The girl's face fell. At the same time, Gio noticed a silver chain dangling from Max's hip pocket.
The necklace. She hadn't lost it; she hadn't thrown it away. She still had it. He reached out and gave it a little tug.
Max jumped, and Gio realized that from her perspective, he was groping her ass. "Not in front of the kids!" she mouthed at him.
"The necklace," he whispered back, and cut his eyes sideways to the little girl.
Her mouth rounded again in understanding. "Do you mind?" she whispered. Gio shook her head. It had been pleasant indeed to fasten the chain around her neck, but he would happily buy her a thousand necklaces if she wanted them.
Max turned back to the girls. "Actually, Aunt Max is just fooling with you," she said, pulling the chain from her pocket. The silver and turquoise pendant dangled at the end. Max looked briefly a little sad, then put it in the girl's outstretched hand. "It's from the deserts of the Southwest United States. It's a traditional jewelry form there."
The girl squealed in delight. "Mama! Look what Aunt Max brought me!"
"Where's mine?" the other little girl asked jealously.
Sofia turned around from the stove. "Oh, Max! That's too nice, you shouldn't have. You know she's only eight!"
The little girl clutched her new necklace as if afraid someone would take it away from her. "I won't lose it," she said frantically.
"I want one," her sister complained.
"You didn't have a birthday," Max told her. "Wait for your next one."
Both girls were now looking at her with eyes shining like stars. It was clear that Max had won their tiny hearts—and, perhaps, he had won hers by suggesting it.
Gio, smiling, turned to Elina, who had watched all of this with curiosity. He sat down beside her.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked.
"Yes, thank you," Elina said in her quiet voice. "Thank you very much for getting me out." She hesitated. "And you'll go back for my brother?" The statement ended on a hopeful, questioning note.
"We will," Max promised. She moved over to the stove to help Sofia. "We need some time to rest up and make plans first."
"What happened, exactly?" Gio asked. "I didn't see."
Max glanced at the little girls and made a "little pitchers have big ears" gesture.
"Actually, we're just leaving," Sofia said, also catching it. "The girls have already eaten, so help yourself to whatever else you'd like and clean up when you're done. Elina is welcome to stay here, or she could come down the hill with me and see a little of the village."
Elina looked delighted by this idea. From what Javic had said, it was likely that she hadn't been out of that pink room for years.
"Go ahead," he said. "We can all meet back here in the afternoon."
Sofia left with Elina and the two girls. With the children gone, the house seemed incredibly quiet. Part of that, Gio thought, was because there were almost no engine noises. A scooter putted past in the road, and he saw a truck parked out the window, which Sofia and the girls got into and drove off. But it didn't look like there were a lot of vehicles in the village, certainly not a steady stream of traffic.
"It's incredibly peaceful here," he told Max as they ate.
"Yes," Max said. She looked briefly sad, but then her game face slammed down. "Okay, now that we're alone, we can compare notes. I see that you got Elina out."
"Yes." Gio filled her in briefly on his side of it. "What happened with you and Javic?"
"We were met with resistance right away. We planned to do the same thing you and I were going to, and fake that I was his prisoner, but all of that fell apart as soon as that lady with the scepter showed up. Did you see that?"
"I got a quick look."
"I don't know what it was, but she was able to use it to take control of his phoenix completely. My guess would be that they've been holding that back as a contingency plan all along, in case he tried to rebel. They certainly seemed to have the whole thing rehearsed. Then I found myself in a fight, and that's when you showed up."
Gio laughed. "Well, we got Elina, and now it looks like we have another rescue to plan."
