A Witch Alone (The Winter Witch Trilogy #3) Read Online Free PDF

witchlight flare up again as I opened it, trying to keep my palm angled to illuminate the page. January, February … I counted on my fingers. Six weeks from my birthday, so that was the sixteenth of January … One, two, three … The first week of March, near enough. I flicked forward in the ledger and scanned down the lists of names. Nothing. Nothing I recognized.
    I was about to slam the ledger down in disgust when a shadow suddenly passed across the lamp in the corridor and my breath caught in my throat. The witchlight in my palm guttered and died abruptly, and I shrank into the corner of the room, holding my breath.
    But the passer-by continued on their way and I let out a great shuddering gasp. Then suddenly an idea struck me.
    ‘You idiot,’ I whispered under my breath. Of course – when my dad had said six weeks, he’d meant six weeks from my real birthday, not my fake one. Six weeks from the sixth of January. That meant – the third week of February.
    My hands were shaking so hard that the witchlight in my palm cast flickering shadows across the thick paper. I turned back sheet after sheet … The twenty-first of February, nothing. The twentieth of February, nothing. Next I ran my trembling finger down the column of names for the nineteenth: Franklin , Adelstrop , Restorick , Vandellen , Menton , Vane , Ayckbourn  …  Rokewood .
    My finger stopped. She’d been here.
    I. Rokewood. 11.45pm, Neckinger entrance.
    And then a note at the foot of the page, before the new day’s entry for the twentieth of February began: Today a most regrettable disturbance in the library; the vandalism of one of our most valuable tomes, the Codex Angelis . An entire page, ‘The Riddle of the Epiphany’, was torn out. It is very hard to believe that one of the members present on this date was responsible for the destruction.
    Coincidence? The thought hung in the air as the witchlight flickered and waxed high in my palm. Impossible.
    Then a shadow fell over the page and an accusing voice came from behind me.
    ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’
    I jumped and let the ledger fall from my hands with a sound like a clap of thunder.
    ‘I—’
    Light flooded the room as the stranger cast his own witchlight, engulfing mine in a blaze of brilliance.
    ‘You!’
    We both gasped.
    It was a man – a boy, really, just a few years older than me – wearing an immaculate grey suit. His smooth chestnut hair gleamed in the witchlight. And I knew him. A few months ago he’d saved my skin – and I had no idea who he was, beyond his first name.
    ‘M-Marcus?’ I managed.
    ‘Get out,’ he said harshly. ‘The archivist is coming. You do not want to be found here.’
    ‘Thank you!’ I gasped.
    ‘ Go! ’ he hissed.
    I didn’t need to be told again.
    I ran.
     
    ‘Anna!’ Miss Vane looked furious but relieved as I sank into the seat next to her, trying to suppress my panting. ‘Where have you been? I was beside myself! I told you to stay here – what possessed you to wander off? Especially today of all days.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. My voice was as even as I could make it. ‘I needed the loo and I got lost.’
    ‘Oh.’ She looked slightly mollified. ‘Well it looks like the meeting is breaking up in any case. Chair Rokewood –’ she turned as my grandmother wearily ascended the steps towards us ‘– is the meeting closing?’
    ‘Yes, it seems so, for the moment at least.’
    ‘Do they know what caused the explosion?’
    ‘Not yet. There was no physical evidence of a disturbance – but the sound would seem to indicate that one of the wards was compromised. We’re not certain if it was merely some activity of the outwith which impinged on one of our security measures. If they dig too close to the rivers it can destabilize the foundations, though the wards are supposed to prevent that. But whatever the cause, it’s worrying that the shields were so badly affected. The Keepers are working now to