Map of Fates (The Conspiracy of Us 2)

So now, we holed up in a tiny cafe on the beach a couple blocks away. Luc had shoved handfuls of euros at the girls at the counter and told them to get out.

I made my way to Jack, who was dead-bolting the cafe door. “Thank you,” I said to his back. “My mom. I—” There weren’t enough words to say what I wanted to say. I’d broken up with him, stormed out, and spent the rest of the evening in the arms of his ex–best friend. And he—the guy who could never break the rules—had spent that time breaking ties with the only family he’d ever had, all to save the person who mattered most to me.

He jiggled the doorknob—locked—and turned to me.

“Thank you so much,” I said again.

He nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m really so sorry.”

I pulled at the sooty hem of my gown. “I know.” I couldn’t say I forgave him, because I didn’t. I plucked my locket off my chest and squeezed it.

Jack’s gaze dropped to my feet, and I could see him deflate, but he hid it quickly. “You should thank Rocco—Scarface—next time you see him. He’s the one who actually broke her out and sent her here with Luc. I just told him what to do.”

I never, in a million years, would have thought I’d have the urge to hug Scarface. And he was more loyal than I’d expected. I’d have to remember that.

I turned back to my mom. Colette had wrapped a shawl around her shoulders, being just as much a mom to my mother as she was to the rest of us. I squeezed beside my mom in a large armchair, and she took my hand and didn’t let go.

Jack glanced out the front window, then sat next to Colette on the couch beside us, their sooty clothes staining the worn taupe upholstery gray. Stellan and Elodie sat on our other side, and Luc was at a rickety cafe table across the circle.

“So?” I said.

Elodie held up the bracelet she’d found inside the theater. It was a twin, almost exactly. I took the original off my arm, and handed it to her, too.

“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.