The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3)

by Anita Clenney

  “No. It was already here. We found it when we moved the treasure from the abbey to the Tor.”

  “And the maze?”

  “It was already there too. That’s why we moved the brotherhood to Italy and built the castle there. With the maze as a gateway connecting the two locations, we were hidden but could still watch over the fountain.”

  Raphael must be sick. He never talked this much. Or maybe he was distracted by the sweats.

  “Are there other portals?”

  “Gateways? That’s what we call them. There are some.”

  “Where?”

  “That information is secret.”

  There was the Raphael he knew. “We’re up to our eyeballs in this. Seems to me you could be a little more helpful.”

  Raphael sighed, but it sounded like a growl. “The maze is an ancient gateway. We don’t know how it came to be.”

  “But there are others? I mean you travel around, popping in and out of rooms, landing in strange bathtubs.”

  “Traveling as I do requires good physical and mental condition. I was injured. I needed water. I was thinking about the fountain and Kendall.”

  “Kendall?”

  Raphael’s mouth tightened. “I was hoping she was all right after her encounter with the Reaper.”

  Something about Raphael’s explanation didn’t feel right. Then again, it was Raphael. “Wait a minute. You don’t use portals?”

  “Gateways? Not always.”

  Hell. Portals were eerie enough, but just popping up anywhere was something out of a science-fiction novel. “How do you do it?”

  “It’s all in the mind.”

  “You can move your body through space with your mind?”

  “To some degree.”

  “Anywhere you want to go?”

  “Not anywhere. It’s complicated.”

  Was there anything about the Protettori that wasn’t? “Kendall’s gift is complicated too. It just seems to work when it wants to.”

  “She and Nathan need to drink the water. That will help them focus and control their powers.”

  “So that’s why Kendall’s sixth sense is so quirky. Does she have your traveling gift?”

  “Perhaps. I don’t know her well enough to say.”

  “Something strange happened to us when we were in the tunnel under the Tor. She saw the ghost of a black knight.” He paused, feeling like an idiot for even talking about such a thing.

  Raphael scoffed. “The black knight. Serves him right to be stuck as a ghost.”

  “You know about him . . . knew him?”

  “Yes. He was a good knight, but a hateful man.”

  “Holy . . .” Jake shook off his shock. “When the knight ran at us, Kendall touched Nathan and me, and we ended up in Camelot.”

  “Camelot? You mean a vision?”

  “No, I think we were really there. The black knight came after us. Nathan stopped him, scared him off.”

  Raphael looked disturbed. “Very strange. You’re lucky you made it back. As I said, he was a powerful knight.”

  “So Kendall might be able to walk through walls too?”

  “It’s hard to say. She needs training to learn to control her abilities. So does Adam. Nathan, I mean.”

  “You believe he’s Adam?” Jake asked.

  “You don’t?”

  “I don’t know. Kendall seems to think so. Nathan’s not sure.”

  “You hope he isn’t?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  Raphael shrugged. “You didn’t have to.”

  “So you read minds too? This Protettori stuff sucks sometimes.”

  “You’re jealous because they have abilities and you don’t.”

  Jake grunted. Hell yeah, he was jealous. All the odds were in Nathan’s favor. “I wouldn’t mind being able to run like the wind and walk through walls.”

  Raphael gave Jake a dark smile. “Careful what you wish for.”

  They drove back to the room to see if by some miracle Kendall and Nathan had arrived. They hadn’t.

  “I’m going to look for Brandi and see if she knows something,” Jake said.

  Raphael stayed in the room in case Kendall and Nathan showed up. Jake secretly thought the guardian was planning to get more rest. On his way out, Jake arranged to keep the room for another few days since he didn’t know if Kendall and Nathan were nearby, and they still had to wrap up things with the police regarding the stolen Blue Chalice and the death of the Reaper’s man.

  Jake asked around the local hotels and found that Brandi had been seen by several people. Her hair made her noticeable, and it didn’t seem as if she was trying to hide. Another indication that she wasn’t responsible, but he could still wish. He could deal with Brandi. The Reaper was a different ball game. A taxi driver remembered dropping her off at a hotel. Jake found out which room she was staying in, but she had already checked out. Alone.

  When he arrived back at the room, Raphael was eating an apple. Jake hadn’t seen him eat before. It was a relief to see him do something human. “Any sign of them?” Jake asked.

  “No. Did you find Brandi?”

  “No, I found out what hotel she was staying in, but she’s checked out. Desk clerk said she was alone. She’s got her faults, but for all her talk, I can’t see her hurting Nathan or Kendall. Where the hell are they?”

  Raphael frowned at the apple and then put it down. “I’ve been thinking. I don’t believe they’re in England.”

  Jake’s gut tightened. “Where do you think they are?”

  “When I followed the Reaper through the gateway, I ended up in a city. An old city. I was too injured to search for him. I could hardly move. I needed to get back and drink from the fountain.”

  “What’s this got to do with Kendall and Nathan? Oh hell.” Jake’s stomach dropped down to his balls. “You think they fell through the Reaper’s portal?”

