“Yes,” Ending said. “After that, I knew I had to bring you here, ready or not. So I told Geryon I’d found you, and he arranged the rest.”

“You never told me any of this,” Alice said.

“I wasn’t sure what you would do if I did,” Ending said. “Have you considered that I was never sure I could trust you? The wrong word in Geryon’s ear, and things might have gone very badly.”

Alice was silent. Ending yawned, fangs gleaming.

“You want me to be your Reader?” Alice said.

Ending nodded. “Now do you believe me when I say our interests are aligned?”

“I think,” Alice said, “I do.”

“Then finish the spell.”

Alice put her hand back on The Infinite Prison, feeling the tiny growl of static. She closed her eyes and went back to work.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

THE INFINITE PRISON

ALICE EDGED UP to the study door, red book under one arm, Ashes sticking close by her heel. Her stomach felt queasy, and her heart was already hammering.

One chance. She tried to keep her breathing regular. One chance to turn the tables on him once and for all. She closed her eyes and replayed the image of the Gideon’s destruction for the thousandth time, fanning the anger in her chest to white heat. She pictured all of the terrible things she’d wanted to do to Geryon, recalled every minute she’d spent listening to him and pretending she didn’t know he was a murderer.

One way or another, this is going to be the end of it.

She raised her hand to knock on the door.

“Alice,” Ashes blurted. “I don’t know what you and Mother have cooked up, but it’s not too late to back out.”

“Yes,” Alice said quietly, “it is.”

Ashes rubbed his head against her ankle. Alice blew out her breath and knocked on the door.

“I’ve brought Alice,” Ashes said.

“Very well,” Geryon’s voice came through the wood. “Alice, come in. Ashes, you are dismissed.”

“You don’t want me to stay?” Ashes said, very quietly.

Alice bit back a quip about Ashes’ usual habit of abandoning her in a crisis. Instead she scratched him behind the ears and shook her head.

“I’ll be all right,” she said.

“You’d better be.” The cat slunk off, looking miserable.

Alice opened the door and walked down the short hallway. It led past the vault room, which housed Geryon’s most dangerous books, past the padded chamber where she’d first practiced finding her threads, to the study, where Geryon waited behind a cracked door.

Alice paused. She had to get the book into place without Geryon noticing the switch. Taking hold of her threads, she pulled a couple of dozen swarmers into being around her. Four of them got into a square, and she laid the red book on their backs.

Here goes nothing.