by Maggie Hall
We combed every inch of the temple. I crawled between stones, dirtying the knees of my jeans, looking with my hands as much as my eyes for anything that seemed out of place. The whole time, I watched for anyone coming too close. A couple with a baby walked by once, and another time I thought a couple guys in touristy Greece T-shirts may have been watching us from a nearby path, but they stayed a good distance away. Maybe Stellan had been wrong about the car.
Finally, I sat back on my heels and wiped the back of my hand across my forehead. “I haven’t seen anywhere it looks like we should dig.”
Jack sat on part of the stone wall. “Agreed.”
“Hello!” came a voice from above. I shielded my eyes against the scorching midday sun to see Luc at the next level up, waving happily. “Any luck?”
“No,” I called. I peered off across the site, at another temple just past a wide stone amphitheater, and saw movement. One of the guys in the tourist T-shirts had just ducked behind a scrubby tree, closer now.
“Did you see that?” I said.
Jack stood up, on automatic alert. “What?”
“Some guys have been watching us. One of them just hid when I looked at him.”
Jack’s brow crinkled, and he stepped in front of me protectively.
I looked behind us. “Luc!” I gestured for him to get down. He was about as exposed as possible, standing on that ledge.
“Come up here and look before we go,” Luc called back. “I see baby goats in a field!”
“Luc!” I repeated, gesturing frantically. Jack clambered up the rocks toward him, and I followed, but Stellan must have heard the fear in my voice, because he suddenly appeared, bundling Luc away. Jack climbed over the cliff ahead of me and reached back to pull me up, but I hesitated, peering at where the guy had gone. I didn’t see him anymore.
“Avery!” Jack said, and I let him help me up the rocks and behind some columns.
“What did you see?” Stellan said quietly.
“These two guys. I swear they’ve been watching us.” I peered out again, but besides a tour group led by an older lady carrying a yellow flag, I didn’t see anybody. “Maybe I’m just going crazy. Did you see anything?”
Jack shook his head, and Stellan did, too.
I sat back against a broken column and realized I’d ripped the knee of my jeans scrambling up the hill. “Let’s move on, then. Just be careful.”
But ever since Stellan had mentioned the car following us, something besides fear of the Order had been building in the back of my mind. What if we didn’t find anything here, or it wasn’t enough? I’d be back to either marrying someone or going on the run, neither of which was conducive to helping my mom. I knew the Order were dangerous, but if I confronted one of them face-to-face, there was a chance I could get information out of them. And if that was my only option? I’d do it in a second.
Just then, all our phones buzzed with a text from Elodie. We found something. Round temple.
• • •
Unlike where we’d just been, the temple Colette and Elodie were waiting at was full of people, so the six of us huddled at its edge, waiting for the crowd to thin. “It’s that symbol from your necklace,” Colette said. “It’s there, on a brick.”
It was all I could do not to shove a bunch of little kids out of the way and run straight for it. When the temple area emptied out, we gathered around a partial wall off the main circular pedestal. Sure enough, the symbol was carved into a weathered stone.
“And this,” Elodie said, pointing two bricks up. It was more eroded than the symbol, but it looked like writing, in French.
Jack translated, “To learn the secrets my twin and I hold, look where he looks. Those who gave all hold the key.”
“That sounds like the clue on the first bracelet.” I looked down at my arm. I had its inscription memorized. He watches over our lady, above the sacred site. Where he looks, it will be found. When it is found, my twin and I will reveal all, only to the true. “This one says ‘where he looks,’ too. That was the clue we used to find the diary.”
“It makes sense the clues would have parallels,” Elodie said.
“Wait,” Stellan interrupted. “It says ‘my twin and I,’ like it’s from the perspective of the other bracelet. It could be around here somewhere.”
I kneeled in the dirt. “Like maybe buried?”
“Or behind one of these bricks.” Luc tapped on the edge of the one with the inscription.
