My stomach knotted and turned. I nodded and leaned forward on my knees to get a better look. Now that I was up close, I saw the differences between the real one and the decoy easily. They were both some kind of metal, it was almost gold but too dark in color yet not quite silver. It was somewhere in that in-between zone. The one on the left had etchings carved into it, both words and images yet nothing was in a language I recognized. It looked like a fancier version of the Rosetta Stone. I ran my fingertips over the engravings and light flashed beneath my touch. Golden light illuminated all of the etchings and streamed into the air like sunshine streaming through a forest.

Everest let out a deep breath. “That decoy is good.”

I smiled up at him. “I expected nothing less from you.”

“Nor I of you.” He took both of my hands in his then pressed my palms on the pages, one on each, with his hands covering mine. “Do not overthink it, just push your magic into the pages and it will do the work.”

Yeah, no big deal, dude. But his faith and confidence in me was too strong to let down, too strong to not just do what he said and pray he was right. I took a deep breath and called upon my magic deep in my bones. C’mon, flames, let’s finish this. I pushed my magic through my palms and into the pages, neon-blue waves rolled out of me like a tsunami.

“The pink magic,” he whispered in my mind.

I nodded and pictured those glowing pink flames in my mind until they flickered beneath my fingers. They moved like any wildfire would, slowly burning every crevice of the page until everything was awash in glowing pink fire. The blue wave swirled back around to swerve in and out of my hands. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

“Take this page with power entwined,” Valathame’s voice spoke into my mind. “Trace the words forever in kind.”

I repeated the words in my head over and over, each time a golden light grew bright and brighter. I kept going until it stung my eyes and warmed my palms. Everest pressed his hand to my back and the tension in my body evaporated. I exhaled in a rush then opened my eyes.

Two identical pages sat before me.

I did it.

“I told you so,” he whispered, then pressed his lips to my temple.

Thank you, Valathame.

As butterflies danced in my stomach, I grabbed my bag and dove inside for my rune bracelet, the one I hadn’t dared to wear while here. I held it in my hand and the runes flashed gold the moment the stones touched my skin. Okay, Lassie. Which one of these two pages is the real one? The real missing page from the tome we took from Atzaran?