“Because each one of you has a specific piece to find and win. We learned this the hard way.” Rainier stares at his emaciated thighs. “I was with Amandine when she faced her challenge of retrieving the Earth piece. She succeeded but then she handed it to me for safekeeping.” His crow’s feet deepen. “I was lucky it was only my legs I lost.”
Gaëlle runs a hand through her snarled, dark curls. “Also, last time, they didn’t know that the pieces could only be touched by the descendants of that specific element or it activated the curse contained within the piece.” She nibbles on her lower lip. “That’s how I lost my father. He didn’t realize that our piece was Air.” Her ruddy-brown eyes set on the gray mist billowing over the inky lake. “Not Water.”
Rainier sighs. “It was only after your parents died, Monsieur Roland, that we managed to put the Quatrefoil puzzle together.”
I don’t even bother correcting him with my name anymore but do question his declaration. “You said my parents died in a fire.”
“Their element was Water.” He contemplates the flames devouring the logs behind me. “They touched Camille Mercier’s leaf: Fire.”
I absentmindedly rub the scar under my shirt sleeve.
Rainier takes a drag from his Churchill, which is nothing but a glowing stub now. “After Pierre—Gaëlle’s father—and your parents died, we finally understood how it worked.”
Magic killed my parents . . . might very well kill me. It probably shouldn’t be restored. But at the same time, I really don’t feel like dying.
“So, we each have a specific leaf to find and collect?” I pour more wine into my glass, even though I’m tempted to grab the bottle and chug it.
Rainier nods. “Yours is Water. Adrien’s, Fire. Gaëlle’s, Air.” He reaches out toward his daughter, who hesitates but ends up yielding to him, wrapping her slender fingers around his. “And Cadence’s is Earth.”
Gaëlle drains her glass, but it does nothing to loosen the stiffness of her shoulders. “Each of us will have to face a challenge brought forth by our element. We can help each other, but we cannot, under any circumstances, fight another person’s battle or touch their piece.”
“Sort of like a treasure hunt,” Cadence says, “but with cursed artifacts.”
“Which is why it’s incredibly dangerous,ma chérie.”
“And not just for Slate,” Adrien adds.
I’m glad for the reminder. Ihadalmost forgotten about my dire predicament.
I take a swig of wine. “You just might get your wish after all, Mademoiselle de Morel.”
She makes a face before dropping her gaze to her knees, to the patch of wet denim. “I don’t actually want you to die, you moron.”
Gaëlle slides her glass onto the table and cradles her face in her hands. Her voice is muffled when she says, “I need to ask Nolwenn and Juda to take care of the twins. Not just over the next two weeks, but . . . but I need to make plans, in case.” She sighs and drags her hands down the sides of her face which seems gray in comparison to the rich shade of her fingers.
“It’ll be okay, Gaëlle. We know so much more than before.” Rainier’s reassurance makes the thirty-something woman shoot him a grateful smile.
“How do we know where to look?” Cadence’s voice is as wispy as the dark smoke rising up the chimney. “What if they’re scattered all over the world?”
Rainier smiles. “The pieces have been magicked to remain within the confines of Brume, and they’ll be located within their element. In the next day or so, someone will claim to have seen a whirlpool in the lake or will report a sinkhole. There might be a windstorm in only one part of town, or a house that catches fire without reason. These natural happenings will lead us to the pieces.” He juts his chin toward my hand. “Not to mention, we have a live artifact detector.”
I hold up my swollen finger. This time I get a tiny rush at flipping him off in front of everyone else. Maybe I’m not as off my game as I thought. “You mean, this old thing?”
“You’re such a jerk,” Cadence mutters under her breath.
My gaze slides to hers. I don’t say it out loud, but I’m thinking,Really? Even more of a jerk than that asshole who let me rot in the system my whole life?I’m guessing, that in all the excitement, Rainier’s failed to inform her of his hand in myupbringing.
Rainier continues, “The stone reacts when it nears a piece of the Quatrefoil. Slate will feel a burning in his blood, cramping in his limbs.”
“How . . .nifty.” I examine the bottle. It’s empty. I could really use a refill.
“We have to keep our eyes on the prize. We’re going to bring magic back. It’ll be . . .extraordinary.” Rainier’s voice has the high timbre of a fanatic. Easy to get all creamed up when you get to sit back and twiddle your thumbs.
My gaze sticks to his legs, then to Cadence, and I realize that was uncalled for.
Mercier sighs. “Guess I should cancel my plane ticket and inform the head of the history department at Cambridge I won’t be visiting.”
“I’m sorry,” Cadence says, before turning to me like she expects me to apologize.
