“So that’s it? I’m supposed to give up?”
Her miserable look was all the answer I needed.
Céleste shuffled around, preparing to leave. A voice in the back of my mind told me to go, too, but my legs felt leaden. I bent down to Zosa and stuck my fingers through her bars, stroking her feathers.
“Now listen carefully,” Céleste called out. She latched her second hatbox and hoisted both off the counter. “Don’t tell my brother I said anything. You might be a suminaire, but if Alastair suspects I gave away his secret, he’ll do something drastic to you like he did to Issig.”
“Issig?” My eyes snapped up. “What did he do?”
“Issig hated what Alastair was doing and didn’t fear him like the other workers. He challenged Alastair. Even though his contract was amended over and over, his memories taken away each time, Issig kept searching for the truth. Eventually he found a way inside the aviary. When he begged me for answers, I told him a few things I wasn’t supposed to.”
“About the contracts?”
She nodded. “Issig is powerful. I thought he might be able to stand up to my brother. And he did, foolishly. He went straight to Alastair and tried to pry the ledger from his fingers.” She grimaced. “The twins ripped his artéfact away and held him while my brother erased his mind until it snapped, then locked him behind the steel doors of the deep freeze where his magic couldn’t hurt others.”
“But if birds can’t access their magic, why didn’t he lock Issig in the aviary? It would have been the easier choice.”
“It would have, but I think, deep down, Alastair likes keeping him in that freezer. With his mind gone, Issig didn’t bother anyone or try anything. Besides, no one can use Issig’s artéfact but him, and guests need their precious ice,” she said bitterly. “If you try anything with those contracts, you’ll be locked away—” Her words cut off.
“What is it?”
One of her hatboxes crashed to the ground, followed by the other. She turned to me. “Get down.”
With a blast of shattering glass, the front door was kicked to the ground.
“Where are you, Céleste?” Yrsa drawled.
Dropping to a crouch, I peeked around the bookshelf. Yrsa stood inside the door, Sido behind her. I had to go. Zosa’s cage rested against the back counter. A shaft of light pooled behind it.
Another door.
Yrsa stepped closer to the counter. “There you are. Lovely to see you, too, my dear, dear Céleste. Say. Has a girl come by asking questions?” Yrsa smiled when she noticed Zosa’s cage. “Where is she?”
“I haven’t seen a girl,” Céleste said.
I scooted backward on my knees.
Yrsa pulled something from her pocket, a porcelain eye yellowed with age. “Alastair entrusted this to me.” She twisted the porcelain piece. “If I discover you’re lying, I’ll drop it.”
Céleste lurched forward. “Give it back.”
“Where’s the girl, Céleste?”
That was all it took. Céleste looked right at me. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
I shuffled back until a hand clamped down on my hair, wrenching my head to the side. Sido.
“Hold her,” Yrsa ordered.
The alchemist held the porcelain eye in her palm, just out of Céleste’s reach. Céleste tried to grab it. Her gloved fingers came close to snatching it. Yrsa tilted her palm. The eye fell to the floor with a crack. “Oh, how terribly clumsy of me.”
Céleste groaned. Her head dropped to the counter.
“We’re adding Champilliers back to our rotation. There are too many alchemical dealers here to waste this city on your brother’s pointless sense of obligation,” Yrsa said as her boot heel rolled against the porcelain remains.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Céleste jerked with each crack. Yrsa lifted her heel and stomped. With a swift snap, the rest of the eye shattered. Céleste collapsed against the counter. I couldn’t see her face, only her gloved hand. A trail of blood rolled down it, dripping onto the marble floor. Sido released me to check her pulse.
Everything inside me roared. I had to go.
“What are you doing? She’s dead, you fool. Get the little brat,” Yrsa ordered.
I scrambled to Zosa’s cage and heaved it up. The metal handle tore into broken skin. Blood trickled between my fingers as I squeezed it tightly and lunged out the back door, racing down crumbling stairs.