The Burning Page (The Invisible Library, #3)

by Genevieve Cogman

‘Is anyone up there?’ came a yell in French from downstairs. The natural human response was to shout, ‘No!’ Which said something about humanity.

She drained her cup and put it down with a clink. ‘But I need to be serious too, darling. Someone out there wants to kill you.’ It was rather sad that Irene’s first reaction was not so much shock as resignation. Then she wondered whether there was a queue, and if someone was selling tickets.

Dead was still dead, whether the killer was exotic, professional or amateur. Getting killed was incredibly easy. Anyone could do it. Staying safe and alive was much harder.

Kai might be very non-judgemental when it came to personal gender roles, but he was extremely superior when explaining how non-judgemental he was.

‘You’re surprisingly sympathetic.’ ‘Not sympathy so much as pity,’ Silver said. ‘Sympathy would imply I might even try to help them. Pity is much safer. It can be delivered from on high without getting involved. I pity them. I sympathize with you, detective.’

Kai’s wings spread with a thud of air like a miniature thunderclap, and their descent abruptly slowed. It was probably a contradiction of the natural laws of inertia and force equals mass times acceleration, or whatever the relevant equations were. But if the universe wasn’t paying attention, Irene wasn’t going to raise the issue.

I mean by alert guards, who have been warned about possible revolutionaries – guards ready to shoot to kill and have the necromancers ask questions later.

The sound was like a thousand dentist drills biting into a thousand innocent teeth.