“Damned curse,” Nathan muttered.
“It’s not a curse,” Raphael said. “You just don’t know how to use your powers yet.”
“Whose fault is that?” Nathan asked. “You’re the one who knows how all this works, and you haven’t told us anything. If we’re going to be part of the Protettori, we need to know what we’re doing.”
“Taking a vow you didn’t understand when you were children doesn’t make you part of the brotherhood,” Raphael said.
“You don’t know.” Jake smiled, his lips hard. “The person you decided not to kill is the Protettori’s next keeper, according to Marco.”
Raphael looked disturbed. “He said this?”
“He did, and he said Nathan is a guardian. Looks like you’re not alone anymore.”
“But how can he be a guardian? He’s . . .”
“I’m what?” Nathan asked.
Raphael didn’t answer.
“King Arthur?” Kendall asked. “You think he can’t be a guardian because he was King Arthur?” Kendall frowned. “That doesn’t sound ridiculous at all.”
“He isn’t ready,” Raphael said.
That wasn’t what he was going to say. Jake wished he had Kendall’s gift to read minds. He looked at her to see if he could pick anything up secondhand, but Kendall wasn’t paying attention to her would-be murderer now. She was trying to get Nathan to lie down.
“I’m fine,” Nathan said. But he was leaning on Kendall, who had sat beside him wearing Jake’s boxers and T-shirt. Now her soul mate, returned from the dead, was injured. Another mark in Nathan’s favor.
“If he was once King Arthur—” Jake stopped. Kendall was right, it did sound ridiculous. “Then he’s already been one of the Protettori.”
Raphael pulled out a vial and handed it to Nathan. “Drink this. It’s not poison,” he said when Nathan stared at it, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Isn’t drinking the water dangerous?” Kendall asked.
“Not if taken correctly. It will become your lifeblood. It gives you strength and helps you control your abilities.”
Nathan rubbed his head. “What if I don’t want them? When you were holding me in the temple you said there was a way to get rid of my . . . abilities.”
Raphael’s eyes were so still he looked like a corpse. “It would require a great sacrifice.”
“What?”
“That’s something we can discuss later. Now isn’t the time.”
“Drink the water,” Jake said to Nathan. “It kept me from dying when I passed those statues.”
“He could have switched it with something else,” Nathan said.
“If he poisons you, I promise I’ll kill him,” Jake said.
And he would.
Raphael shook his head. His hair didn’t look as wild now. Was the water responsible for that? Jake touched his hair. It didn’t feel as dry and stiff, and he realized he didn’t feel as cooked inside.
Still eyeing Raphael suspiciously, Nathan opened the vial and drank.
“It’ll take effect quickly,” Raphael said.
A knock sounded at the door. Everyone turned to look.
“Are you going to get that,” Nathan asked Jake, “or just stand there playing with your hair?”
Jake dropped his hand and walked to the door. It was Hank and three guards.
“Everything OK?” Hank asked. “We heard a scream.”
“Kendall saw a mouse,” Jake said.
Hank frowned.
Jake knew it was a bad excuse. Kendall wasn’t the kind of girl to be scared of a mouse.
“What are you doing here?” Hank asked. “I thought your room was on the third floor.”
“We were . . . having a meeting,” Nathan said, trying to look alert.
Hank didn’t seem convinced. Neither did the other guards.
“Everything’s fine,” Nathan said. “We won’t be much longer.”
Still frowning, Hank motioned the other guards away.
After they left, Kendall convinced Nathan to lie down for a few minutes. “I think all these memories on top of falling through a portal was too much.”
“It probably didn’t help,” Raphael said. “Where did you enter the gateway?”
“Near the wheel that opens the fountain. I was going to fill your vial,” she said, reminding her would-be assassin that she had been trying to save his life. “But when I touched the wheel I had a vision or something, and I think my sixth sense blasted me. I fell backward. Nathan reached for me, and we ended up here.”
“It worked?” Raphael looked surprised and alarmed. The alarmed look worried Jake.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“My new gateway. I hadn’t tested it.”
“You mean we fell through a portal that wasn’t ready while we were trying to help you?” Nathan asked.
“What the hell. You just leave unfinished portals lying around waiting for someone to fall in?” Jake didn’t want to think what might have happened.
“Nathan was injured. He could have died!” Kendall looked like a mother bear defending her cub. Except Nathan wasn’t her cub. He was her lost soul mate returned from the dead. Jake knew he had to give her and Nathan some space to rekindle their friendship or he would end up pushing her away.
“I appreciate the help, but no one besides me was supposed to be in the temple.” Raphael’s look of remorse turned to a glare aimed at Jake. “No, I don’t leave unfinished portals lying around for someone to fall in.”
“What if the portal hadn’t worked?” Kendall asked, voicing Jake’s real concern.
A tattoo moved under Raphael’s eye. “I think it’s best we didn’t find out.”
“Bloody hell,” Nathan said, holding his head. “You mean we could have ended up with parts of our bodies all over the place? Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. Part of my brain is somewhere else.”
