A flawless orb, a little smaller than an eye, dangled from the chain. Red, blue, black, and white lights each occupied one quarter of the sphere’s surface and moved across its face in perfect harmony.
“Behold the Heart of Eternity,” the woman said in a clear, strong voice. “I, alone among the mortal tribes, was strong enough to gather its components. The gizzard of a phoenix. The earthen liver from a stone giant. The eyes of a wind drake. And, most difficult of all, the core shard ripped from the still-living body of Largus Vasatri, king of the Jade Spears, who seers claim was among those who worked the bellows of the first forge.”
The woman held the sphere aloft. Wiry threads of jinsei crawled around as the woman parted her robes to reveal her sternum. She grasped the Heart firmly between her thumb and forefinger and pushed its end against her skin. A faint wet sound came from her ribs, and a hole opened in the center of her chest.
The woman’s body vanished. A sizzling portal appeared in the air where she’d been sitting. Its edges writhed with jinsei fire, and the Heart of Eternity floated in the darkness, a priceless artifact ripe for the taking. I reached forward, and—
“Jace!” Clem’s voice sliced through my vision and dragged me back to the cluttered museum.
My fusion blade had appeared in my hand by instinct, and I slammed the book closed with the other. Serpents exploded from my aura, rearing above me to strike or defend. I spun to face the direction Clem was pointing and caught sight of a black robe as it vanished through the museum’s doorway.
Someone had followed us.
And in their haste to escape, they’d snapped the tripwire across the door.
The Spy
A RAPID-FIRE CLANKING echoed through the library’s walls. Chains hidden in the walls rattled into motion, their vibrations shaking rivulets of dust loose from the ceiling. The floor rumbled, and cracks yawned wide around the bookshelves and display cases. Forked bolts of jinsei rocketed around the room and triggered scrivenings that turned the museum into a thunderstorm. The whole place was coming down around our ears.
“Let’s get out of here!” I shouted, tossing the crystalline book to Clem. “Keep that safe! I’m going after him!”
My friend tucked the book under her arm. Her boot heels clicked against the floor as she raced across the museum behind me. Eric and Abi were right behind us as we dodged around falling bookshelves and leaped over cracks that opened in the floor ahead of us. The chaos chased us out of the museum but didn’t pursue us into the hall outside.
The spy was quick, I’d give them that. They sprinted down the narrow hallways and darted around blind corners with all the desperate hustle of a rat with a hungry cat on its tail. They’d started with a good lead and were making the most of that advantage. The School shifted and bent ahead of them as they searched for an escape.
Unfortunately for the spy, they weren’t as fast as me.
A jolt of jinsei boosted my speed and narrowed the gap between us before my quarry had gotten more than a hundred yards. My serpents stabbed into the walls and floor, helping me round corners so tightly my shoulders brushed away chunks of brittle old stone. When we entered a long straightaway, the Eclipse hunger surged inside me and turned my eyes deadly black. It wanted to tear this fool apart and gulp down his core.
No, I reminded myself. We need to know who this is, and who sent them.
The spy glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes went wide, seeing just how close I was. They grew even wider when my serpents slammed into the ground and vaulted me into the air so I could run along the wall to overtake the fleeing spy.
I landed in front of the runner and knocked his legs out from under him with a sweep from one serpent. I grabbed the collar of his robes before the idiot cracked his their skull on the stone floor. A quick jerk flipped him upright, and I held him them with his feet dangling inches above the floor.
My quarry tried to wriggle free of my grip. When that failed, he kicked me, but his weak blows bounced off my core-hardened skin with no effect.
“Stop it,” I growled.
The spy instantly went limp. His hands dangled to his sides as if all the strength had fled his body.
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.
My anger cooled from white hot to lukewarm at the sound of the spy’s voice. He sounded far too young to be a real threat to me. A quick glance at his core showed me he was barely an initiate. One of my serpents flicked the spy’s hood back to reveal a skinny kid who couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old.
“You’re lucky you aren’t dead,” I growled. “Why were you following me?”
The spy blinked and glanced at the floor. “Could you put me down?”
“No,” I shot back. “Not until I get some answers out of you.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded uncertainly. He took one deep breath and then another. A thin trickle of jinsei flowed into his core. Aspects of fear and anxiety clung to his aura.
“You’re Jace,” the kid stated. “They asked me to follow you. See what you were doing, but I didn’t see anything. The pretty girl shouted when I stuck my head in the room, and then you chased me. Please, believe me. I didn’t see anything.”
Anger turned to exasperation, and I lowered the kid to the ground. I did not, however, release him. He was sorely mistaken if he believed I’d give him
