Finale (Caraval, 3)

Time was rushing faster than blood could pour out of a sliced artery. In two days, the Fallen Star would make his claim for the throne—unless they managed to stop him.

Yesterday, the Fates had continued to torment the city by torching every church in the Temple District that did not worship one of the Fates. The air was still tinged brown from smoke. The flames had been put out by a band of brave citizens before the fire could spread to other parts of Valenda, but the damage had marked a fresh tipping point. It was exactly as Scarlett had predicted would happen in her last note. People were ready for a deliverer. When the Fallen Star appeared, all of Valenda would think he was their savior.

Tella prayed to all the saints that she would find a way to kill him inside the Immortal Library, before they ran out of time. Unfortunately, it seemed the Fated library still did not wish to be found. Or perhaps it had never been in Valenda to begin with.

Tella spied an untouched statue of the Prince of Hearts as they searched the scorched Temple districts for symbols of the library. The statue bore little resemblance to Jacks. Its face looked much kinder. Its cheeks were round instead of hollow. Its smile looked impish rather than evil, and its lips didn’t appear quite so sharp.

Legend pressed a warm hand to the small of her back. He hadn’t stopped touching her since the day before. It would have been smarter to separate, at least by a few feet, as they searched for symbols to lead them into the library. But it seemed Legend had adopted a new strategy when it came to winning Tella. “Ready to move on, sweetheart?”

Tella narrowed her eyes.

Legend gave her an amazed smile. “What about ‘dear heart,’ or ‘angel’?”

“I think we can both agree I’m far from an angel. And you’re not going to convince me to become an immortal with a term of endearment.” She pulled away, but he quickly grabbed the sash around her waist and wound it around his fist to draw her close. It was cloudburst-blue, the same color as her striped dress. Yesterday’s drab clothes hadn’t kept them unnoticed, so Tella opted for prettier attire today.

“You’re right, I think ‘little devil’ is more fitting.” He kept reeling her to him, dark eyes full of laughter. He didn’t seem worried that the world around them was literally crumbling—he looked at her as if she was all that mattered.

“Please tell me I’m interrupting something,” Jacks drawled as he stepped out from behind the Bleeding Throne fountain directly across from them. The basin was dry—its crimson waters probably used to put out fires—leaving behind bits of cracked red that would have normally matched Jacks’s haphazard attire. But for once, the Prince of Hearts looked immaculate. His golden hair was neatly tied back, his clothes were pressed, his boots were polished, and his tailored white suit was the color people usually associated with angels.

Legend instantly moved in front of Tella like a shield.

Jacks’s pale lips fell into a frown. “I’m not here to make any threats—I keep my vows. I just have a gift for Donatella.”

“I don’t want any gifts from you,” she spat.

Jacks tugged at his cravat, dissolving his impeccable appearance with one frustrated pull. “I know you hate me again, but hopefully this will prove that I’m not really your enemy.” He held out a bound scroll of paper. “This is why you haven’t been able to find the Immortal Library.”

Tella pointedly ignored the scroll. “We’re done making deals with you.”

“There’s no deal involved. Consider this gift my apology.” Jacks’s eyes slowly met hers. Today, they were a brilliant blue with threads of bloodshot red, as if he were so torn up he hadn’t slept. But Tella knew that was a lie since he’d appeared in her dreams. “Even if you don’t want to accept it, it’s what you need if you want to find the Immortal Library. You can only locate the library if you’ve been there before, or if you use the Map of All.”

The scroll began to glow in Jacks’s hands—just like the Fates often did.

Tella tried not to look at it. The Map of All was a Fated object, similar to the Reverie Key, but instead of finding people, it located places. It was said that if a person touched the map, it would lead that person to the place they wanted to find most—even if that location was in another realm. It could reveal hidden portals, and doors to other worlds. It was priceless and mythic, and made other treasures feel as thin as slips of paper.

It was difficult to resist the urge to grab it right out of Jacks’s hands. “We don’t need your map.”

“But we’ll take it,” Legend said. With one lightning-quick move, the rolled map was in his hand.

Tella expected a protest from Jacks, but he merely placed his pale hands in his pockets. “I hope you can now find what you’re looking for.” He gave Tella a final look, meeting her gaze with sad, hooded eyes and so much sincerity he could have been a picture of a saint on a confessional wall.

But while she could believe he was upset that she hated him again, she doubted he truly regretted what he’d done. Tella had no doubts that Jacks wanted her, but wanting someone wasn’t the same as loving them, and yesterday he’d proved that he wanted his powers even more than he wanted her.

Jacks walked away without another word.

Legend unbound the map. His face was aloof, but the quickness with which he unrolled the scroll betrayed a hint of his eagerness at possessing the Fated object, despite its unsavory source.

The paper was a bland shade of oatmeal, but Tella watched as it shifted in Legend’s fingers. It started out blank, but as he held on to it, a spot of dark blue ink appeared. It grew into the smoldering remains of the Temple District, sketched piles of ash forming alongside statues of Fates. Tella saw the Prince of Hearts statue and the Bleeding Throne fountain. Then she appeared. First her untamed ringlets took shape, followed by her heart-shaped face, and her striped gown with its sweetheart neckline and tiny cap sleeves.

