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.” Elodie 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?”