“But easy enough to try,” Lydia countered. She pointed to Luc. “He’s as likely to be the One as any of them.”

   Cole grabbed Luc’s forearm and dragged a knife across it, then passed it to Lydia. Luc sagged back against the couch, wide-eyed. Lydia leaned over me and swiped more blood from my chest. She wiped Luc’s blood onto her thumb, rubbed her fingers together, and coated the raised part of the bracelet in her hand.

   Even though the rest of us knew nothing that united Luc and me would work, we all watched the bracelet. I watched Cole and Lydia. Maybe while they were distracted, we could overpower them. But they didn’t drop their guard.

   After a few seconds, as the bracelet just sat there, doing nothing, we all relaxed again.

   “It’s not him,” Lydia said softly. “You all knew that wouldn’t work.” She went perfectly still for a moment, then dragged the knife deeper across my chest. I gasped, clutching at the stinging cut, and felt hot blood ooze out through my fingers. My mom pulled me close.

   Lydia whirled around. Stellan was still on the edge of the next couch over, just a couple feet away. Before I even understood what she was thinking, she slashed out at his forearm with the same knife and wiped the blade in her hand, mixing his blood with mine.

   “No,” I choked, pulling out of my mom’s grasp. Next to me, the rolled-up sleeve of Stellan’s shirt was turning crimson. He watched Lydia, mesmerized, as she picked up the other bracelet. She slapped her bloody palm inside it, staining the gold red.

   For a second, nothing happened.

   And then Napoleon’s twin bracelet started to smoke.

 

 

CHAPTER 34

   “The blood is melting it.” Lydia set the bracelet on the coffee table. “Or heating it. Or something. It’s a lock. I was right.”

   I felt a hand come around mine, and slipped my bloody fingers through Stellan’s. Drops of crimson from our clasped hands fell onto the cafe’s worn hardwood floors. We couldn’t have been sure before, but there it was: the union was us. Our very own map of fates was real. Stellan was part of the thirteenth bloodline, and even if it wasn’t getting married, we, together, meant something.

   And apparently, it was far more than symbolic power.

   Lydia whirled. “It is him. I knew it. When we first walked in, I was surprised he wasn’t worse off than that tiny little burn—and just since we’ve been sitting here, it’s healed the rest of the way, hasn’t it?”

   She was right—as I looked closer, I could see that where the burn had been, there was nothing more than new pink skin, pearlescent like the rest of Stellan’s scars.

   “How is that possible?” Cole snapped.

   “I knew Avery wouldn’t get so attached to some nobody Keeper just because he’s pretty,” Lydia went on, almost proudly.

   Stellan let go of my hand.

   “This has to do with the thirteen thing that keeps getting mentioned, doesn’t it?” Lydia said.

   On the coffee table, the bracelet was still smoking.

   “But if the thirteenth thing is a person . . . ,” Lydia continued. “It means . . . a thirteenth family of the Circle?”

   “But there were twelve Diadochi,” Cole said, contempt and suspicion in equal measure evident in his voice.

   “And Alexander.” Understanding dawned on Lydia’s face. “That’s the thirteenth family, isn’t it? Everyone thinks he had no heir, but what if he did?”

   “But—” Cole sputtered. “But that means—the mandate says—he’s the One?”

   “Anyone from that bloodline.” Lydia perched on a floral ottoman, her gun still in her hand. Despite everything, I was impressed she was putting it all together so quickly. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

   “But the bloodline of the One is—they’re supposed to rule over—” Cole pointed the gun at Stellan.

   Lydia jumped between them. “That means he’s important. We need him.”

   Grimacing, Cole turned back to Luc.

   And then there was a popping noise. The gold bracelet snapped into two.

   We all gaped at it. Lydia reached for it with her bloody hand, but Elodie said weakly, “No! You don’t want to destroy whatever’s inside.”

   Lydia handed the bracelet to Jack. “Open it.”

   He took it, but put it behind his back. “We got you this far. Let us help Elodie.”

   Lydia sighed. “Fine.”

   Stellan leaped up and was laying Elodie on the couch and putting pressure on her wound in seconds.

   “Now open it,” Lydia said to Jack. “And, Cole, keep an eye on the maid.”

   “Give me the other gun,” Cole said, gesturing to where they’d made Jack lay his on the floor. Lydia handed it to him, and he kept his own trained on Luc, and Jack’s on the rest of us.

   “Hurry up,” Lydia said.

   Jack met my eyes. What else could we do? He tugged gently, and it came apart.

   Jack glanced up at the rest of us, then pulled a folded piece of paper out of the bracelet, and very carefully straightened and unfolded it.

   The paper was only a couple inches wide, and three times that length. I could tell it was about to crumble in Jack’s hands. He squinted at the tiny writing.

   “Read it,” Lydia said. “Need I remind you that we could just kill you all and take the bracelets now that they’re open? I don’t know why I’m being so nice, but you may as well take advantage of it.”

   I knew why. She still hoped that somehow, after everything she’d done, that I’d still want to be one of them. She knew I wouldn’t if she killed my friends. As crazy as Lydia was, she actually cared about her family.