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Artemis sat up. “Oh, dear God.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lin held fast to her brother even as the wildcat clawed her, for she’d been told by the strange little man in the hills that if she let go of her brother before the cock’s first crow, they would both be doomed to the wild hunt forever. So Lin grasped Tam as they rode through the night sky, and the Herla King gave no word that he saw the struggle right behind him, but his fist tightened on his horse’s reins.
Then Tam turned into a writhing serpent.…
—from The Legend of the Herla King
Maximus stared at the single emerald drop in Artemis’s palm. She’d hastily donned her chemise before running back to her room without telling him why, only to appear moments later with her hand fisted around something.
Now he wondered if he should feel betrayed. “Where the hell did you get that?”
“I…” Her hand clutched the pendants protectively. “Well, it certainly isn’t what you may be thinking.”
He blinked and raised his gaze to her face at her indignant tone. Her beautiful gray eyes were wary. They’d made love not moments before, and yet the bed felt cold now. “What am I thinking?”
She raised her eyebrows haughtily. “That I’m somehow involved with the murderer of your parents.”
Stated baldly like that, it was obviously preposterous. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. Tell me.”
She cleared her throat. “My brother gave it to me on our fifteenth birthday.”
He stiffened. “Kilbourne?”
“Yes.”
Maximus looked down, thinking. The murderer had been cautious. Maximus had only discovered the first drop nearly ten years after the murder. By tracing back through the sale of the drop, he’d realized that the jewel had only been originally sold months before. Unfortunately, that drop had been a dead end—quite literally. The owner of the original pawnshop where the emerald drop had been sold was found lying in a pool of his own blood.
Maximus had bought the last pendant over three years ago. Likely the murderer had begun to realize that Maximus was collecting the jewels—and that they might provide a link back to the murderer.
But if Artemis was correct, then the jewel she wore had come into the possession of her brother before the other drops had begun to be sold.
Before the murderer knew how dangerous the jewels were to him.
Kilbourne might have the clue to help him find the murderer. He might even know the murderer himself.
Maximus’s head snapped up. “Who did your brother get it from?”
“I don’t know,” she said simply. “He never said. I didn’t realize it was a real emerald until I tried to pawn it a couple of months ago.”
He stared at the emerald for a long moment before rising from the bed and going to the iron box on his bedside table. He took the key from a hidden drawer in the table and opened the box. The top held a shallow tray, perfectly fitted to the inside. He’d had it lined in black velvet. On it lay what remained of his mother’s most prized possession: the Wakefield emeralds.
He felt Artemis come up beside him to look, and then she took his hand and pressed the emerald pendant into his palm. He wrapped his fingers about her hand for a moment before letting go, suddenly realizing what she’d given him: the missing piece to Old Scratch. With this he might be able to find who the man really was. Maximus swallowed, reluctant to look at her, for it wasn’t only gratitude that swelled within his chest.
Gratitude was the least of the emotions he felt for her.
He laid the pendant in its place beside her sisters.
“There’s one still missing,” she said, leaning her head on his arm.
The pendants lay in an arc around the central chain with one noticeable gap.
“Yes. The one Old Scratch wears at his throat.” He closed the box and locked it again. “When I have it, I intend to have them all reattached.”
“And then you’ll give it to Penelope,” she said quietly.
He flinched. Truly, he’d never thought that far ahead. Finding and restoring the necklace, bringing his parents’ murderer to justice, and achieving some kind of redemption occupied all his thoughts. He hadn’t considered what—if anything—came afterward.
