CHAPTER NINE
Ava just kept staring down at the piece of art depicting her murdering Serrik.
She had no ideahowshe was supposed to get to that point. There was another part of the artwork that she noticed, the longer she stared at it. Her right arm was covered in ink. A tattoo of a massive spiral, winding in and out of a spiderweb, crawled down her arm and to her wrist. A tattoo that she very much did not currently own.
Hints. The damn book was giving her hints.
And she would have given the book a whole load of shit for not having told her all of thisbeforeshe agreed to work with Serrik, but she had a feeling that without accepting a link to the spider-bastard and his magic, it never would have opened for her in the first place.
The artwork that ran down her arm in the image in the tome was clearly linked to magic. So the more she learned, or the more she…embedded herself within Serrik’s power, the more her tattoo would grow?Maybe?
That was her current working theory.
And it was the best she had to go on.
So…work with Serrik. Learn how to use his magic.
And then betray him.
That felt gross.Reallygross. But what other options did she have? She asked for a third way out that didn’t involve her being somebody’s human slave or total war, destruction, and genocide. And there it was. The question was who did she trust? Ibin and Nos, Serrik, or Book?
Currently, Book was the only thing not trying to screw her over. That she knew of. But it was also a not-so-inanimate object currently playingPictionarywith her. It wasn’t exactly a reliable source of information or alliances.
“Cool. Well. Thanks.” She figured she better shut it before Serrik and his spooky all-seeing powers in the Web saw the artwork and he quickly rethought his alliance with her. “Better go ahead and—” She went to pick up the book.
WHAM.
With a shriek, she jumped back.
The book slammed shut in front of her.
“Jesusfucking Christon a motherfucking Pogo stick—”She pressed a hand over her heart. “Don’tdothat to me, you stupid—ugh!” Walking away from it, she sighed. She was going to have to get used to things jump-scaring her.
Getting dressed would make her feel better. Putting on clothes and getting some food. She’d be less jumpy with a full stomach and wearing pants and underwear. Maybe there was something in the wardrobe that was useful. Walking over to the wardrobe, she opened it.
Stupid. Fae. Stupidfreakingfae. And their stupid?—
Ava screamed.
A flurry of feathers and flapping wings came straight at her face.
Ducking reflexively, she bolted from the wardrobe, looking up to see a very,veryangry sparrow sitting on a branch, chirping at her irritably. It must have been stuck in there all night.
That was the last straw. Just the absolute last straw.
Walking into the middle of the room, she sat down, put her head in her hands, and let out a noise that was somewhere between a wail, a whine, a laugh, and a sob.
A few moments later, and there was a quiet knock on the door. “Ava? Are you all right?” It was Ibin.
“No,” she called back into her hands, muffled as it was.
“Can I…come in?”
“Yeah.”
The door clicked open. Ava didn’t look up, but she heard the whisper of fabric along the wood floor as Ibin came into the room, and felt her settle down on the floor in front of her. “I heard you scream.”
“There was a bird.” It sounded so pathetic. And it was. Of all the things to lose her mind over? Abird.But she was just completely at her wits’ end.
