The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell (read an ebook week .TXT) 📕

“We’ll go back,” he promised. “Tonight. We’ll make a plan and then—”

She leaned in close, and suddenly Harte couldn’t speak. She spoke low, so no one else could hear. “Are you sure that the headpiece you tried to steal was the real thing?”

Seshat prowled within his skin, and Harte pulled back, preserving the careful distance between himself and Esta.

“Of course…”

“You felt the power in the stone?”

“Yes—” But thinking back, Harte couldn’t actually remember if he’d felt anything. He’d been so sick, and everything that day had happened so fast. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he admitted. Then he realized… “I didn’t feel anything back there.”

Esta glanced at him. “That wasn’t the real Dragon’s Eye. It was a replica—a damn good one, but a replica all the same,” she told him. Strangely, she didn’t seem upset by this news. “I wonder if they know?”

“What are you thinking?” he asked, trying to figure out her new mood.

“I’m thinking there’s a good chance that you didn’t lose the Dragon’s Eye,” she said, her golden eyes brightening. “I’m thinking that maybe the Committee never had the original to start with.”

“Of course they did,” Harte said, wishing it were otherwise. “My father told me that he sold it to them. He gloated about it. If he’d sold them a fake, he would have bragged about that, too.”

Esta glanced at him. “But what if your father was wrong?”

Harte frowned. “What do you mean?”

“What if he only thought he sold the real Dragon’s Eye to the Committee?” Esta asked. “What if they only thought they bought the real thing?”

Harte rubbed his hand over his face, tired in mind and body from trying to follow her and her logic. “You’re not making a lot of sense.”

“Remember how I told you that your stepmother, Patience, must have given your father’s creditors replicas of the cuff and the necklace when they came to collect your father’s debts—replicas that she’d probably used her affinity to make?” Esta asked.

Harte still remembered how shocked he’d been to learn that his father had been married to a woman who was Mageus without ever knowing it. “You think she made a replica of the Dragon’s Eye, too?”

Esta nodded. “If Patience could sense the power in the cuff and the necklace, it stands to reason that she would have sensed the power in the Dragon’s Eye as well.”

Harte was glad he was already sitting down. “But she didn’t tell you anything about the crown.”

“Why would she? She didn’t know me, and I didn’t tell her I was looking for it,” Esta said. “But I think it’s absolutely possible that your father sold a fake crown to the Committee.”

“It would have put him at risk if he’d been found out,” Harte said, thinking through the implications. “You really think she would have done that to her husband?”

Esta shrugged. “From what she told me, she wasn’t exactly fond of him. She seemed glad that he was gone.”

“He wasn’t the type of man anyone would be fond of,” Harte said.

“It’s likely that they didn’t figure it out,” Esta said. “If they had, they would have reacted long before you ever showed up to take the crown.”

“But Jack would have realized—Thoth would have known,” Harte said. “It’s clear he’s working with the Committee.”

“Which only proves my theory. Think about it, Harte. If Jack discovered that the Committee had a real artifact, he would have taken it from them. There’s no way it would still be on display nearly fifty years later. It’s more likely he let them believe it was real because it served his purposes.”

Harte couldn’t argue with that logic. “So what do we do now?”

“Patience helped us once before,” Esta said. “Maybe she would be willing to help us again. Even if she doesn’t still have the crown, she might know where it is.”

Hope warmed Harte as the cable car rattled along down California, cutting through a canyon of buildings. He was still a little short of breath, and his legs felt like he’d run for miles, but the cool, damp air brushed against his face, reviving him a little as they traveled along. With everything that had happened, could the Dragon’s Eye truly still be within reach?

Then another thought occurred to him. “It’s been nearly fifty years. I doubt she’s still alive.”

“What about your brother?” Esta asked. “He might know something. He might even have it.”

“Sammie would be close to sixty by now himself.” So much time had passed, Harte wasn’t even sure that the boy would remember him. “He might be gone by now as well.” The thought made his mood sink.

“It’s possible,” Esta agreed, but still, she seemed more determined than disheartened. “But we might as well look into it. If we can’t find them, we’ll be no worse off than we already are.”

Harte felt every second of the day’s excursion. “If Sammie is alive, I don’t know where we’d even start to look for him.…”

Esta still didn’t seem worried. Her mouth curled into a small smile. “Luckily, I do.”

THE ARS ARCANA

1902—New York

Jack Grew was exhausted from the evening of arguing minutia with old men. It was later than he’d intended to stay at the Chandlers’ dinner party, but he still ordered his driver to take him south instead of in the direction of his comfortable town house on the edge of Washington Square. It had been a long day of maneuvering and positioning and pretending, but his plans were progressing… and the evening was still ahead of him.

As the hack carried him through the city, he took a cube of morphine, then tipped his head back against the carriage’s plush interior, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the familiar warmth spreading within his blood. His senses came alive, and he could feel within him that sureness that always grew sharper with the languid, dreamlike warmth of the drug. By the time the carriage arrived at the docks, Jack was relaxed and more