“It’s not enough to know where it is. You’ll need charms to unlock the armory, to make it safe to go in. Otherwise, you’ll never get there alive.”

“And you know what they are?”

Han shook his head. “They’re built into the amulet.”

“Fine,” Fiona said, growing impatient. “Then tell me how to use the amulet.”

“That’s just it. You can’t. Waterlow wanted to make sure your family would never get hold of the armory. So he put a powerful protection on the flashpiece.”

“We know that, Alister,” Fiona hissed. “We’ve owned the amulet for a thousand years.”

“Nobody can use it but somebody with Waterlow blood. Somebody like me.”

“How do you know all this?” Fiona said suspiciously.

Bones. This was a story only the Bayars would know—that they were the ultimate cause of the Breaking. They would know it, and the Demon King’s betrayer. He couldn’t very well say he got it straight from Lucius Frowsley.

“The story was in the amulet,” Crow hissed, breaking into Han’s thoughts. “The story.”

Right, Han thought. Once before, Crow had escaped the Bayars by persuading them to give back his amulet.

“It was in the amulet, too,” Han said aloud. “The story, I mean.” Lame, Alister, he thought. Really lame. He was in no shape to be conjuring complicated stories.

“But…Waterlow never had a family,” Fiona said, frowning. “You say you’re descended from him, but—”

“It’s been a thousand years, Fiona. How do you know he never had a family? A chance child, anyway?”

Fiona rose and paced back and forth. “I don’t know.”

“Otherwise, tell me why I can use the Waterlow amulet and you can’t? If you want to find the armory, I’ll need the amulet to lead you there. It’s the only way.”

Fiona kept pacing.

“You and I could go,” Han said softly. “Just us. Then you’ll be the one in control of the armory. You’ll be the one with the power. Wouldn’t you like that?”

That stopped her in her tracks. She crossed to the wall and winched up the chain, forcing him to his feet. She kept winding until his hands were bound high over his head.

Grabbing hold of the chain on his neck, she pulled him toward her and kissed him hard, on the lips. And then again, for a longer time, so that a spark of hope kindled within him—until Fiona laughed and tousled his hair.

“Forget it, Alister,” she breathed. “I fell for your charms once before. I’m not stupid enough to fall for them twice.”

Ah, well. There was an old saying: gamon me once, shame on you. Gamon me twice, shame on me.

“All I have is the truth,” Han said. “If you don’t believe me, then just go ahead and kill me.”