Elodie glanced behind us and, seeing no one paying attention, pulled a chisel and a small hammer out of her bag. While she chipped away at the mortar surrounding the brick, Jack joined me in brushing dirt from the base of the wall, looking for anything out of place.
After a few minutes, Luc said, “Merde. Someone’s seen us.”
I peered over the wall to see a middle-aged site employee in a black uniform striding purposefully toward us.
“Everyone get away from here,” Elodie said, putting her tools in her bag as she stood up. “Casually.”
I grabbed Jack’s hand, and we wandered away down the hill, pointing into the distance and chatting like ordinary tourists. I glanced back to see Luc and Stellan going the other way. And Colette and Elodie stayed put, heading off the park employee with flirtatious smiles and a barrage of questions. I saw him try to put them off and keep the rest of us in his sights, but after a second of indecision and a glance around the area to see that things looked okay, he let Colette lead him back toward the main temples.
I stopped Jack and waited until Colette and the guy were out of sight. Up the hill, Elodie was doing the same thing. Then she made her way back to the symbol. Jack and I followed, and I could see Stellan and Luc heading back from up the rocky hillside, weaving between another screaming group of kids.
“I don’t know that there’s anything behind here,” Elodie said. “If the brick had been taken out and replaced, I probably would have broken through the mortar by now.”
“What about the other bricks?” I said. “Like the one with the symbol?”
Elodie set to chiseling—and almost immediately, there was a cracking noise. She looked up, excited, and tapped at the other three sides. As Luc and Stellan got back to our spot, she was prying the mortar out of the wall with dirt-crusted fingernails.
Finally, I grabbed one side of the brick, and Elodie held the other. I held my breath, and we pulled.
The brick came tumbling out of the wall. We dropped it on the ground, and I fell to my knees, brushing away bits of dried grass and dirt. Behind the brick was a slim, dark hollow. I hesitated for a second, but pushed aside thoughts of spiders and thrust my hand inside.
It was cool and dry—and empty.
I sat back on my heels, brushing dirt from my hands. “There’s nothing in here.”
Elodie felt inside, too, and shook her head.
I felt like screaming. “It had to be there,” I said. I yanked the chisel away from Elodie and tried to chip at another brick, but my sweaty fingers slipped on the metal and I nicked the side of my hand instead. I threw the tools to the ground with a curse and sucked on my bleeding finger.
“Wait,” Jack said. “There’s a museum here. What if they found it and moved it there?”
I pushed back the strands of hair clinging to my face. “There’s a museum?”
Moments later, we were making our way back down the mountain. I was trying to force myself to calm down. And then I stopped, and Jack came to a halt, too. “That’s them again,” I said, staring at the backs of two white T-shirts, one of which had a map of the Delphi site printed on it. “The guys I saw earlier.”
“They’re probably just tourists,” Jack said, but I saw his hand drift to his waistband, where I knew he had a gun hidden.
“Did you see how the one just turned around when I saw him so I couldn’t get a look at his face?” It was cr
azy, but—“What if they’re Order?”
“Then we should all get to the car.” Jack put a protective hand on my arm.
I shook it off. “You should get Luc to the car. They’ve already had the chance to kill me, and they haven’t. If they want to kidnap me, they wouldn’t be able to do it from a public place.” The idea wouldn’t get out of my head. “If they are Order . . . what if they know something? What if they know where my mom is?”
“Avery . . .” Jack’s voice was a warning.
I felt around in my bag. I had my knife. I thought I was being calm and collected about this, but after hearing my mom’s voice yesterday, and knowing that I now only had three days to save her . . .
I watched the guy’s blue baseball cap bob through the crowd and remembered all the times the Order had tried to kill me and Jack. Shooting at us on Mr. Emerson’s balcony. Cornering us at a market in Istanbul. Chasing us through the Louvre.
