Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

“That’s not why I stopped you.” She points behind me. “There’s a scribe chasing you down.” I turn to see Jesinia jogging toward me in the rain, her hand hidden beneath her robes. She’s keeping the journal dry. “See if you can talk her into getting somewhere safe,” Xaden suggests. “In the meantime, I’ll start picking the fight without you.” He walks into the thirty-foot-thick archway that serves as Basgiath’s gate, crossing under the first portcullis and continuing on, immediately gaining the attention of my mother, General Melgren, and three of his aides standing at the edge of the second portcullis. The tails of their dragons swing just past them, forming a wall half the height of the fortress itself, even more in the case of Codagh. “You should be—” I start signing to Jesinia, then drop my hands when I realize there’s nowhere safe for her to be. She grasps my elbow with her free hand and pulls me into the archway, under the portcullis. Leaving the journal within the robes, she pulls her other hand free to sign. “I think I found the difference between the two, but I think Lyra’s journal is the lie.” “What did you find?” I sign, keeping my back turned toward Melgren and raising my shields, blocking everyone out, even Tairn and Andarna. “I think it’s a seven.” She lifts her brows at me. “But it can’t be.” “I don’t understand.” I shake my head. “Seven what?” “That’s the only difference between the two journals. I thought at first maybe it meant runes, that we’d mistranslated...