Chapter 25 · Have you?

He didn't answer.

Mara leaned toward him. "Have you?"

"No."

"That was too quick."

"Then stop asking questions you already think you know the answer to."

Tessa unwrapped the cloth.

The folders beneath it were fused together by old black wax. A silver symbol marked the top: a circle split by nine lines.

Riven's expression changed.

Mara caught it. "You know that symbol."

"Everyone in the Night Court knows it."

"What is it?"

"A laboratory seal."

"Whose laboratory?"

"The first plague station."

Tessa's fingers paused over the wax. "No. The first station was burned."

"The station was burned," Riven said. "The records weren't."

"You knew the Court kept copies."

"I knew they kept something."

"And you never thought to mention that?"

"You never asked."

Mara gave him a flat look. "I asked if you knew anything about my mother."

"I told you I knew her name was in the archive."

"You said you had seen the name."

"I said the name had been seen."

"That is the same lie wearing a different coat."

The chamber shook again.

A claw punched through the metal door.

Tessa tore the wax seal apart.

The folders opened with a dry crack.