Page 147 of Of Masks and Fury

Kerralyn’s eyes widened. “You stole something from the library?”

“And you wouldn’t?”

Pink filled Kerralyn’s cheeks.

Lexie’s grin told me she knew exactly what she’d done. “I’ll return it. Eventually.” She unfolded the paper, taking care with the damaged edges. “This is a property deed. Half of the writing is illegible, but look at the name.”

She held it up, angling it toward the torchlight. I leaned forward, squinting at the faded script. Trew shifted beneath me, his attention sharpening.

The signature at the bottom could have read “M. Blyte” or possibly “M. Blight.” The water damage made it impossible to tell which.

The air left my lungs.

Trew’s hand pressed flat against my belly, steadying me.

“When is it dated?” I asked.

“Forty-one years ago.”

My mother would’ve been a child.

“There’s too much damage to the document so I sadly can’t read exactly where the property is.” Lexie traced her finger along a faded line of text. “‘Where springs run warm and green persists against the gray.’ And the only other directional information says ‘three days south of Syllavar proper’.”

“Three days south puts you deep in the wasteland,” Derren said. “That area is completely overrun now.”

“Forty-one years ago, that area would’ve been different,” Trew pointed out. “No wasteland. No Skathes.”

I studied the faded signature again, my mind racing.

“Blyte could’ve been my mother’s last name before she married my father,” I said. “But would she have used it?”

Kerralyn leaned close to Lexie, reading from the paper over her shoulder. “She may have used a different name to hide the property from Caldrith.”

“Hide fromsomeonein Caldrith, you mean,” Trew said.

My father had loved her. I didn’t doubt that. I’d seen it in the way he’d looked at her and in the way his voice had gentled when hespoke her name. But people had murdered spouses they loved for smaller reasons than discovering forbidden magic.

Lexie pulled another slip of parchment from her pocket, this one smaller and in better condition. “This was tucked in with the other paper. It’s a receipt for ‘preservation materials.’ No details about what kind.”

“What needed preserving?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. Then it occurred to me. “My mother. Velacross sent her away to protect her.”

“It could also refer to you and your sister,” Trew said quietly.

My mother knew what my father would do to children who showed magical abilities. She’d warned me never to show anyone whatIcould do. She might have tried to prepare a safe place for us, somewhere we could hide if we needed to flee.

She’d been building us an escape.

And someone had killed her before she could use it.

I set down the pastry I’d been holding. I didn’t remember picking it up.

No one spoke for a moment. The fire crackled. Keek made a small sound in Kerralyn’s pocket.

She was killed before she could tell me about any of this, before she could explain the plans she’d made or the secrets she’d kept.

I looked at each of my friends in turn. “If there’s any chance Addie’s there, or that there’s information about the Skathes, or even better, how to close the veil, we need to pursue it.”

“We’ll have to move fast,” Derren said, leaning forward.