Page 175 of Bloodstone
All the while, I keep his gun trained on an insentient August, even as we make our way through the rain to his car. Which I now recognize to be a Mercedes-Benz. Cec gets in first and Bes hurries behind the wheel.
After rolling the window down in the backseat with my free hand, I step in slowly, keeping the gun trained on August. Everything in me wants to shoot him—I truly did learn my lesson with Ingrid—but if there’s any chance at all that he was telling the truth about my father… I can’t have his blood on my hands. Iwon’t.
Bes starts the car and, with Cec’s help in shifting gears, pulls out onto the road, heading back in the direction of Italy. The rain has finally let up a bit. I still shiver at the colder air blasting in through the window.
Once we’ve rounded a bend and August’s unconscious figure moves out of sight, I roll up the window. I toss the gun onto the floor, along with the one in my waistband.I need at least a week where I don’t touch—or even see—a gun.
Trembling, I fall onto the backseat and breathe in unevenly, the smell of leather calming me despite my pulse refusing to slow. It occurs to me we’re traveling in the vehicle of the new God Men, but I’m not about to look a gift car in the grille.
It takes everything I have in me to block out what happened: two more people dead at my hand. ButI’malive because of it. Not only that, I also kept the Amulet of Amun out of Hitler’s hands once again.
Bes presses on the gas, the engine all too eager to comply. “As soon as we get back, we’ll sort all this out.”
I swallow. I don’t want to get into everything that happened just yet, but we need to talk about a few things before we get back.
“They have my father, Bes. How the hell are we going to sort that out?”
Cec turns around in his seat. “I’m sorry, Hawkins. I don’t understand what they could possibly want with him.”
“I don’t either.” I shake my head. “The only thing my father has been any good at is hunting for treasure. If Himmler’s using his expertise in Norse runes and myths for the Ahnenerbe, there must be something more.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Bes promises. “We’ll find out all we can, and then we’re going to rescue your father.”
I sit up, staring down Bes’ profile in the darkness.
“Do you truly believe that… your uncle will go for it?” I ask, speaking around my damned blood oath as it threatens to tie up my tongue.
“If he won’t, we’ll simply have to take matters into our own hands.”
Cec bangs the raven head of his cane on the dashboard. “Here, here.”
“Cec, I’m sorry.” Tears choke me “I’m so sorry about Anders. If it wasn’t for me—”
“If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have learned all that we did today,” Cec butts in, even as his voice catches. “Anders was well aware of the risks, of what he was getting into. It’s not your fault.”
Then why does it feel like it is?
I sniff, my throat thick. “I don’t deserve you two.”
“We know,” Cec agrees.
I sit back in my seat, wondering what awaits me when we get back to the stronghold beneath Castle Breno. Ansaldo won’t be happy that we went off on our own, and I fully expect him to force me into the order now that at least two members are dead and one is in the wind.
Would that be so bad, though?
Yes, it would: the Order of Cavendi is the reason why my mother is dead, why my nonna kept so many secrets of her past from me. And Ansaldo is a tyrant, who will no doubt find creative ways to punish me for this indiscretion.
And yet, I wouldn’t have met Bes or Cec without them.
Leaning forward, I rest my hand on Bes’s shoulder. The last time I did this, we were just leaving the Temple of Seti I after I killed Claude, and I nearly caused us to get into an accident. Back then, I thought my time out of the country was over; little did I know all that would happen in the days following. I’m acompletely different woman than the one who got angry with Bes for knowing too much about me.
And now… now, there’s magic from the Tree of Life pumping through my veins. I can almost feel it, like a small, constant surge of energy writhing beneath the surface of my skin. Even the amulet appears to be reacting to it, warming gently against my chest.
Bes removes his hand from the wheel and gently touches mine, squeezing before letting go. Things unsaid pass between us—things that I’m going to need to say before Bes and I can move past what happened in the Archives.
However, all of this—Ansaldo, my magic, my father, Bes—is tomorrow’s problem.
As we drive off into the night, I close my eyes and wonder what fresh hell tomorrow will bring.