  “I’m afraid they must have.”

  “You don’t know where you were?”

  “The language was strange, but I can’t quite recall it.” Raphael’s eyes sparked with a memory. “Czech. I think someone was speaking Czech.”

  “The Czech Republic?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Hell. How are we going to get to the Czech Republic? We can hardly walk.”

  They decided to go to the castle in Italy first to get more water in hopes that they would recover from their injuries and that Raphael’s memory would improve. The jet wasn’t close enough, so they booked a commercial flight. Considering how old Raphael was, and the fact that he could travel without a car or an airplane, Jake was surprised that Raphael possessed a current ID. Raphael replied that he’d had many identities over the centuries.

  Flying with Raphael wasn’t fun. Everyone stared at him. With half his face tattooed and his large physique, what could he expect? And there was the attitude. He was sullen, he took up his entire seat and part of Jake’s—unfortunately they had to fly coach, with the seats already too small—and the guardian snored.

  Jake closed his eyes and tried to drown out Raphael’s snoring with thoughts of Kendall, but that made him so tense and uptight that he had to focus on the snoring to keep from worrying. He needed his head clear and his mind focused if he was going to help Kendall and Nathan.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ARE YOU FEELING well, Marco?” Fergus was worried about the old man, who had been resting in his quarters. Marco had hardly spoken on the way back to the castle. He had pretended to be sleeping, but Fergus had caught him several times staring ahead with a look of anguish on his face. He hadn’t mentioned finding the Reaper again. Thank God.

  Marco bent with a flurry of robes and put something underneath his bed. He looked flushed when he stood. “I have been better.”

  “Shall I get some food bro
ught up to you?”

  “Not now, thank you, Fergus. I owe you much for all you’ve done.”

  “You’ve paid me well.” Of course, he hadn’t known until recently it was Marco paying him to raise Nathan. There had just been automatic deposits into a bank account, which covered anything Nathan could want and paid for the best education a boy could have. Fergus had mailed quarterly reports on Nathan to a post office box in Italy. It had all seemed unusual, even sinister, but Fergus had been under the impression that Nathan’s father had been a powerful man who died in a witness protection program. Fergus’s only task was to care for Nathan, see to his well-being, and keep his identity a secret. Keeping Nathan’s identity concealed wasn’t hard, for Fergus hadn’t known the boy’s true origins.

  “Should you drink some of the water, perhaps?” Fergus asked.

  Marco’s white head moved slowly from side to side. “I can’t.”

  “Why do you believe you don’t deserve the right to drink Fountain of Youth water?”

  “I’ve done terrible things.”

  Marco? A gentle old man. “What could you have done that’s so bad?”

  “I betrayed the brotherhood.”

  “How? By protecting a boy from an angry group who might have killed him to protect their secrets? Surely that wasn’t enough to lose the privilege of drinking the water.”

  “There were other lies. Other secrets.”

  More than one lie? What could the old man be hiding? “Well, I think you should rest. Raphael and Jake will find Kendall and Nathan.” He hoped. Fergus couldn’t bear to think of losing Nathan. Or Kendall either, for that matter. He had grown very fond of the young lady.

  Marco didn’t answer. He seemed to have drifted off again. Fergus sighed and stood. As he left, he noticed the corner of a suitcase sticking out from under Marco’s bed.

  Marco’s bones creaked with age as he walked down the winding staircase to the round door in the bowels of the castle. It took a moment to remember how to open the door. So many things slipped his memory now. He should have been strong and full of vitality instead of a senile, doddering old man. He finally got it open and stepped inside, terrified at what he was about to do. He didn’t see any other options. The Reaper was too close. If he found the chalice, the damage would be irreparable. He felt a rush of pain, one that he had tried to numb himself to over the centuries. It was said that time healed all wounds. Not all of them. Some remained until the grave.

  He approached the room and stood for a moment, thinking through his plan again. There would be consequences for his actions, but this was his mess. He was the one who had betrayed the brotherhood. He was the one who had lied, even to Raphael, his most trusted guardian. If he hadn’t, perhaps they could have stopped the Reaper before so many lives had been lost. Raphael was angry with Marco now. He would be angrier if he knew the whole truth.

  After he finished his task, he waited there for several minutes before realizing it was hopeless. It wasn’t going to work. He would have to take care of matters himself. How could he take care of this mess in such a weakened state? Would such a cause justify a small drink?

  Kendall stared at the cross lying on her palm. “How can it be Jake’s?” she whispered.

  Nathan was quiet, looking at the necklace. “He must have gone to search for us. I guess it came through the portal.”

  “Then where is Jake?” Kendall touched the cross again. Her fingers tingled, but she didn’t feel the same shock she had before.

  Nathan’s jaw tightened. “The chain’s broken.” His worried gaze met hers. “Maybe he lost it.”

  Or maybe he was floating around in a portal. “If he lost it in the temple, how will he get out? We have to get back. He could die in there.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “Jake?”

  “Yeah, Jake,” Nathan said softly. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “I care for him.”

  “You didn’t like him before.”

