The carriage rocked with a rhythmic, bone-jarring sway as it ate up the miles back toward the capital. Inside, Odesse pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the window, her breath fogging the pane. Her makeup felt heavy—cracking slightly around her eyes where the black veins had strained the skin hours before.
Her mind was a chaotic loop. "What if I'm wrong?" She looked down at her stiff, pale fingers, curling them into a fist to force the blood back into the numbed tips. "Azure bragged about the historical library. She wouldn't have mentioned it if the answers there were easily found. I'm chasing a ghost based on a taunt." The thought of Valex finding an empty bedchamber sent a sharp stab of anxiety through her chest. She hadn't left a note. If she failed today, she wasn't just gambling with her own failing health—she was leaving him completely blind to whatever Azure chose to do next.
