Page 5 of Heart of Thieves

A massive disk larger than my head protrudes from a metal stand featuring a series of strategically placed wires and mirrors—exactly like the diagram in my pocket.

“There you are,” I breathe.

I glance over my shoulder at Enzo as I lift the contraption and set it silently on the nearest counter. He’s still preoccupied with his own cabinet, thank the stars, but I’m sure he’ll finish up soon, at which point he’ll likely look my way to see how I’m faring. I only have a minute or two to find out what I can about this thing.

Stretching up on my tiptoes, I pull off my glove and feel around, but there’s nothing there. Frowning, I turn back to the device, scouring it for hints, and catch sight of a tag attached to the base with a number scrawled on it.

B8392.

Yes. I pull out the crates I saw earlier and shuffle through the folders until I find one marked with the same inscription.

Adrenaline sparking in my fingertips, I draw the folder out and spread it open on the counter. A single notebook lies nestled inside. Tattered and worn, it’s less a scientist’s log and more like a journal, with a leather cover and a frayed ribbon sticking out of the bottom.

I flip through its pages of tidy cursive and pause on yet another drawing of the device.

Written above it are the words ASTRAL SPECTRAL DIFFUSER, and its parts are marked with arrows indicating paragraphs crammed in the space on the page beneath. The handwriting matches what’s in the rest of Enzo’s stash of secret information, which, I realize with a thrill, means this journal must have belonged to the same scientist: Nell Lightsworn, the priestess who created the moonshard that cursed Nic and Enzo.

I grit my teeth, scanning through the text. Just like Nell’s other notes, these are written in some sort of cipher, composed like poetry in a way that makes it nearly impossible to understand.

My eyes catch on one phrase that makes me pause: . . . for the birth of a stone of immeasurable power . . .

My lungs tighten, and my head swims.

Enzo’s not trying to find the moonshard. He wants to make a new one.

As that thought hits, my heart surges, and Enzo whips around. “Everything all right, Loofah?” His eyes drop to the device on the counter, and a smile cuts across his face. “You found it!”

“I—I did.” I lower the notebook below the table with quaking hands as he darts over.

I’ve known he’s kept things from me, so why does realizing what he’s planning feel like such a slap in the face?

As he inspects the contraption, I tear the page from the journal, slow and steady so it won’t make a noise, and shove it into my pocket before holding the notebook up like I just discovered it. “What do you think this is?”

He crosses to me, taking it and flipping it open. Unease flickers in our heart, and he snaps it shut quickly, turning away. “Yes, let’s keep that just in case.” He stows it in his inner jacket pocket before pulling out his radio.

But before he can signal to the others that we’re on our way out, Soren’s voice crackles across the line.

“Boss! Get out of there!”

“What’s going on?” Enzo rushes to the window. “Are the guards heading back?”

“No,” Soren says. “Someone else entered the building from the east side. Two men. They appeared to be armed.”

Enzo’s jaw tightens. “Jade!” he says. “You have any more of those explosives?”

“On it!” she cries.

Enzo and I pull ourselves onto the windowsill. “Tattoo okay now?” I ask, raising my brows. “I’d rather jump down than have to climb.”

He opens his mouth to respond, but a deafening BOOM! rattles the whole building from the other side of the hall door.

And then Jade’s scream pierces the air.

Enzo brings the radio to his mouth. “Jade! What’s going on?”

There is no response.

I yank my own radio off my belt. “Jade!” I shout into it as blood roars in my ears and electricity bolts through my veins. “Jade!”