Kell’s blood, when paired with the token, allowed him to move between the worlds. He needn’t specify a place because wherever he was, that’s where he’d be. But to make a door within a world, both sides had to be marked by the same exact symbol. Close wasn’t close enough. Kell had learned that the hard way.
The symbol on the wall was still clear from his last visit, the edges only slightly smeared, but it didn’t matter. It had to be redone.
He rolled up his sleeve and freed the knife he kept strapped to the inside of his forearm. It was a lovely thing, that knife, a work of art, silver from tip to hilt and monogrammed with the letters K and L.
The only relic from another life.
A life he didn’t know. Or at least, didn’t remember.
Kell brought the blade to the back of his forearm. He’d already carved one line today, for the door that brought him this far. Now he carved a second. His blood, a rich ruby red, welled up and over, and he returned the knife to its sheath and touched his fingers to the cut and then to the wall, redrawing the circle and the line that ran through it. Kell guided his sleeve down over the wound—he’d treat all the cuts once he was home—and cast a last glance back at the babbling king before pressing his palm flat to the mark on the wall.
It hummed with magic.
“As Tascen,” he said. Transfer.
The patterned paper rippled and softened and gave way under his touch, and Kell stepped forward and through.
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TOR BOOKS BY V. E. SCHWAB
Vicious
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
V. E. Schwab is the author of The Near Witch and The Archived. The product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a Southern upbringing, Schwab has a penchant for tea and BBC shows, and a serious and well-documented case of wanderlust. Vicious is her first adult book.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
VICIOUS
Copyright © 2013 by Victoria Schwab
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Victo Ngai
Edited by Miriam Weinberg
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-3534-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-2217-7 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466822177
First Edition: September 2013
V. E. Schwab, Vicious
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