“Some guys have been watching us. One of them just hid when I looked at him.”
Jack’s brow crinkled, and he stepped in front of me protectively.
I looked behind us. “Luc!” I gestured for him to get down. He was about as exposed as possible, standing on that ledge.
“Come up here and look before we go,” Luc called back. “I see baby goats in a field!”
“Luc!” I repeated, gesturing frantically. Jack clambered up the rocks toward him, and I followed, but Stellan must have heard the fear in my voice, because he suddenly appeared, bundling Luc away. Jack climbed over the cliff ahead of me and reached back to pull me up, but I hesitated, peering at where the guy had gone. I didn’t see him anymore.
“Avery!” Jack said, and I let him help me up the rocks and behind some columns.
“What did you see?” Stellan said quietly.
“These two guys. I swear they’ve been watching us.” I peered out again, but besides a tour group led by an older lady carrying a yellow flag, I didn’t see anybody. “Maybe I’m just going crazy. Did you see anything?”
Jack shook his head, and Stellan did, too.
I sat back against a broken column and realized I’d ripped the knee of my jeans scrambling up the hill. “Let’s move on, then. Just be careful.”
But ever since Stellan had mentioned the car following us, something besides fear of the Order had been building in the back of my mind. What if we didn’t find anything here, or it wasn’t enough? I’d be back to either marrying someone or going on the run, neither of which was conducive to helping my mom. I knew the Order were dangerous, but if I confronted one of them face-to-face, there was a chance I could get information out of them. And if that was my only option? I’d do it in a second.
Just then, all our phones buzzed with a text from Elodie. We found something. Round temple.
• • •
Unlike where we’d just been, the temple Colette and Elodie were waiting at was full of people, so the six of us huddled at its edge, waiting for the crowd to thin. “It’s that symbol from your necklace,” Colette said. “It’s there, on a brick.”
It was all I could do not to shove a bunch of little kids out of the way and run straight for it. When the temple area emptied out, we gathered around a partial wall off the main circular pedestal. Sure enough, the symbol was carved into a weathered stone.
“And this,” Elodie said, pointing two bricks up. It was more eroded than the symbol, but it looked like writing, in French.
Jack translated, “To learn the secrets my twin and I hold, look where he looks. Those who gave all hold the key.”
“That sounds like the clue on the first bracelet.” I looked down at my arm. I had its inscription memorized. He watches over our lady, above the sacred site. Where he looks, it will be found. When it is found, my twin and I will reveal all, only to the true. “This one says ‘where he looks,’ too. That was the clue we used to find the diary.”
“It makes sense the clues would have parallels,” Elodie said.
“Wait,” Stellan interrupted. “It says ‘my twin and I,’ like it’s from the perspective of the other bracelet. It could be around here somewhere.”
I kneeled in the dirt. “Like maybe buried?”
“Or behind one of these bricks.” Luc tapped on the edge of the one with the inscription.
Elodie glanced behind us and, seeing no one paying attention, pulled a chisel and a small hammer out of her bag. While she chipped away at the mortar surrounding the brick, Jack joined me in brushing dirt from the base of the wall, looking for anything out of place.
After a few minutes, Luc said, “Merde. Someone’s seen us.”
I peered over the wall to see a middle-aged site employee in a black uniform striding purposefully toward us.
“Everyone get away from here,” Elodie said, putting her tools in her bag as she stood up. “Casually.”
I grabbed Jack’s hand, and we wandered away down the hill, pointing into the distance and chatting like ordinary tourists. I glanced back to see Luc and Stellan going the other way. And Colette and Elodie stayed put, heading off the park employee with flirtatious smiles and a barrage of questions. I saw him try to put them off and keep the rest of us in his sights, but after a second of indecision and a glance around the area to see that things looked okay, he let Colette lead him back toward the main temples.
I stopped Jack and waited until Colette and the guy were out of sight. Up the hill, Elodie was doing the same thing. Then she made her way back to the symbol. Jack and I followed, and I could see Stellan and Luc heading back from up the rocky hillside, weaving between another screaming group of kids.
“I don’t know that there’s anything behind here,” Elodie said. “If the brick had been taken out and replaced, I probably would have broken through the mortar by now.”
“What about the other bricks?” I said. “Like the one with the symbol?”
Elodie set to chiseling—and almost immediately, there was a cracking noise. She looked up, excited, and tapped at the other three sides. As Luc and Stellan got back to our spot, she was prying the mortar out of the wall with dirt-crusted fingernails.
Finally, I grabbed one side of the brick, and Elodie held the other. I held my breath, and we pulled.
The brick came tumbling out of the wall. We dropped it on the ground, and I fell to my knees, brushing away bits of dried grass and dirt. Behind the brick was a slim, dark hollow. I hesitated for a second, but pushed aside thoughts of spiders and thrust my hand inside.
It was cool and dry—and empty.
I sat back on my heels, brushing dirt from my hands. “There’s nothing in here.”
Elodie felt inside, too, and shook her head.