How long did I have left? Was there any way to distract them until the other two teams arrived? “I’d love to.”
Owen pulled me by the hand closer to the phoenix. “Stefano?”
“Yes?” A man stepped into the ring of lights. He resembled the Stefano Martinelli I’d seen photos of during our briefing, but he looked at least ten years older. Frail. He moved slowly, but with the confidence of a man who had decades of experience with everyone in the room deferring to him.
“Stefano,” said Owen, gesturing toward me with his free hand. “This is her. The one I told you we should have recruited.”
“The scarred one?” Martinelli canted his head, studying me like I was an exhibit.
“It’s hideous,” said Owen, an eerie smile spreading across his face.
My stomach lurched at the words. Those were the ones that made me ensure no one would ever see my skin again. Until Rav. Until he’d touched me, kissed me, and told me I was still beautiful the way I was.
Owen gripped me tighter. “She can help us identify the right genetic markers, and once we understand why some tissue responds and some doesn’t, we can heal her as a test.”
Panic splintered through my body.A test?
“Hmm.” Martinelli stopped directly in front of me. “Show me the scars.”
It wasn’t a request. Arguing would only make things worse.
So I continued playing the game, attempting to delay the launch. I removed the shirt I’d worn over the incursion suit, then unzipped part of the way down my front, pulling open the fabric for him to see.
“Fascinating.” Martinelli moistened his lips and leaned closer, inspecting the scar tissue on my neck and collarbone. Without looking at his guards, he said, “Restrain her.”
They moved faster than I could react. One grabbed my left arm and twisted it behind my back. The other mirrored the motion on my right, wrenching me away from Owen. Their grips were firm, and I had to swallow a cry.
Martinelli didn’t bother to look me in the face, just tilted his head this way and that, pulling the suit’s neckline to see my shoulder. “You’re one of Noah’s friends, I understand?”
Shit. Not good.
Although it did confirm that Noah was on our side.
“Fortunately, Enzo was on to him, and when we discovered his duplicity, there was still enough time to move our ritual here.”
They’d moved the ritual. Of course. The equipment underneath the amphitheater was their original plan, and then they moved it. It wasn’t a misdirection at all—they’d simply adapted.
Owen piped up. “She came willingly. She’s not a threat.”
Martinelli pursed his lips, considering. “Or she’s playing you?”
“She’s always been in love with me.” Did he honestly believe that?
“It’s fate, then?” Martinelli nodded slowly as he walked to a small table with a laptop and what must have been the control box for the fireworks, since the wires all ran to it. “Although it is unfortunate our miracle has to unfold here. The Pompeii Amphitheater would have been such poetry.”
“What exactly is the miracle you’re planning?”Talk to me, dammit.Although the longer I was up here, the greater the chance Rav stormed up to rescue me. Hopefully, I’d been clear enough that I wanted him to stay below.
“There are stories throughout the millennia of a bird that rose again after its death.” He moved to the phoenix statue, running his hand along one golden wing. “Different cultures, different myths. But they were all inspired by one origin story.”
Rav had explained that Fenix was gathering artifacts from different civilizations. But seeing the real thing in front of me, they all seemed to belong. The wings, the talons, the body, the beak. Even the halo atop its head. If they’d been scavenged from across the globe, why would they all be the same style?
“It was trapped by a great warrior, who demanded its power of eternal life.” Martinelli continued to caress the statue. “But the phoenix knew mankind did not deserve its power. It begged the gods to stop men from hunting it and coveting its healing. But the gods are fickle…”
He looked at me as though he were telling a story to a child.
“The gods turned it into a golden statue. The warrior was angry and smashed it into pieces with a blow so hard the pieces scattered around the globe.” He tapped each part of the statue as he spoke. “The halo to China, the beak to Persia, one of the talons to Rome, another to Chile, feathers in Egypt, South Africa, Madagascar…”
What did any of this have to do with Haddad?
