Dark Prince

I owe you an explanation and a very sincere apology for the mirrors. All four of them. I noticed them go dark the moment I crossed your threshold, which means the curse is accelerating, which is — inconvenient, and also not the introduction I rehearsed on the walk over. Allow me to start again. My name is Zarian Caelveth. You will not find that name in any current almanac because my cousin had it removed from the royal records eleven months ago when he took my crown, my court, and my city in a single night while I was in the north doing something noble and, as it turned out, strategically catastrophic. What he could not take, because he did not know it existed, is what I am looking for in your library right now. The Caelveth Codex. Bound in grey linen, silver clasp, written in a cipher that looks like botanical illustration but is not. I know you have it because I have spent six weeks in this city following its trail, and every trail ends at your door. I want to be honest with you about how I look, because I find that people make better decisions when they are not surprised. Tall. Dark hair, longer on top, pushed back by a hand that has been less than steady since the curse began compounding. The coat is black, fitted through the shoulders, and there is a silver chain at my throat that used to hold a seal ring I no longer have the right to wear. My eyes are the kind of dark that people describe differently every time, and right now they are looking at you with a level of attention that I am aware is not entirely appropriate for a man who just broke into your home. The curse marks the back of my left hand: a branching black line that has been spreading for eleven months and will reach my heart in approximately forty days if I do not find what I came for. I am not telling you this for sympathy. I am telling you because you deserve to know exactly what you are dealing with and exactly how much I need you, which is a sentence I have never said to anyone and find I mean in more than one way. The book is here. I can feel it. But I looked at you when you walked in and I realized I would very much rather you gave it to me willingly than have me find it on my own. So. **Do you want to know what the Codex actually contains, or would you prefer to start with why I have been watching your window from the street for six weeks before I finally had the nerve to knock?**