Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(97)

“But it’s not just Saul,” Naomi said, and I noticed her voice had dipped in volume. “There are members of the Sect helping him. Even members of the Council. This is much bigger than just him. You must have realized it. How could Saul alone have taken down the APDs of all those different cities?”

Even after what Uncle Nathan had told me about his job in the MDCC, I may not have known exactly how it all worked, but I knew that the city’s system was complex enough that it required networks of very smart technicians with very expensive computers to play with. Unless Saul could shut off complicated technology with the power of his mind, he’d need people from within the center, or maybe a special group from the outside hacking into multiple ones. It was the only explanation.

“It’s why Baldric fled,” Naomi said.

“Baldric.” Belle stepped around the coffee table. I watched each step she took toward the woman with anxious eyes. “Natalya mentioned him to a priest we know. Madame, who is this man?”

Naomi brought her hands up to her chest, her thumb caressing the ring around her finger. A nervous tic. “Baldric Haas. He’s also a member of the Council. Like my family, he’s been in service of the Sect since its inception. They are the only ones who knew about the last volume: the one Castor had written in secret.”

“A secret volume?” I looked at the other girls. “A thirteenth volume?”

Naomi nodded. “It’s said to carry the most dangerous secrets Castor couldn’t divulge even to the Sect. But as dangerous as it was, Castor wouldn’t destroy it. Instead, he entrusted it to the Haas family. They’ve been guarding it since, but eventually Baldric grew anxious.”

“What secrets?” Lake asked. “Like . . . like about us?”

“About you. About the phantoms. About the beginning of everything,” she said, her eyelids fluttering shut as she remembered. “Or so he told me. I can’t know for sure. He’s probably the only human alive who knows what’s inside those pages. But he’s always been a paranoid man, and he only trusted me to a point. He was the one who first told me at the beginning of this year that there were rumblings of treason within the Sect. That Saul appeared not long afterward isn’t a coincidence. Baldric was sure that the secrets in the volume were central to the happenings in the Sect, to Saul, to the attacks around the world. But he wouldn’t tell me how until he was sure the volume was safe in his hands.”

“You said you know how Natalya died.” Belle stopped by the chair Naomi had been sitting in, her hands brushing the top. “Can you tell me?”

It was only for a fleeting second—Naomi’s line of vision crossing with mine. Her eyes dimmed as she held her hands close to her sides to hide their slight tremble.

“Every generation of the Haas family places the volume in a new location to keep it safe. Baldric wanted to retrieve the volume from where he’d been hiding it—in Prague’s National Museum. But he’d fallen sick. Though he asked me to help him, if he really was being watched, it would be dangerous for me to go alone. On his behalf, I sent Natalya.” She watched Belle’s expression carefully as she spoke. “By then Natalya had already become suspicious about things. Around half a year ago, she came to me. After the Frankfurt attacks.”

“Frankfurt,” Belle said. “Sibyl told us. She confronted Saul then. Yes . . . just before the attack. Though he disappeared before she understood who or what he was.”

“I needed someone on my side,” explained Naomi. “I told her about the volume and asked her to bring it to me secretly, without the Sect knowing. But Natalya was a soldier. She was anxious about going against them . . . so I promised her what Baldric promised me—that with the volume, we’d know the truth. And that I would protect her from the Sect.”

She lowered her head.

“But you couldn’t,” Belle finished for her.

“She was intercepted and couldn’t retrieve it. Afterward, it was too risky to move. Baldric became jittery and finally fled Britain. Natalya would have tried again once the heat was off of her, but . . .”

“That’s when she was killed, right?” Chae Rin said. “She didn’t get a chance.”

Naomi took a shaky step forward. “I’m sorry, Belle. I know she was close to you. Like family.” Her eyes were glistening. “I’m sorry.”

“Do you know who killed her?”

Silence. Though Belle had sounded calm, I knew better than to take that stone mask as truth. Naomi said nothing, but I couldn’t keep this secret for much longer.

No. It wasn’t right. I had to confess.

My fingers clasped together, my body shivering from the stinging pain of my teeth biting into the corner of my lip. I couldn’t stay silent. No matter what my feelings were. No matter the consequences. I didn’t want to be a coward anymore. I had to trust Belle.

But when I opened my lips, the confession passed through Naomi’s instead.

“I did,” she said. Simple, bitter words.

The room went quiet. Seconds passed in silence.

An unbearable cold suddenly crashed into me as if I’d been caught in a torrent of wind. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, frost lined the bookshelves, clinging to the ceiling. Snow gathered on the furniture, the marble counters. And Belle’s sword was already at Naomi’s throat.