Read The Black Key for Free Online

explain, time to apologize.
    Lucien can’t save her. He can’t watch her twenty-four hours a day. He has other priorities, and as much as he cares for me, he would sacrifice Hazel if it meant saving the city.
    â€œI’m going to the Jewel,” I say. “Now. Tonight.”
    â€œViolet, don’t be—”
    â€œI’m going,” I snap, cutting him off. “What would youdo if it was Azalea? It’s my fault Hazel is there at all. The Duchess took her to get to me. I know it, I feel it. If I can’t protect her now, I . . .” My voice trails off because I can’t finish that sentence.
    â€œAnd how exactly do you plan on getting here?”
    â€œI’ll take a train to the Bank. I can burrow under the wall surrounding the Jewel as easily as Southgate.” Okay, maybe not quite as easily, but it’s the same general idea.
    â€œNot only is that a foolhardy plan that could give the game away, but what do you intend to do once you are in the Jewel itself? Walk up to the Duchess’s palace and ring the doorbell? Think, Violet. There are bigger things at stake here than personal struggles.”
    â€œAnd if I don’t try and save Hazel now, then I don’t know what I’m fighting for at all,” I say.
    â€œYou would be recognized,” Lucien says. “It’s too—”
    I gasp, an idea occurring to me—a crazy, rash idea that I’m not even sure is possible. But I’m willing to try anything at this point. Without another word I turn and run upstairs, ignoring the shouted questions from Sil and Raven, Lucien’s tinny voice demanding to know what’s going on.
    Ash and I sleep in the barn together, but we keep our clothes in Raven’s room. There are other clothes as well, which Sil has collected over the years. One dress I remember distinctly, because it reminded me so much of the servant’s dresses Raven and I used to disguise ourselves in the Bank. I comb through the closet, find it, and yank it off the hanger—it is plain and brown, a little small across the chest but it will do. I pull it on and look at myself in the mirror. Slowly, I raise a hand and knot it in my hair.
    Once to see it as it is. Twice to see it in your mind. Thrice to bend it to your will.
    My scalp tingles as my hair turns from black to gold. The headache that comes with performing an Augury throbs at the base of my skull. This is how I disguised Ash when we sneaked into his companion house. It’s strange to use it on myself. I turn my head back and forth, examining the unfamiliar strands of blond.
    But it’s my eyes that are the real problem. If I can’t change them, the Duchess will spot me instantly.
    I close them now. I think I can do this without physically putting my fingers on my eyeballs—the thought gives me the creeps. I just need to focus hard enough on what I want. The picture forms crystalline in my mind.
    Once to see it as it is. Twice to see it in your mind. Thrice to bend it to your will.
    Unlike with my hair, this Augury is agony. I scream and clap my hands over my eyes. They boil in their sockets, burning like little balls of fire. Just when I don’t think I can bear it any longer, the pain stops. I stay hunched over for a moment, breathing heavily.
    When I open my eyes, a stranger stares back at me in the mirror. A blond-haired, green-eyed stranger with my nose and chin. I quickly use the second Augury, Shape, to adjust the lines of my face. It hurts almost as much as my eyes, but at the end, my chin is a bit rounder, my forehead higher, my nose a little larger.
    â€œViolet, are you—” Raven stops short in the doorway, gaping at me. “What did you do ?”
    â€œI’m going to the Jewel,” I say, walking past her andback downstairs to where Lucien is probably still losing it on the arcana.
    Olive shrieks as I enter the living room. Indi drops the plate she’s drying. Sienna