“What made you so interested in the Liber Noctem?” Vicereine asked.
The Hierophant shrugged. “Lionel promised that I could read it. To help with my work.”
How long had this Blight been bound to a series of fuck-ups and ne’er-do-wells? Forced to hunt its own kind? Charlie would have felt sympathetic if she thought it was interested in something other than killing her.
Salt cleared his throat. “Red is a deceiver, a thing formed of envy and corruption and hatred that my grandson sought to slough off. It has poured honey in this poor girl’s ears. Let us end this ridiculous conversation and go back to the party. I will keep the Blight restrained, and you can determine what to do with him tomorrow or the next day.”
“Wait!” Charlie said. “I can prove I got the book from his safe. I can show you where it is, and I can open it.”
“I’m not sure that’s—” Malik began.
“I offered before,” Charlie interrupted. “And he barely even acknowledged it. Right now, I am the only one with any proof. I have the Liber Noctem.”
“Which could prove your point as well as mine,” said Salt. “And you forget, I have Red.”
“Let me show you,” Charlie said. “Please.”
Vicereine glanced at Salt. “Is it possible?”
“Absolutely not,” he said with a small smile. “My security is impenetrable. She has that book because the Blight stole it.”
Bellamy raised his eyebrows. “Then why not? A small demonstration and we can go back to the party.”
Charlie’s hands were sweating as she nodded to all of them. She set down the Liber Noctem on a table near where the Hierophant stood and ignored the way he moved automatically toward it.
“Very well,” Salt said. “Go ahead, thief.”
She walked to where Dante’s Inferno sat and pulled it. One of the bookshelves swung open.
“Interesting,” said Vicereine.
“Yes,” said Salt. “I rather like that little room.”
Charlie went to the painting and pushed it so that the safe was revealed. Then she went to work. She already knew the codes, but she needed to make something of a show of the first part, so she found the notches all over again for them. It was dramatic, and bought a little time. She could see they were impressed when the handle went down halfway.
“What are we going to find inside?” asked Malik.
“Gold, gems, the usual,” Charlie said.
Salt just smiled. He’d taken a few steps back from the others, one hand going to the inside pocket of his coat.
When it came to the digital part, Charlie keyed in the code carefully. She looked back at the Cabal, at Vince, took a deep breath, and turned the lever.
The alarm went off, filling the room with a sound like a siren. Salt punched in another code and the sound stopped.
“You did that,” she accused him.
He shook his head, eyes lit with the satisfaction of winning. “Don’t be ridiculous. You failed, that’s all.”
“Okay, so open the safe,” Charlie said, her heart speeding, a blur of hummingbird wings in her chest. “Prove you didn’t.”
“Very well, I will indulge you one last time,” he said, enjoying the moment enough to draw it out. He punched in what she could see were the same set of numbers that she’d used. The lever turned and the door to the safe swung open.
His phone. He’d slipped it out while she was working and activated the alarm as she finished. While she’d been showing off, he’d been finding a way to stop her.
“We’re sorry for doubting you,” Malik said to Salt. “But you understand we had to—”
“Wait,” Vicereine said, reaching past him. “I know that book.”
And from the safe, she took out Knight Singh’s notebook, papers detailing Salt’s crimes in his own hand shoved hastily back into the leather cover, edges sticking out. Right where Charlie had left it when she’d taken the Liber Noctem.
“I—” Salt began, but no words came.
Charlie had known the way to trap Salt since the day she’d spent with him. She’d thought it then, idly, not realizing how much it would matter. Let him dominate. Let him win. He’d be so certain he belonged on top that he’d never guess he was being drawn into a trap.
He’d honestly believe that she gave him all that time while she futzed around with the first lock for no goddamn reason.
He’d honestly believe that she could crack a safe but not be able to guess he had a security app on his phone.