Page 66 of Nocturn

Nothing was even close to what I had anticipated.

An enclosure built of see-through material was near the wall where I always heard the noise. Inside was a woman, hair disheveled and tangled about her face. She wore a basic gown a lady may wear to a stroll around town spread around her as she crouched, her arm stuck through one of the various holes along that side of the case. Her elbow stopped her from being able to reach further.

Now I knew how I had been hearing the scratches.

The girl continued to just stare at me as she withdrew her arm from the hole.

“Hurry, we only have but a moment.”

The woman’s mouth had not moved. I whirled to find a second cell, glass-paned, flush against the stone wall. She waved me toward her, the lines bracketing her mouth and the corners of her eyes deepening. Her face mirrored that of the woman scratching the wall—the one still glaring at me—but fifty annums older.

That wasn’t the most striking thing about her; it was the milky sheen covering her pupil and iris. A chill traveled down my spine, and I slowed my approach.

“Closer, Harbinger,” she intoned.

My stomach sank at how easily she said it. Her attention on me was unmistakable. Of all the names I had heard directed at me, ‘harbinger’ rattled me most. It took several paces to reach the front of her enclosure. A Sigil so like mine covered the whole of her ivory skin, but its lines were a faint strawberry shade instead of inky black. She seemed ethereal . . .

And she was trapped.

The latch only needed to be undone to free her.

“Now is not the time for freedom.”

My gaze flew up to hers, shocked. “Can you read my thoughts?” I breathed.

“No,” she chuckled, “but I know many things.”

“This is what we have to deal with,” the girl from the other side snarled. “We may as well hang ourselves.”

I ignored her spite. After all, I would surely be in a sour mood were I her. The signature Al mess spread across the chamber. Books littered the area, scattered throughout, and parchment lined one side of the wall, scribbles along it. I recognized some of the symbols as closely resembling Larien.

“Be kind, Lucinda.” She turned her milky gaze to me. “I understand your confusion, Amara.” My shoulders straightened as my name rolled off her tongue. “Listen closely, for we all have roles to play. I am the last prophet.” She paused at my sharp gasp. The woman I had seen in the Grand Hall . . . no this was not the same woman.

“I have been in this cage since before your birth, and I’ve seen your path forth.” Her tone took on a breathlessness that raised the hair on my arms. “You are the Harbinger. Much will be unveiled, and much will shift as rot, famine, and death crawl across all the realms.”

I could only blink at the prophet. Nothing inside me doubted she spoke the truth.

“Let me lay it out for you directly, Amara. The entire system is a lie. Your presence here has triggered the cogs to start moving,” Lucinda added, her bitterly spoken words echoing within her glass cage.

“What you need.” The prophet’s gaze moved. “It is there.” I turned to find a thick book atop a metal table. The Articles of Prophecy? Incredulity turned to hope.

That pull. That was the source.

Parchment littered the table, but I was already moving.

A single pace and I would touch it.

“Do not.”

I stopped with my arm outstretched toward the grimoire the length of my forearm. It lay opened to the first page and scrawled across in Larien were the words: Lore of Old. Lore . . . this had to be what the Resistance needed that contained foundational truths about the realm. The prophet confirmed it was what I needed. The text the Resistance had called The Articles of Prophecy was actually the Lore of Old and it was real. My hand trembled, making the page shake.

“If you take it now, you will be caught, and you will spend the rest of your living dawnlight rotations in that Hollow infested pit,” the prophet murmured.

I yanked my hand back.

“I need it⁠—”

“For the redblood Resistance, yes,” she said, sounding amused. “I kept the title of the text secret, because I ensured it would draw only you to it. The one with the Sigil.”