The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) (7 page)

“The Czech Republic?”

“Perhaps.”

“Hell. How are we going to get to the Czech Republic? We can hardly walk.”

They decided to go to the castle in Italy first to get more water in hopes that they would recover from their injuries and that Raphael’s memory would improve. The jet wasn’t close enough, so they booked a commercial flight. Considering how old Raphael was, and the fact that he could travel without a car or an airplane, Jake was surprised that Raphael possessed a current ID. Raphael replied that he’d had many identities over the centuries.

Flying with Raphael wasn’t fun. Everyone stared at him. With half his face tattooed and his large physique, what could he expect? And there was the attitude. He was sullen, he took up his entire seat and part of Jake’s—unfortunately they had to fly coach, with the seats already too small—and the guardian snored.

Jake closed his eyes and tried to drown out Raphael’s snoring with thoughts of Kendall, but that made him so tense and uptight that he had to focus on the snoring to keep from worrying. He needed his head clear and his mind focused if he was going to help Kendall and Nathan.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A
RE YOU FEELING
well, Marco?” Fergus was worried about the old man, who had been resting in his quarters. Marco had hardly spoken on the way back to the castle. He had pretended to be sleeping, but Fergus had caught him several times staring ahead with a look of anguish on his face. He hadn’t mentioned finding the Reaper again. Thank God.

Marco bent with a flurry of robes and put something underneath his bed. He looked flushed when he stood. “I have been better.”

“Shall I get some food brought up to you?”

“Not now, thank you, Fergus. I owe you much for all you’ve done.”

“You’ve paid me well.” Of course, he hadn’t known until recently it was Marco paying him to raise Nathan. There had just been automatic deposits into a bank account, which covered anything Nathan could want and paid for the best education a boy could have. Fergus had mailed quarterly reports on Nathan to a post office box in Italy. It had all seemed unusual, even sinister, but Fergus had been under the impression that Nathan’s father had been a powerful man who died in a witness protection program. Fergus’s only task was to care for Nathan, see to his well-being, and keep his identity a secret. Keeping Nathan’s identity concealed wasn’t hard, for Fergus hadn’t known the boy’s true origins.

“Should you drink some of the water, perhaps?” Fergus asked.

Marco’s white head moved slowly from side to side. “I can’t.”

“Why do you believe you don’t deserve the right to drink Fountain of Youth water?”

“I’ve done terrible things.”

Marco? A gentle old man. “What could you have done that’s so bad?”

“I betrayed the brotherhood.”

“How? By protecting a boy from an angry group who might have killed him to protect their secrets? Surely that wasn’t enough to lose the privilege of drinking the water.”

“There were other lies. Other secrets.”

More than one lie? What could the old man be hiding? “Well, I think you should rest. Raphael and Jake will find Kendall and Nathan.” He hoped. Fergus couldn’t bear to think of losing Nathan. Or Kendall either, for that matter. He had grown very fond of the young lady.

Marco didn’t answer. He seemed to have drifted off again. Fergus sighed and stood. As he left, he noticed the corner of a suitcase sticking out from under Marco’s bed.

Marco’s bones creaked with age as he walked down the winding staircase to the round door in the bowels of the castle. It took a moment to remember how to open the door. So many things slipped his memory now. He should have been strong and full of vitality instead of a senile, doddering old man. He finally got it open and stepped inside, terrified at what he was about to do. He didn’t see any other options. The Reaper was too close. If he found the chalice, the damage would be irreparable. He felt a rush of pain, one that he had tried to numb himself to over the centuries. It was said that time healed all wounds. Not all of them. Some remained until the grave.

He approached the room and stood for a moment, thinking through his plan again. There would be consequences for his actions, but this was his mess. He was the one who had betrayed the brotherhood. He was the one who had lied, even to Raphael, his most trusted guardian. If he hadn’t, perhaps they could have stopped the Reaper before so many lives had been lost. Raphael was angry with Marco now. He would be angrier if he knew the whole truth.

After he finished his task, he waited there for several minutes before realizing it was hopeless. It wasn’t going to work. He would have to take care of matters himself. How could he take care of this mess in such a weakened state? Would such a cause justify a small drink?