Raphael walked over to the bed. This time no one stopped him. He tilted his head as he studied Nathan. “What happened before you passed out?”
“When I saw you standing over Kendall’s bed with that dagger, all these flashes went through my mind. Memories. I don’t know. That’s all I remember.”
“You’re remembering parts of your past and it’s interfering with your abilities,” Raphael said.
“Shorting him out,” Jake said.
“Is it dangerous?” Kendall asked.
“It could be,” Raphael said. “This isn’t something I’ve encountered. We need to watch him.”
Kendall was already worrying over him like a mama bear . . . or a girlfriend. But Jake was more alarmed than he wanted to admit. He and Nathan argued, and Jake was jealous as hell of his relationship with Kendall, but he trusted Nathan to help keep Kendall safe. His abilities, while troubling, had come in handy. If Nathan was going to faint in the middle of a fight, Jake couldn’t trust him to protect Kendall. Or himself. Jake would have to keep a closer eye on them both.
Raphael stood back, arms folded over his chest. “He needs to get his memories back or let them go. They’re messing with his head.”
“Are you a therapist too . . . along with your ability to do magic tricks?” Jake asked.
“I’ve studied humans for a long time,” Raphael said quietly.
“We need to go back to where he was raised.” Kendall’s expression was soft as she looked at Nathan.
We? As in her and him or all of them? “I thought that was all over the world,” Jake said, checking to see if Kendall’s bare legs were touching Nathan’s.
“We traveled a lot,” Kendall said. “But if he went back to his home when he was a kid, saw his old room, it might jog his memories.”
“No.” Nathan’s jaw was set.
“Why not?” Kendall asked.
Jake knew Nathan
was terrified that he wasn’t Adam. Jake was terrified that he was. But after that little scene at the graveyard—if they were telling the truth about what prompted it—Nathan should be convinced.
“We don’t have time,” Nathan said, his voice firm, as if trying to convince himself. “We have to find the chalice and stop the Reaper. I’ll travel down memory lane later. I’ll try to block the memories for now.”
“I’m not sure that’s good,” Kendall said.
“He has a point,” Jake said. And it wasn’t just because he didn’t want Kendall and Nathan off exploring their childhood memories. “If Raphael’s right and the Reaper is going to try to use you to find the chalice, you have to limit your activities to what’s absolutely necessary. And even then, you’re not to be alone at any time.” He felt like a hypocrite for not remaining by Kendall’s side.
“They’re right,” Raphael said. “I could have killed you if I had wanted to. Luke is very smart. And he’s desperate.”
Nathan looked at Raphael. “If we’re going to find the Holy Grail before the Reaper does, I think it’s time for an unveiling. You need to tell us everything we should know.”
An expression crossed Raphael’s face, so potent and loaded with secrets that Jake felt them like a physical thing. For a moment, he could understand how Kendall felt when she read someone. She had noticed the expression on Raphael’s face too and was frowning. Jake wondered what she’d seen. He was certain of one thing—whatever Raphael told them, it wouldn’t be everything.
Raphael seemed to come to a conclusion. “You want to know about the Protettori?”
“Yes,” Nathan said.
“Do you feel well enough to walk?” Raphael asked Nathan.
“Yes.”
“I’ll help him,” Kendall said.
“Then come with me.”
“What about the men, the statues?” Nathan asked.
“Fergus is with them.”
“Is he safe?” Nathan asked.
“They won’t kill him. They know they’ll have to answer to me.”
“Kill him? How crazy are they?” Nathan asked.
“Fergus will be fine.”
Nathan followed Raphael, with Kendall close beside him.
Jake stayed back, not sure the invitation had been extended to him. He wasn’t a new keeper or guardian.
Kendall stopped and looked back. “Come on.”
“I’m not part of the Protettori.” Which pissed him off. Kendall and Nathan already shared a connection. Now this?
“You’ve done as much for the Protettori as any guardian,” Kendall said, her jaw set.
Raphael nodded. “Come.”
There were four levels to the castle, three aboveground and one underneath. The main level consisted of a living space, common areas, the library, the kitchen, meeting rooms, storage, and a few bedrooms. Most of the top two levels consisted of bedrooms to accommodate the large number of Protettori who had once lived here, and also the room with the mural on the wall, where the water from the Fountain of Youth was kept.
The towers on either end of the castle were identical, Raphael had said. The underground level was where most of the secrets were, and this is where Raphael took them. “Isn’t this near the room where the men are?” Kendall asked.
“Close,” Raphael said. He took them down a wide corridor to a large metal door that looked like it could withstand a bomb blast.
He took out his cross and used it to open a lock, which in turn activated another lock, and another. Five times he used the cross. When he was finished, he put the cross back around his neck and opened the metal door.
Jake caught Kendall’s arm. “What if this is a trap?”
Raphael looked at him as he might a dimwitted child. “What?”
“You’re showing us stuff you don’t want to. Maybe the Protettori secrets are more important than a few lives. After all, you were considering killing Kendall to protect the chalice.”
