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PROLOGUE
“Come in. Is itdone?” I invited the older man to enter.
Matteo Maurer was in his late sixties, short and painfully thin with a grayish skin color that bordered on unhealthy looking and attested to too much time spent indoors. He was also the most gifted forensic anthropologist specializing in facial reconstruction in the world.
"It’s ahe, Dr. Webber," Matteo informed me, entering my hotel room carrying two black boxes and a briefcase.
“A he?” I nodded. Somehow, I expected the skull to have belonged to a man. It was larger than any skull I had ever seen. The body it had belonged to must have been close to seven feet tall.
I directed Matteo to the round table I had cleared off for this meeting. All the documents for my upcoming presentation were now neatly stacked on the bed.
Tomorrow, in front of fifty of the most well-known paleontologists in my field, I was scheduled to present my findings of the Homo habilis fossils I had discovered in the surrounding area of the Jura Mountains a couple of years ago.
Homo habilis had so far been believed to have only lived in Africa during that time period. My findings, however, placed Homo habilis not only in Europe, but also much earlier than the oldest finds uncovered in Africa.
It had been one of those lucky discoveries. While vacationing with my then-fiancé in Switzerland two years ago, we came upon a cave in the Jura Mountains that had been partially covered by a rockslide. We would have walked right by it had a lizard not darted out when it did, startling and making me stumble. My hand reached out for support and a rock came loose, creating a small opening into the cave.
Gabriel, my ex-fiancé, was a geologist, and we spent most of our vacation clearing the entrance into the cave together and exploring it.
Instead of finding minerals, as Gabriel had hoped, we found the relatively well-preserved remains of several Homo habilis, plus a very unique skull. Carbon dating placed the remains nearly a million years before the oldest known Homo habilis bones.
It was the discovery of a lifetime. And the end of my engagement.
At thirty-one, I was suddenly a renowned paleontologist, and fifty of the best in my field were going to try and discredit me tomorrow because my discovery was that outrageous.
Instead of fretting and going over my presentation while being wrecked by nerves, I jumped at the chance to meet with Matteo, excited about what he brought me.
Matteo was a man of few words, so with little more than a grunt, he opened the first box containing the unique, well-preserved skull of a Homo sapiens. Potassium argon dating placed him back millions of years before modern man made an appearance on the historical map—or so it was believed.
My cave find was even bigger than I had let on. Forget about my discovery of Homo habilis, this skull would rock the scientific community tomorrow; shake it from the ground up.
I picked up the skull and, just like when I had held him for the first time in the cave, goose bumps spread over my body.Sometimes I think you’re more in love with that skull than me, Gabriel had accused. He had said that particular phrase more than a few times over the subsequent weeks, most notably on the day he walked out.
“You said Viking?” Matteo opened the second box, and a flutter moved through my stomach. Now I would get to see what my Thor—that’s what I had named the skull—looked like when he was alive, or at least close enough.
Matteo was a master of his profession; hundreds of bodies had been identified thanks to him. He was expensive but, thanks to a hefty inheritance, I could afford his exorbitant fee.
Even though the skull had been found in Switzerland, it had given me Viking vibes, so I had told Matteo to look for those markers.
“He bears a strong resemblance to skulls found from the Viking area in what is now known as Scandinavia. You said you found him here in Switzerland?” Matteo was a lot more talkative when the topic fell inside his area of expertise.
I nodded, unwilling to give away the exact site, even though he had probably figured that out already. A nobody paleontologist like me didn’t make two different historical finds within a few years.
Matteo rubbed his chin. “Well, I’m willing to bet our friend Thor here is the grandfather of all Vikings.”
I nearly shouted at him to open the damn container already, but thankfully his fingers finally picked at the edges holding the box together. My breath stopped before the sides fell open.
My heart stuttered, and the flutter in my stomach turned into a full-blown riot.
I gasped when I stared at the sculpted head Matteo had fashioned. Unseeing, light blue eyes sat deep in their sockets, and with an uncanny certainty, I knew the blue was all wrong. The blue had been deeper, darker… I gasped. I couldn’t know this. There was no way I could know such a thing. My imagination was running away from me.
And yet, the high cheekbones, full lips, and aquiline nose—which should have been crooked—sent sparks of recognition through me. I knew this man. As impossible as it sounded, I knew every line on his face. His hair had been a darker blond than the color Matteo gave him, and there had been a scar on the left side of his face from…
Dizziness overcame me, and I grabbed the edge of the table to steady myself.
“Is everything alright?” Matteo asked.
“Yes.” My voice sounded croaky, and I cleared it. “He’s perfect, thank you.”
