“The password to the second one is Boyer,” I said. “We hope.”
Elodie twisted the rungs on the bracelet, and we heard the pop as a portion of it rose up, just like it had on the other one. We let out a collective sigh, but the relief was short-lived. “What now?” Elodie said. “The clues said to unlock it, and we unlocked it. What are we missing?”
“I wonder if there’s more to the riddles,” Colette said. “Can you say the clues again?”
“The first clue was ‘One step closer to unlocking the secret through a union forged in blood.’ And then there was the one about the priestesses at Delphi. Then what it says on that bracelet . . .” Luc trailed off and Elodie took over, reading from the bracelet in her hand.
“‘Only through the union will my twin and I reveal the dark secret we keep in our hearts.’ And the other one talks about ‘My twin and I will reveal all, only to the true.’”
“Then there’s the mandate,” Stellan reminded us. “‘Through their union, the birthright of the Diadochi is uncovered.’” He looked up at me. “‘Their fates mapped together become the fate of the Circle.’”
Elodie set the bracelets on the coffee table in front of her and rested her elbows on her knees. She’d wiped some of the soot off her face, and now it was eerily striped. “I keep coming back to fate mapping,” she said. “‘A union forged in blood.’ ‘Their fates mapped together.’ So . . . the union creates something that finishes unlocking these bracelets. It has something to do with blood, we’re pretty sure. But physically, what—”
From behind me, there was an explosion. We all jumped out of our seats, and I realized the lock on the front door had just been shot out.
The door swung open, and in came my brother and sister.
CHAPTER 33
I threw myself in front of my mom. Jack had his gun out already. Stellan reached for where his would be, and cursed to himself when he remembered it was gone with the car. They both paused when they saw that Lydia and Cole had guns already trained on us.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Lydia said, then turned to me. “I know Father trusts you, and I want to, but . . . That dress made it especially easy to plant a tracker.”
I stiffened and searched the beadwork frantically until I felt my mom pluck something off my back, near my shoulder blade. A tiny black disc. Lydia shrugged a nonapology, then pointed her gun at Jack. “Jack Bishop, put that gun on the floor.”
Jack hesitated, but set his gun down.
Cole gestured at my mom. “How did she get out? I told you we should have killed her.”
“If you touch her—” I said, but my mom squeezed my hand hard.
“Don’t antagonize him,” she whispered. Cole didn’t look amused.
“Why don’t we all have a brainstorming session,” Lydia said. She stood a safe distance away so she could shoot anyone who tried to tackle her. “I heard a little, but let me be sure I have this right. Something about these bracelets is still locked, the union is what will open them, and that union appears to have something to do with blood.”
I looked at the door and saw Stellan do the same. He gave a tiny shake of his head. We could try to make a run for it, but the twins would kill someone before we got there.
“We’re not telling you anything,” I said.
“Hmm,” Cole mused. “Whose head do they least want to see a hole in?” He spun around lazily, pausing on me, then Colette, but stopping on Luc. “The Dauphin heir. Of course.”
Elodie drew a sharp breath, and Stellan got halfway off the couch.
“No no,” Cole said, pushing his gun against Luc’s skull. Stellan sat back.
“Now,” Lydia said. Both bracelets sat on the coffee table between us. Lydia leaned in and picked one up.
Suddenly, there was a knife whipping through the air over her head.
Cole dodged, and the knife grazed his shoulder, then clattered to the ground with a strange hollow clunk. Plastic, and Elodie’s. She must have had it strapped to her somewhere, able to get through the metal detector.
In the second it took me to process it, Elodie was already lunging off the couch toward Luc. And then there was a gunshot, and she was thrown back onto a cafe table.
I screamed. Stellan and Colette and Jack all jumped up.
“Sit!” Lydia yelled. “Or I’ll hit something more vital next time.”
Elodie struggled to sit up, clutching the bleeding side of her torso. She was alive. Stellan started toward her.
“Stay,” Lydia said.
“She’ll bleed out.” Stellan perched at the edge of his couch. “Let me bandage it.”
“She should have thought of that before trying to kill my brother,” Lydia spat. “If you tell us everything you know quickly, then I’ll consider letting you help her.”