Chapter 22

Ronan’s POV

The lamplight beneath the archive door came from a lantern someone had left burning on the floor. Three locks secured the door, but the lowest had been picked, and the upper two stood open. Tamsin touched the hinge, then showed me the fresh oil on her fingers.

“Whoever came down knew how to leave quickly,” she said.

Lucien checked the passage behind us before entering. I had not asked him to come. He had stayed when the route turned dark, which told me more than another declaration of support would have.

Alden’s archive looked painfully ordinary. His maps remained rolled in the rack; a dried sprig of rosemary lay beside the writing desk where he used to keep a pot of sealing wax. At twelve, I stole that wax and spent a week copying theft statutes as punishment. I remembered complaining so loudly th