My hand tightened around my knife. I knew I wasn’t any good at fighting with it. Trying to chase a trained killer probably wouldn’t end well. And if I was wrong, and they did want to hurt me—
At the temple just below, both the guys had stopped. Next to them were two families. Two women and some little kids. Delphi T-shirt guy ruffled the blond curls on one of their heads.
I let out a breath through pursed lips. “Tourists,” I said under my breath. “Just tourists.”
Subdued, we kept going toward the museum.
• • •
Colette had beaten us there. “It’s a small collection,” she said. “I’ve already looked. There’s nothing like the bracelet there.”
“We should ask someone,” Stellan said, and flagged down a docent, describing what we were looking for.
“Actually,” said the woman, “we did have an item like that, years back, when I first started work here. A gold bracelet.”
My heart leaped, and I grabbed Jack’s hand. The woman glanced my way, and suddenly, I remembered the matching gold bracelet on my own arm. I surreptitiously slipped it off and into my bag, and luckily, the docent didn’t see.
“It was very mysterious,” she continued. “It wasn’t an ancient piece, so it must have been placed here at Delphi more recently. Then one of our archaeologists associated it with Napoleon Bonaparte, of all people. And almost immediately, it was taken from us back to France and is now in a private collection.”
We all glanced at each other. “Do you have a photo of the bracelet?” Stellan asked. The docent disappeared into a back office and came back minutes later with a file folder. She handed us a snapshot, and our collective intake of breath was almost comical.
“What is your interest in it?” the docent asked.
“We’re scholars of Napoleon history,” Elodie said, squinting at the photo. I looked over her shoulder. There was an inscription visible on it, just like there was on mine. Elodie read it out loud, in French, then translated. “Only through the union will my twin and I reveal the dark secret we keep in our hearts,” she said, and to the docent, “Do you mind if I take a photo of this picture?”
• • •
Back at the boat, we all leaned over Jack’s phone, which was on speaker in the middle of the table. Elodie had angled the photo she took to capture the file folder the docent was holding as well, and on the paperwork, there was the name and phone number of the collector who now owned the bracelet. The number was ringing. And ringing. Finally, an answering machine picked up. During the long message in French, everyone’s faces fell. “The collector passed away,” Jack translated after he hung up. “The items have been willed to museums or are being sold off to other private collections.”
I leaned my head back against the bench seat. “There has to be some way to find out where the bracelet ended up.”
“I doubt his estate would give out that information,” Colette said.
“What did the new inscription say again?” I said to the faux wood ceiling.
Elodie repeated it. “‘Only through the union will my twin and I reveal the dark secret we keep in our hearts.’”
I sat up and ran a finger over the matching bracelet on my arm. It had gotten dusty. “‘In our hearts.’ It sounds like there’s something inside the bracelets. Not just that we’ll get another clue when the letters line up.” I couldn’t imagine what would fit inside, but everyone else nodded. “Which means we have to physically have the other one, too. Seeing this clue on it isn’t enough.” I looked at Luc, who was perched on a bar stool, his shirt smudged with dirt. “The collector was French. Can’t you force whoever’s taking care of the collection to tell you where the bracelet is?”
He cocked his head to one side. “Probably, yes. I might have to go back to France and make some calls.”
“Okay,” I said. “Good. I was thinking you should leave, anyway, after that false alarm today. If anything happened to you while you were helping me . . .”
“I agree.” Elodie smoothed her hair behind her ears with both hands, then let it fall forward again. I wouldn’t have thought someone like Elodie would have a nervous tic, but her hair was definitely it. “But the problem is that this clue mentions the union. ‘Only through the union will my twin and I reveal the dark secret we keep in our hearts.’ Luc’s the only one here capable of fulfilling the union with Avery if it comes to that. And this seems to imply that somebody’s going to have to get married after all. Or just skip ahead to the baby making?” Elodie elbowed Luc.
I watched Stellan’s fingers tap out a suddenly quicker rhythm on the tabletop. Jack’s mouth was set in a straight line.
