She’d seen this…something like this before.
It was a band—similar to Aunt Eustacia’s plain silver armband that had held the silver key—but this was made of copper, and it was more distinctive. While Aunt Eustacia’s ornament had been solid silver, as wide as three fingers, this band was made of three tendrils of copper, each perhaps the width of a finger and woven into a solid band. A smooth, elliptical shape had been formed
where the ends of the three copper strands merged together, as if they’d been melted down and pressed flat. A symbol was etched into it.
One she’d seen before. Somewhere.
“Ah. And here we find our friend the Marchese Palombara,” Max commented from across the room, drawing Victoria’s attention.
Slipping the bracelet into her pocket, she walked over to find him standing above a skeleton, still dressed in the rotting clothes of two hundred forty years earlier. “Is that what we’ve come for?” she asked, noticing the yellow, curling packet of papers clutched by two bony hands. “I see nothing else that could be of interest to vampires and mortals alike. ”
“I would suspect. ” Max bent forward, the lantern casting long, eerie shadows over the gray bones of the long-dead marchese. When he touched the skeletal arm it fell away, bone and fabric crumbling to dust in the same way an undead disintegrated when staked. And yet…not.
He lifted the papers gingerly, taking care to keep them intact, and handed them to Victoria. They were sewn together by a leather cord, and, when she gently lifted the top page, she found faded ink writing, mathematical equations, and diagrams and sketches.
“Ylito will be overjoyed to see this,” she commented with a smile.
“Indeed. So, now that we’ve retrieved what we came for, shall we get it safely back to the Consilium?”
“Were you planning to take the obelisk shard with you?” she asked sharply.
“Of course not. While you were gawking about the room like a girl at court, I’ve already placed it over there. ”
She looked and saw a small trunk in a dark corner. With a withering glance at him, she walked over and lifted the lid, still carrying the sheaf of papers. Inside the trunk was the shard of Akvan’s Obelisk.
“You didn’t believe me. ” Max’s voice behind her was soft and…she could only describe it as menacing.
“You of all people ought to understand duty,” she replied coolly, looking at him. “I needed to make certain that the evil that I brought upon the Consilium has been contained. I needed to see for myself. ”
He gave a short nod, and when he replied there was satisfaction in his voice. “You’ve begun to learn, Victoria. ”
She started to turn away and noticed that his dark shirt, which was cravatless, had gaped away from his throat. “Those are new bites. ”
His hand jerked slightly, as though he’d begun to raise it to close his collar and stopped himself in time. “Unfortunately. ”
“Was Sara right? Did you go to Lilith?”
“Let’s go. We’re wasting time. ”
“Why would you do such a foolish thing?”
He spun away as if to start to the door, and she reached out and grabbed his arm. Hard. “Max. ”
His muscles flexing under her fingers, he turned back, his expression flat except for furious eyes. “Yes, I went to Lilith. Yes, she left me with yet more marks of her possession. ” This last word came out with rank bitterness. “Why it can make any difference to you, or to our current task, is not clear to me. Let’s go. ”
“Alone? With her? Surrounded by all her guards? Max, she could have killed you. ” She couldn’t let it go; she couldn’t drop the subject. How could he risk himself that way?
What would have happened if he’d not come back?
Or…worse? Dear God.
At her rapid questions he paused and looked down at her. Now his eyes were bleak. “You understand nothing of her, do you? Victoria, if I were to give you one last piece of advice, it would be this: Find out who Lilith is, or she will beat you as she has beaten so many others before. ” He pulled firmly away and started toward the massive stone door.
Victoria followed, anger still spiking through her. He was so high-handed, so reticent. So cold and removed. Why did he still act that way, treat her like a naive girl, after all they’d accomplished together?
He had the door open before she reached him, and the pale gray that came through the crack was ominous in its dimness. The sun was nearly down, and Max was right—they needed to get the papers safely back to the Consilium before Akvan or his followers realized they’d come and gone from the very chamber the demon had been trying to gain access to.
Just as she was about to walk through the door, where Max waited on the other side, Victoria remembered the leather cord in her pocket, and its small splinter of obsidian. Although she had considered keeping it as a potential way to draw Akvan out of his lair, after what Max had shown her in regard to its power, she realized it would be foolhardy to take that chance.