and blind arrogance,” Jess said sourly. “Where is this contact of yours?”

“He’ll be here soon.” Dario seemed oblivious to the threats. Jess’s throat tightened as they neared the sphinx, and it turned that pharaoh’s head toward them. The eyes gleamed dull red, then brightened.

“Dario, we should go.”

“Ah, there he is.” The idiot waved, and Jess spotted a man in plain working clothes trudging down a path toward them.

Somewhere in the bushes, Jess heard a rustle. He turned his head toward the noise, and saw that another sphinx watched them through the hedge. The human-shaped face stared with eerie concentration, and the eyes burned bloody red.

Jess forced Dario’s arm down. “Inside. Get inside.”

“No, he’s right there—”

“Follow me. Now!”

Jess turned and launched into a run back toward the tomb’s entrance. He heard the crack of breaking branches and didn’t look back. Dario was just a step behind, and caught up as the sphinx let out a sound like the high shriek of a hawk. It was coming for them. Jess put on a burst of speed, digging into his strides and lengthening them, and within four long steps he was past the hedges, and in another ten, halfway around the tomb building, with Dario struggling to keep pace. Screams rose as the pursuing sphinx rounded the corner at a lion’s lope, and people who’d been casually enjoying the park dove out of its path and ran for the exits. Jess tried not to think about the damage it could do to innocent bystanders. He’d seen the raw, red destruction left by automaton lions in London. He and Dario were risking not just their own lives, but those of everyone caught in this place.

Jess and Dario darted up the marble steps. “Why are they chasing us?” Dario demanded, gasping for breath. Jess hadn’t even felt the run. Dario needed to get out from behind his desk more. “We’re Library! We’re wearing the bands! What in the name of God—”

“They already knew! Your contact sold us out. Or someone sold him out,” Jess shot back. “Did you think you could just stroll over and get handed something the Library kills people for? With no experience and no training, in a public place? Idiot!”

Dario was utterly out of his element, all his composure shaken. For all that he’d survived Oxford and the disasters that came after, he’d never, until this moment, truly seen the Library as his enemy. He’d never understood what it meant to come face-to-face with its dark side. Jess almost envied him that. And almost pitied him.