“What?” Elodie said. Of course she’d caught that little look. Now she stood up, so abruptly the table shook and rattled the untouched tray of pastries Colette had set out. “I knew it. I knew you weren’t telling us everything. If there’s more, we deserve to know.”
Beside me, Jack shifted in his seat. I put a silencing hand on his knee. It wasn’t his secret to tell, or mine.
Stellan dragged a hand through his hair, pulling it back from his face. “All right,” he said. “Yes, we know more than we’ve told you about the identity of the One.”
Elodie huffed out a frustrated breath. “Well? What? Is it not just whichever Circle boy Avery marries?”
Stellan shook his head and touched the scars on the back of his neck. “It’s someone specific. It’s not Luc. It’s not any of the others, either.”
Elodie, Luc, and Colette all frowned in unison. “What does that mean?” Elodie demanded.
“It’s not a member of the twelve families at all,” Stellan continued. His eyes met mine before he continued, “It’s me.”
CHAPTER 14
Elodie was the most skeptical at first, but now she grinned, then fixed me, Jack, and Stellan with pointed looks. “So you two,” she said, looking from me to Jack, “are . . . whatever you are. And you two”—her gaze flicked back to me and to Stellan—“are supposed to be getting married?”
“Yes,” I said shortly.
“Ooh, and that’s why you acted so strange when I mentioned a baby,” Elodie went on. “Now this is fun.”
“Don’t be mean, El,” Luc said distractedly. He scrubbed a hand through his already-wild brown hair. “So there’s no way I’m . . .”
“Assuming we’re right,” Jack answered, “no.”
Luc paced the galley kitchen and flicked the bamboo blinds over the sink. “That’s a relief,” he said. “Thank God. What a relief, right?”
I realized for the first time that the idea of the power appealed to Luc as much as it did to everyone else.
“At least you know you won’t have to marry me,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“That would have been terrible,” Luc quipped. He ran a distracted hand over my hair, and I squeezed his fingers.
“Well then. There’s no reason for Luc to stay here.” Elo
die stood up, already pulling out her phone. Luc tried to protest, but she cut him off.
“You can get back to Paris and contact the museum. It makes the most sense. You’re on a plane back to France as soon as they can send one.”
• • •
Later, I stood on the upper deck watching the sun go down in spectacular fashion, all oranges and cotton candy pinks over the water. The sea breeze was fresh and cool and smelled like salt, and the hot tub behind me bubbled happily. Stellan had taken Luc to a plane, and the rest of us had been looking over the clue again. I’d had to take a breather after we got another text from the Order. Six days. But that hardly mattered since, according to the Saxons, I didn’t even have that much time. My sister had texted earlier that they were in Beijing. Apparently she and Cole had accompanied my father to try to smooth over how rude I was being by not showing up myself. But even without me there, the visits were progressing as planned, with my fate growing closer by the hour.
The doors behind me slid open, and Jack came out. “Doing okay?”
I nodded.
He shifted, staring out at the water. “That person you thought you saw earlier . . . I know it turned out to be nothing, but if it had been, and you’d gone after them . . .”
I frowned at the sunset.
“I know you don’t think the Order will disrupt your search,” he went on, “but what if they’ve heard the union is happening sooner than they thought, and they want to stop it?”
I hadn’t thought of that.
Jack rubbed at the compass tattoo on his forearm. “Maybe we should reconsider letting the Saxons’ people go out in the field instead of you.”
I huffed out a frustrated breath. “We’re not doing that.”
“There might come a point where I don’t think it should be entirely your choice,” he said.
I stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t mean—I only mean to say your judgment is clouded. For good reason. But—”
“Don’t.”
“Avery—”
“No. I have been very clear about how I feel, and if you can’t respect that, we’re just not going to talk about it anymore.” I turned away from him and hugged my arms around my chest. The last couple times he’d said things like this, I’d tried to make excuses. He was worried. He didn’t really mean it. But it was getting harder to deny that he did mean what he was saying.