“Go on, child,” Petar murmured. “Take it. The bone band is yours.”
Mine.Mine?It felt like a mistake... and a temptation. Surreal.
“It never belonged to us,” Petar said. “We were merely stewards. Perhaps it will help your father. Perhaps it will not. Please make wise choices. It is a heavy burden.”
Hesitant, I started to reach for it, but Huck held up a hand to block me.
“Hold on, now,” he said. “Is this the only way to find Fox? This cursed thing? Banshee, think about this for a moment, yeah? You’ve always told me that you believed in your heart it was a cursed object that killed your poor mother. Are you so quick to follow in her footsteps? If the legends are all true, then this thing causes nothing but death and destruction—it’s evil. It should be destroyed.”
“You may try,” Mihai said. “Others have. No one has been successful.”
Petar nodded. “Indestructible. Much like the person who wears it. They say that lawmen had to cut off Elizabeth Báthory’s finger to remove it. Once all three pieces of the ring are joined together, it becomes a part of the person wearing it. You can’t remove it by force. I’m sure you know Vlad Dracula’s fate. The only way to stop him was”—he made a slicing gesture across his throat—“beheading.”
A gruesome way to authenticate the ring...
Was that what my father had meant in his journal?
“Besides,” Mihai said, “you don’t want to destroy the bone band. It could be your bargaining chip, if you needed one. A very dangerous bargaining chip.”
Huck was probably right. But my father was out there somewhere, and the longer it took to find him... I couldn’t just walk away from this. Not now. Now after everything I’d learned.
I put a hand on Huck’s arm and pleaded with my eyes.Trust me.
Deep lines crossed his brow. He shook his head, unhappy, but he moved out of my way.
Hesitant, I reached out and touched the iron ring box. The metal felt... warm. But it was blessedly quiet. Subdued by the strange box with its stranger markings. Like a sheath for a sharp blade.
“Tell me how to get into the castle,” I said to the brothers in a low voice.
“It’s rumored that Castle Barlog can only be accessed after nightfall,” Mihai said. “And that there’s one way inside through a single, hidden entrance, but it’s locked during the day and known only to members of their order.”
“Any clue as to where?”
Mihai shook his head, apologetic, and said, “I know the old road was blockaded years ago, but that is all.”
“We can ask around, but it is a delicate task,” Petar said. “Maybe you can stop by tomorrow and we’ll know more.”
For all I knew, my father could be dead by tomorrow.
I tried to press them for more information. The conversation went around in circles before ending in the same place. Eventually, they politely informed us that it was time to close the shop and encouraged me to take the iron ring box.
And that was it. Business concluded. The cursed bone band is yours. Good luck with your missing father. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Only, now I had more questions than I did before we stepped inside the curiosity shop. About my father’s precise whereabouts and his safety. About Rothwild and his own ancestral connection to Vlad. Did he have the other two bone bands or did Sarkany also possess one? Were they rivals, or were they working together? How was I going to find an entrance to this hidden castle?
And my God! Was I really,trulya descendant of Vlad Dracula? And did that gift me with some kind of arcane claim to the bone ring’s cursed power, or was it just a blip on a dusty family tree—an exotic piece of party conversation?
I juggled these questions around in my head like flaming torches; drop one, and the world would catch fire and burn down everything I loved.
“Remember one thing,” Mihai warned in parting. “Do not take the ring out of the box. Not only is that box a good insulator, but it keeps the ring hidden. Once out? It’s only a matter of time before someone with occult knowledge can find it. If Rothwild obtains all three bands of the bone ring, he will not hesitate to wear it. And once he wears it, he will be transformed, no longer himself.”
He’d be the Dragon.
God help us all.
21
ICOULD FEEL HUCK’S ANGER BREWINGthe minute the shop door closed behind us. It was dark now; twilight had fallen while we were inside. He hurried me down the deserted street, past storefronts that had shuttered for the night, and when we were a safe distance away from the antiques shop, his eyes went straight to my satchel, where I’d stashed the iron box.
