This was it. His heart pounded at the realization. She’d found it, it had simply dropped into her lap, when he’d had no idea where to even begin looking.
Magnus cast a dark, quizzical look at the blond princess, and Lucia caught his eye. “Cleo gave it to me,” she said. “To help me. To help us all.”
All this time, Cleo had had the ring. It couldn’t be a coincidence. “Did she now?”
“I like to help when I can,” Cleo said evenly.
He forced a smile and said, “If you’ll excuse us for a moment, I’d like a quick word with my wife.”
Lucia regarded him with uncertainty. “Of course.”
She then took Alexius’s hand and drew him away, closer to the temple’s entrance, to give the pair their privacy.
Magnus studied the ruins before him, remembering, with a churning sensation in his gut, the last time they’d been here. Cleo stood nearby, just as quiet and still as the crumbling statue of her namesake goddess.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” Magnus said to her finally. “And you can’t have it.”
“Can’t have what?”
He wrestled with frustration. Cleo had a way of testing his carefully crafted composure that was unlike anyone else he’d ever met. “The Kindred belongs to my family, not to you.”
“That’s strange. Didn’t you just hear Lucia say that the Kindred belong to the Sanctuary? And I thought I heard you agree with her.”
“As if I believe you’d willingly let it go.”
“To do my part to save the world? Why wouldn’t I?”
“Mark my words.” He leaned closer. “If you try to steal the crystal, we will have a very serious problem, you and I.”
She sighed with impatience. “Well, I wouldn’t want that, especially since we’ve gotten along so well up until now.”
“Tread carefully, princess, or this will end very badly for you.”
Her gaze turned to ice. “How ashamed I am that I could have ever thought for one tiny moment that you were anything more than what you appear to be.”
“And what’s that?”
“A hateful, selfish monster with no kindness in his heart.”
He repressed a wince, despising the fact that sharp words from this particular girl could succeed in wounding him. “Hear me well, princess. I’ll say this only once. Keep your hands off any treasure we find today or I swear I’ll reduce you to nothing but ashes to scatter on the wind.”
Before he could hear Cleo’s rebuttal, he walked off toward Lucia and Alexius, who waited at the temple’s entrance. He’d expected something cutting and sarcastic, but she said nothing.
He supposed this was his way. When someone pushed him, he responded by crushing them.
“We need to go inside,” Alexius said.
Magnus eyed the shattered rooftop and the crumbling beams waiting for them at the top of the stairs. “So it can collapse on our heads?”
“Magnus,” Lucia said sternly. “We’ll do as Alexius says.”
Lucia’s decision to defend the Watcher without hesitation annoyed him deeply. “Fine. Then please show us the way, Alexius.”
The Watcher led them up the broken stairs to the grand entrance. Sunlight shone through the damaged roof. Cleo peered around with a pinched expression on her beautiful face.
“So this ritual. What does it involve?” Magnus asked.
Alexius pulled out a dagger. “It’s a blood ritual.”
Magnus almost laughed aloud. “Isn’t it always.”
Without hesitation, Alexius pressed the blade against his palm, letting crimson blood drip to the floor.
Watchers bled the same shade of red as mortals. Interesting.
Alexius knelt on the ground and used his blood to make a mark on the temple floor. A circle within a circle.
It was the symbol of earth, the element associated with Goddess Valoria’s magic. Magnus recognized it well.
When Alexius completed the symbol, Lucia bound his hand with a handkerchief.
“Now what?” Magnus asked.
“We wait.” Alexius frowned as he turned around, scanning his surroundings.
“We wait for what?” Magnus prompted, but the others were silent.
They waited. Nearby, a skull-sized chunk of marble dislodged from a pillar and crashed to the ground—Magnus noticed it had been ornately carved into the shape of a rose. A glance confirmed these rose sculptures adorned many spots in the temple. Strangely, he hadn’t noticed that detail until now, when it was all toppling down.
Magnus looked up warily at the roof. “How long must we wait?” he growled.
“I don’t know,” Alexius said.
“I’d think a wise and magical Watcher like you would know these things.”
“And yet, I don’t know everything.” Alexius looked impatient, perhaps a little bit desperate, as if he’d expected things to go differently.
Then something caught Magnus’s eye. A mark on a clear patch of floor behind Cleo.
“What is that?” The sinking sensation in his gut was enough to tell him he already knew the answer to his own question.
“It can’t be,” Alexius said under his breath. “It can’t. How could they know?”
Drawn on the pristine surface was another symbol identical to Alexius’s. The blood was still red and fresh.
Someone else had gotten there first.
CHAPTER 23