Kendall stared at the cross lying on her palm. “How can it be Jake’s?” she whispered.

Nathan was quiet, looking at the necklace. “He must have gone to search for us. I guess it came through the portal.”

“Then where is Jake?” Kendall touched the cross again. Her fingers tingled, but she didn’t feel the same shock she had before.

Nathan’s jaw tightened. “The chain’s broken.” His worried gaze met hers. “Maybe he lost it.”

Or maybe he was floating around in a portal. “If he lost it in the temple, how will he get out? We have to get back. He could die in there.”

“Do you love him?”

“Jake?”

“Yeah, Jake,” Nathan said softly. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I care for him.”

“You didn’t like him before.”

“That wasn’t really him. He puts up walls to keep people out. Or to keep them at a safe distance.” Nathan should know a lot about that. He used the same trick. “Probably something to do with being raised in an orphanage. I’m sure it’s made him slow to trust.”

“He trusts you. He loves you.” Nathan’s voice wasn’t so much bitter as it was sad. “I didn’t expect that.”

Kendall felt as if she should apologize. She didn’t want to hurt Nathan. She adored him. If she was honest with herself, she was even attracted to him. “He’s not the only one who puts up walls. You do it too. You’ve both had sucky childhoods. I’m sure it wasn’t easy. At least I can remember mine.”

“I get glimpses of my father. At least I think he’s my father. When I try to remember, my head starts pounding, and everything changes like I’m standing in a room of warped mirrors.”

“I’m sorry, Nathan. Really sorry. I loved him too. I thought he was my real uncle for a long time. He liked it, I think. He was adventurous, intense, like my dad. I think everyone involved in relics and archaeology is.”

“I wish I could remember, but sometimes I’m afraid to.”

“Why afraid?”

“I don’t know.”

“You blocked everything . . . assuming you’re Adam,” she added, seeing his frown. “You may have seen something that’s too frightening to remember.”

“Like?”

“Like who killed your father.”

“You think he was murdered?” Nathan asked.

“I thought about what Fergus said, about the witness protection program. I don’t think that was true. I think that was something Marco made up to justify keeping you hidden and changing your name. Uncle John was too much in the public eye to have been in a witness protection program. But he did have enemies. He had one of the greatest collections in the world. Thieves and other collectors would have stolen or killed to get their hands on it. And who’s the one person who we know killed to obtain collections?”

“The Reaper.”

“The Reaper. My guess is that he killed your father like he killed Brandi and Thomas’s parents.”

“My father’s collection was astounding.”

Kendall stilled. “You remember it?”

Nathan look rattled for a moment. “I think I saw it because I was touching your hand.”

“I don’t think so. I saw your eyes. You were remembering. What other glimpses do you get?”

“You, as a girl. And places that I don’t remember visiting. I’ve traveled to some of them, hoping I would find answers, but it’s like having pieces of two different puzzles floating around in my head.”

“What kind of places?”

“The pyramids in Egypt.”

“We were there,” Kendall said. “A lot.”

“I spent three months in Peru. I’m not sure why. The place drew me.”

“We were there too, Nathan.” She turned over her hand and showed him a small scar on her palm. “I got this there.”

He brushed his fingers over the small, jagged line. “You were climbing a tree and fell.”

“That’s right.” Adam had hurried over, laughing, because the fall hadn’t been far and she’d landed with her butt in the air. He was the one who’d put antibacterial cream on the cut so it wouldn’t get infected, and then bandaged it in a way so that her father wouldn’t notice it and get upset. He’d told her not to climb that tree. “Face it, Nathan. You’re Adam.”

Please be Adam.

He nodded toward their joined hands. “It’ll take more than some memories that may not even be mine to convince me.” He dropped her hand. “If we don’t get out of here, it won’t matter who I am.”

He was still afraid, she thought. “How? We’re in a room without a door.” Nathan rubbed his chin and Kendall could see him thinking. “You look like you have an idea.”

“Maybe we didn’t travel through a portal. Remember how we went from the tunnel in the abbey to . . . uh . . .”

“Camelot?”

“Yeah, Camelot, and then we came back to the tunnel. I don’t think that was a portal. I think you transported us there and back. If we can figure out how it happened, maybe you can do it again.”