Raphael gave Jake a withering look. “We need to stop the Reaper, and as you so wisely pointed out, we don’t have anyone else. We need Kendall to find the chalice.”
“No pressure,” Kendall muttered.
Raphael led the way. Nathan and Kendall were behind him, and Jake brought up the rear.
Jake was stunned when he stepped inside. “Looks like someone dropped the Smithsonian inside here.” He saw rows of shelves and glass cases holding hundreds of objects. Swords, books, figurines . . . a jeweled crown?
“This isn’t the room Nathan and I were in,” Kendall said. “I didn’t realize the Protettori protected so many relics.”
“We have collected many artifacts and treasures over the centuries. Some of the most powerful religious relics are here. But not all the relics are religious, and many are from different cultures.”
“How do you find and keep track of them?” she asked.
“There used to be a catalog, but it disappeared.”
“I guess it’s easy to track the relics when you can just think about a place and appear there,” Jake said. “He doesn’t need portals like the rest of us mortals.”
“You can just travel anywhere . . . without traveling?” Kendall asked.
“It isn’t that easy, but in a manner, yes.”
“That’s how he makes it look like he walks through walls,” Jake said. “He transports himself out of the room when he reaches the wall.”
“Exactly how does it work?” Nathan asked.
“It’s difficult to explain.”
“Try,” Jake said. “We’re putting our lives in danger to help you. The least you could do is share a little knowledge.”
“I think about where I want to go. And I go.”
They waited, but he didn’t say anything else. “That’s all,” Jake said. “You can’t do any better than that?”
“It’s difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t share the ability. I have to be in good health, have taken water. I think about the place in my mind, or an object I’m following, like the Reaper. I focus on it and I’m there.”
“Is that something that can be taught?” Kendall asked.
“No. It’s a gift.”
“Is that what Kendall was doing when we appeared in Camelot?” Nathan asked.
“Perhaps,” Raphael said. “Are you ready to see more?”
The next room was the one where the awoken statues had been. “Where are the men?”
“I moved them to a more secure location.”
“Are you sure Fergus is all right with them?” Nathan asked.
“I put a sedative in their water,” Raphael said.
“Couldn’t you just put them to sleep?” Kendall asked.
“I tried. It didn’t work.”
“Your gift is flawed?” Jake asked.
Raphael gave Jake an irritated look. “My gift works on humans. I don’t think they’ve been flesh and blood long enough.”
Jake had moved on, his attention caught by something else. “Is that a sarcophagus?”
“Complete with a mummy,” Kendall said. “Or it was before Nathan removed it.”
Raphael’s expression was one of horror. “You moved him?”
“We had to hide,” Nathan said. “There wasn’t room for all of us.”
“You hid inside a sarcophagus?” Jake asked, trying to imagine them crammed inside, bodies pressed together.
“It was a close fit,” Nathan said, holding Jake’s gaze.
“Where is he now?” Raphael’s voice was tight.
“I put the body behind the sarcophagus,” Nathan said.
“He didn’t damage it,” Kendall said. “Why do you look so disturbed? I assure you Nathan has been around mummies before.”
Damned comforting, Jake thought. More of their history together.
Raphael lo
oked more than disturbed. “It was someone . . . important.”
“A pharaoh?” Kendall asked.
“More important than a pharaoh,” Raphael said.
“Who?” Kendall’s green eyes twinkled like emeralds.
Raphael’s jaw looked as if it had been set in concrete. “Moses.”
Kendall gaped at him. “Moses in the Bible?”
“Yes,” Raphael said.
“His body was never found,” Nathan said. “Supposedly God buried it in Moab.”
“We found it.”
Kendall covered her mouth. “Nathan, that was Moses you shoved behind the sarcophagus. How is Moses a mummy?”
“The body was well preserved when we found it. We needed a place to keep it safe, somewhere it wouldn’t be found. We had an empty sarcophagus already, and Moses was the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. It seemed a good fit.”
“Appropriate. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a sense of humor,” Jake said.
“I don’t,” Raphael said.
“Do you want us to help you put him back?” Kendall asked.
“No.” Raphael gave a frustrated sigh. “I will do it later. Shall we continue?” He led them from the room, down a narrow hall to a stone door covered in writing.
“What is this?” Nathan asked.
“Nothing that need concern you now,” Raphael replied.
“Why am I not surprised?” Jake said.
The door had an unusual lock in the center, a round circle resembling a small shield. “What’s with the Protettori and circles?” Jake asked.
“Circles represent completion, unity.” He pushed the center of the stone and it moved back, exposing a smaller stone. This one had a hole. He removed his cross, inserted it into the hole, and the door opened. He turned to them, his face sober. “Proceed carefully. This is our most sacred area.”
“More sacred than the room with Moses and the temple with the Fountain of Youth?”
“Yes.” He stepped inside and they followed. This room was smaller, not as elaborate, but there was a feeling of reverence, as if they’d stepped into a cathedral. Wooden cases stood along the walls, but it wasn’t apparent what they held.
The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) Page 12