She waited for a rendering of Legend to materialize next, but all that showed up was a tiny star at her feet.

She was where Legend wanted to be.

“Don’t look so surprised.” He flashed a crooked smile, eyes filling with the same teasing look he’d given her earlier when he’d called her sweetheart. But she noticed that he didn’t even brush her finger as he handed her the magical map.

Was it possible that Legend was actually falling in love with her?

Not that she wanted him to. Not anymore. No matter how much just the thought of the possibility of his love made her heart start to race. She didn’t want him to become human and thus susceptible to death for her. And he’d made it clear, over and over, that he didn’t want to, either.

Tella looked down at the map as it began to shift again. She didn’t want to trust the map—it felt too much like trusting Jacks—and she imagined Legend had to feel the same way. But she was grateful he’d taken the Fated object.

The uncontrollable feeling that time was moving too fast and they were moving too slow was back. Whenever Tella thought about Scarlett, Tella’s heart clenched with fear. She reminded herself that her older sister was cautious, and the letter she’d sent yesterday promised she would bring them the Fallen Star’s blood tonight. But Tella couldn’t help but fear that something was about to go wrong, and even if Scarlett managed to get the blood, it wouldn’t do them any good if they didn’t find the Ruscica. Tella and Legend didn’t have the luxury of wasting time—and the map was too incredible to ignore.

As Tella and Legend followed the Map of All, it didn’t just outline a route for them, it revealed a strange sense of humor as it affixed odd labels to several of the places, plants, and animals that Tella and Legend passed—and some that they didn’t pass.

HIGHLY INTELLIGENT DOG

BEWARE OF LICE

ACTUAL SKELETONS INSIDE THE CLOSETS

VALENDA’S FINEST FISH FUDGE

UNDERGROUND TUNNELS THAT LEAD OUT OF TOWN

UNDERGROUND TUNNELS THAT LEAD TO DEATH AND DISMEMBERMENT

Tella had almost stopped thinking about where they were actually heading, when the path on the map finally ended just south of the Satine District. The words Entrance to the Immortal Library appeared. But all Tella could see was an out-of-use sky carriage house with a set of rotted boards nailed crosswise in front of the main door.

The words Danger and Do Not Enter were painted crudely over the boards, with symbols of skulls and kissing spiders painted beneath them.

Tella had never encountered the deadly arachnids, but she’d heard the stories. Kissing spiders attacked at night, while people were sleeping, laying eggs inside of a person’s mouth and then sealing their victim’s lips shut with their webs. There was no way to destroy the webs. They remained in place until the spiders hatched, and by then the victims were always dead.

“This is all a glamour,” Legend said.

Tella looked down at the map. The words He’s right hovered over the image of the infested carriage house, and yet she still felt reticent to enter. “If it’s a glamour, why are you ripping the boards off the door?”

“There’s a mental magic attached, like the illusions I use. We have to treat this as if it’s real to get through.”

Tella clamped her mouth shut as they stepped inside. She told herself that none of it was real. The rotting scent snaking up her nose was in her mind. Whatever squished beneath her slippers was not fungus; the yellow spiders crawling over her arms were not really there.

“This is the oldest magic I’ve ever felt…” Legend trailed off, and for a moment she thought she saw something like admiration in his eyes as the walls around them begin to crumble and a waterfall of spiders poured down from the ceiling.

Tella fought the urge to scream lest one, or more, landed in her mouth.

Legend captured her hand and propelled her forward through an avalanche of spiders. She felt their tiny legs crawling everywhere as the murderous spiders multiplied, covering every inch of her skin.

Tella didn’t know if death by illusion was possible. Then she remembered what Jacks had said about needing to summon Fated places with blood. The wound on her palm from when she’d exchanged blood with Jacks was nearly healed, but Tella imagined she could reopen it with her nails.

She pulled her hand free from Legend’s and scratched her healing wound, drawing a fresh surge of blood.

Drop it there, instructed the map, pointing to an eruption of spiders in the corner of the room. There were too many for Tella to make out a symbol, but she obeyed the map and instantly the spiders, the fetid ground, and the decaying walls all vanished.

One blink and the world was falling apart, and then she and Legend were in a courtyard made of sandstone walls covered in star jasmine that smelled as sweet as it looked. Tella took a timid breath. She wasn’t sure if this was another illusion or the Fated library, but it was extremely preferable to that cascade of killer spiders.

Above them half the sky was intense with sunlight, while the other half shimmered with stars. At one end of it was a decorative sandstone arch with two massive statues on either side, formed of sparkling peach sand. The statues’ lower halves were feline, while their torsos were human, one male, one female. Their heads would have appeared human as well if not for the curving horns poking out from the tops of them.

The male statue opened his mouth. “Welcome, fellow immortal and young mortal.”

“We hope you find what you seek,” added the female. “But be warned, there is a small tithe to step inside and read our books.” Both statues’ mouths slammed shut with an audible snap.

Tella’s jaw crashed to a close as well. She fought to part her lips, to open her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t.

She turned to Legend. He shook his head, his mouth as closed as hers.

Their silence must have been the cost of entering the library.