“I don’t know how I did it. I saw the black knight riding toward us, or his ghost. I grabbed you and Jake, and I think the knight went . . . through us, and we ended up in Camelot with the real black knight, like Alice down the rabbit hole. We could have died there if that knight had gotten hold of us.”

“He didn’t.”

“Because you scared his horse out from under him. You have to admit, that was cool. Terrifying, but cool.”

“His horse recognized another creature,” Nathan said.

“It recognized something stronger. Did the knight say anything to you?”

“No. He just looked at my cross and backed away.”

“He bowed first,” Kendall said. “I wonder why.”

“Probably thought I was one of the Protettori. We got back to the tunnel by thinking about it. What if we try thinking about the fountain? Maybe we’ll go back there.”

“It can’t hurt. We need to get back to the temple for Raphael’s water anyway. How did we do it? We were sitting down, holding hands, I think.”

They did it like they had before, sitting cross-legged, facing each other. Nathan reached for her hands. His were warm and strong.

“What if we get separated?” she asked. She had lost Adam once. She wasn’t going to risk losing him again. She’d rather stay here and find another way out.

“I’ll hold on to you,” he said, holding her hands tight. “I won’t let go.”

A rush of tears stung her eyes as she realized this was Adam sitting across from her, vowing to protect her, just as he had when they were kids. She blinked so he wouldn’t see her eyes glistening. “We should think about the same thing. Something safe. Not the fountain.” The fountain could kill them if misused.

“The room with the three tombs,” he said. “That should be safe. Are you ready?”

Kendall closed her eyes and thought about the black marble tombs. Probably King Arthur’s and Guinevere’s. And the third tomb . . . maybe Merlin—if he existed—or another knight? Jake appeared in her head as clearly as if he sat in front of her, but his eyes were closed, his skin pale. Kendall gasped, and Nathan’s eyes opened.

“What’s wrong?”

“I saw Jake. He looked like he was dead.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. You know Jake can take care of himself.”

“I don’t think this is working.” She let go of Nathan’s hands. He stood and then helped her to her feet. “We have to get out of here.”

“Come on,” Nathan said. “Let’s look again.”

“Where? We searched the walls.”

“We didn’t check the floor.”

This was Adam, leading the way, being strong for her. She nodded and followed him, holding on to Jake’s cross. She couldn’t lose him either. They searched the floor until Kendall’s knees ached from kneeling. Why couldn’t she just sense the way out? Her gift had let her down again.

“I’ve got something.”

Kendall hurried over to see what Nathan had found. It was a stone along the edge of the floor that looked different from the rest. Thicker. After some examination, Nathan did something, and a small section of the wall started to move.

“I think I found the catch.” Nathan put his arm in front of Kendall. “Stand back. We don’t know what—or who—is on the other side.” When the section of wall ground to a halt, they saw a metal door with a heavy lock. “I don’t think this is a way out. Looks more like an entrance to another room. And I’d say it’s to something they don’t want found.”

“Maybe there’s an exit on the other side. Can you get it open?”

“I don’t know about this lock.”

“Forget the lock. Knock it down.”

Nathan gave an astonished glance. “That’s a metal door!”

“You can . . . you know . . .”

“You want me to change?”

“Yes. If it’ll get us out of here.”

“I’m not a Transformer,” Nathan said.

“I’m surprised you know what Transformers are.”

“I go to movies. Sometimes. I went to see the last Transformer movie the day it came out.”

“So did I.”

“I know. I was there in the back of the theater.”

“You followed me?”

“No, but I was afraid you would think I had.” He smiled. “I wanted to ask you to go.”

“Why didn’t you?” She would have gone with him.

“I couldn’t.” He shrugged. “I thought I had a curse.”

What would have happened if he hadn’t held back his feelings? Would their relationship have been different? Where would that have left her and Jake? “You’re different than I thought.”

“How?”

“You . . .” She hesitated to tell him he wasn’t as uptight. “You have a tattoo.”

Nathan gave her a sideways glance. “You don’t like tattoos?”

“I don’t mind them. I just didn’t expect to find one on you.” Her cheeks warmed. That had sounded way too intimate and reminded her how good he looked without a shirt. “I would have expected a tattoo on Jake. Not you.”