  “That wasn’t really him. He puts up walls to keep people out. Or to keep them at a safe distance.” Nathan should know a lot about that. He used the same trick. “Probably something to do with being raised in an orphanage. I’m sure it’s made him slow to trust.”

  “He trusts you. He loves you.” Nathan’s voice wasn’t so much bitter as it was sad. “I didn’t expect that.”

  Kendall felt as if she should apologize. She didn’t want to hurt Nathan. She adored him. If she was honest with herself, she was even attracted to him. “He’s not the only one who puts up walls. You do it too. You’ve both had sucky childhoods. I’m sure it wasn’t easy. At least I can remember mine.”

  “I get glimpses of my father. At least I think he’s my father. When I try to remember, my head starts pounding, and everything changes like I’m standing in a room of warped mirrors.”

  “I’m sorry, Nathan. Really sorry. I loved him too. I thought he was my real uncle for a long time. He liked it, I think. He was adventurous, intense, like my dad. I think everyone involved in relics and archaeology is.”

  “I wish I could remember, but sometimes I’m afraid to.”

  “Why afraid?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You blocked everything . . . assuming you’re Adam,” she added, seeing his frown. “You may have seen something that’s too frightening to remember.”

  “Like?”

  “Like who killed your father.”

  “You think he was murdered?” Nathan asked.

  “I thought about what Fergus said, about the witness protection program. I don’t think that was true. I think that was something Marco made up to justify keeping you hidden and changing your name. Uncle John was too much in the public eye to have been in a witness protection program. But he did have enemies. He had one of the greatest collections in the world. Thieves and other collectors would have stolen or killed to get their hands on it. And who’s the one person who we know killed to obtain collections?”

  “The Reaper.”

  “The Reaper. My guess is that he killed your father like he killed Brandi and Thomas’s parents.”

  “My father’s collection was astounding.”

  Kendall stilled. “You remember it?”

  Nathan look rattled for a moment. “I think I saw it because I was touching your hand.”

  “I don’t think so. I saw your eyes. You were remembering. What other glimpses do you get?”

  “You, as a girl. And places that I don’t remember visiting. I’ve traveled to some of them, hoping I would find answers, but it’s like having pieces of two different puzzles floating around in my head.”

  “What kind of places?”

  “The pyramids in Egypt.”

  “We were there,” Kendall said. “A lot.”

  “I spent three months in Peru. I’m not sure why. The place drew me.”

  “We were there too, Nathan.” She turned over her hand and showed him a small scar on her palm. “I got this there.”

  He brushed his fingers over the small, jagged line. “You were climbing a tree and fell.”

  “That’s right.” Adam had hurried over, laughing, because the fall hadn’t been far and she’d landed with her butt in the air. He was the one who’d put antibacterial cream on the cut so it wouldn’t get infected, and then bandaged it in a way so that her father wouldn’t notice it and get upset. He’d told her not to climb that tree. “Face it, Nathan. You’re Adam.”

  Please be Adam.

  He nodded toward their joined hands. “It’ll take more than some memories that may not even be mine to convince me.” He dropped her hand. “If we don’t get out of here, it won’t matter who I am.”

  He was still afraid, she thought. “How? We’re in a room without a door.” Nathan rubbed his chin and Kendall could see him thinking. “You loo
k like you have an idea.”

  “Maybe we didn’t travel through a portal. Remember how we went from the tunnel in the abbey to . . . uh . . .”

  “Camelot?”

  “Yeah, Camelot, and then we came back to the tunnel. I don’t think that was a portal. I think you transported us there and back. If we can figure out how it happened, maybe you can do it again.”

  “I don’t know how I did it. I saw the black knight riding toward us, or his ghost. I grabbed you and Jake, and I think the knight went . . . through us, and we ended up in Camelot with the real black knight, like Alice down the rabbit hole. We could have died there if that knight had gotten hold of us.”

  “He didn’t.”

  “Because you scared his horse out from under him. You have to admit, that was cool. Terrifying, but cool.”

  “His horse recognized another creature,” Nathan said.

  “It recognized something stronger. Did the knight say anything to you?”

  “No. He just looked at my cross and backed away.”

  “He bowed first,” Kendall said. “I wonder why.”

  “Probably thought I was one of the Protettori. We got back to the tunnel by thinking about it. What if we try thinking about the fountain? Maybe we’ll go back there.”

  “It can’t hurt. We need to get back to the temple for Raphael’s water anyway. How did we do it? We were sitting down, holding hands, I think.”

  They did it like they had before, sitting cross-legged, facing each other. Nathan reached for her hands. His were warm and strong.

  “What if we get separated?” she asked. She had lost Adam once. She wasn’t going to risk losing him again. She’d rather stay here and find another way out.

  “I’ll hold on to you,” he said, holding her hands tight. “I won’t let go.”

  A rush of tears stung her eyes as she realized this was Adam sitting across from her, vowing to protect her, just as he had when they were kids. She blinked so he wouldn’t see her eyes glistening. “We should think about the same thing. Something safe. Not the fountain.” The fountain could kill them if misused.