“One can always rely on a man’s hubris. I figured you wouldn’t share the letter.” Hypnos tilted his head. “Howdevastatingfor you. To let down your team and admit that you’d failed. Oh, don’t look at me like that, Séverin. The Order may not have looked in your direction all this time, but I have.”
“I’m flattered you think I’m worth watching.”
Hypnos winked. “With a face like that? I must not be the only one.”
“What do you want, Hypnos?”
“You know what I can do to you. I can have you arrested, executed, tarred and feathered, et cetera. There’s no point, really, in detailing it.” Hypnos paused to smile. “But I don’twantto do any of that. I’m actually quite an exceptional human being, and, I fancy myself rather generous. So instead, I ask only two things. First, that you return the compass. Second, that you turn your acquisition skills to an object I’ve long desired. In return, I’ll give you what you want.”
Séverin’s face had gone rigid, his mouth flattened to a line, his dark eyes nearly burning.
Slowly, Hypnos raised his hand. His Babel Ring, a thin crescent moon that spread across the middle of his hand, caught the light. From where Enrique stood, it looked like a scythe.
“Mon cher,you and I always had so much in common,” said Hypnos. “Now, we have even more! Look at us. Two orphaned bastards with colored mothers.” He leaned closer to Séverin. “How strange… Yours doesn’t show up on the skin the way mine does. Mine was the daughter of slaves in a sugarcane plantation my father owned in Martinique. Once I was born, my French aristocrat of a father left her. But I rememberyouhad your mother. That always made me rather jealous, I admit. She had the loveliest hair… what was she? Egyptian? Algerian? Her name was so beautiful too—”
“Don’t,” said Séverin, clipped. A muscle in his jaw ticked.
Hypnos shrugged lightly and turned to Enrique, smiling as if he were just another guest and this were just another day.
“Has he told you how the Order’s inheritance test works?”
Enrique shook his head.
“It’s like this,” said Hypnos, walking up to him. “May I, beautiful?”
Enrique managed a nod. Hypnos turned over his hand, sliding his brown thumb down his palm before stopping above his racing pulse.
“In each Babel Ring, there’s a core of the matriarch or patriarch’s blood. The blood fuels the Ring’s ability to House-mark, among other things. When the matriarch or patriarch dies, or if they wish to retire their seat early, a head of House is summoned to administer the inheritance test. First, the Ring that will be passed on is cut into the heir’s hand.” Hypnos dragged one edge of the crescent moon across Enrique’s hand. Through his skin, he felt a hum of power, like lightning traveling through his veins. “Then, the Ring of the witness is held over the bloodied Ring. If the heir is of the same blood as the matriarch or patriarch, both Rings turn blue. If the heir is not…”
“You are left with a handsome scar,” finished Séverin coldly.
Hypnos dropped Enrique’s hand.
“The Order is not above falsifying the inheritance test,” he said, facing Séverin. “It’s been performed in the past by families wishing to pass over one heir for a different family member.”
“On what grounds would they deny an heir his inheritance?” asked Enrique.
Hypnos ticked off the reasons on his fingers. “They might not like how the child’s mind works, or who they love, or—”
“Or the Order might like their bloodlines nice and neat,” cut in Séverin, his voice distant. “Two heirs of mixed blood would not do. An easy solution is to choose one over the other.”
Hypnos’s jaw tightened. Gone was his lax demeanor. Regrettwisted his handsome features. “If memory serves, you tried to tell me that years ago,” he said quietly.
“And if memory serves, you didn’t listen.”
Spots of color appeared on Hypnos’s cheeks. “As you so aptly pointed out, my very breath has been monitored by the Order since the day my father died and passed the Ring to me. But if you acquire this artifact for me, I will administer the inheritance test myself. No falsifications like last time. I can return your Ring to you… I know where it’s kept.”
Enrique felt as though all the air had been drained from the room. Séverin refused to look at Hypnos as he spoke. “What do you want?”
“A Horus Eye.”
Enrique sucked in his breath.
“Where is it?”
Hypnos hesitated for a moment, then said, “The vaults of House Kore.”
“No,” said Séverin immediately. “I am not stepping into that woman’s house.”
