Page 44 (1/2)

Eureka felt angry with herin Eureka’s life had been unstable since Diana died She wanted clarity, constancy, someone she could trust

Ander bent down and picked up the little yellowed slip of paper, which Eureka must have dropped It looked like expensive stationery frole as scrawled across it in black ink

Marais

"Does thisto you?" he asked

"That’s " She took the paper and stared at every loop in the word, the sharply dotted i

"It’s Cajun--French--for ‘marsh,’ but I don’t knohy she would write it here"

Ander stared at the here shutters blocked the view of the rain but not its steady sound "There must be someone who can help"

"Madarimly at the locket, at the cryptic piece of paper

"That’s exactly why they killed her" The words slipped from Ander’s mouth before he realized it

"You knoho did it" Eureka’s eyes widened "It was them, those people you ran off the road, wasn’t it?"

Ander slipped the locket from her hand and placed it on her bed He tilted her chin up with his thumb "I wish I could tell you what you want to hear"

"She didn’t deserve to die"

"I know"

Eureka rested her hands on his chest Her fingers curled around the cloth of his T-shirt, wanting to squeeze her pain into it

"Why aren’t you wet?" she asked "Do you have a thunderstone?"

"No" He laughed softly "I suppose I have another kind of shield Though it’s far less impressive than yours"

Eureka ran her hands over his dry shoulders, slid her arms around his dry waist "I’m impressed," she said quietly as her hands slipped under the back of his shirt to touch his s her She felt nervous but alive, bewildered and buzzing with new energy she didn’t want to question

She loved the feel of his ar her head to kiss hiers froze over what felt like a gash on Ander’s back She pulled away andup the back of his shirt Four red slashes e

"You’re cut," she said It was the same wound she’d seen on Brooks the day of the freak Verashes, where Brooks’s back had borne two

"They aren’t cuts"

Eureka looked up at hie of her bed She sat next to hi warain, wanted to run her hand over them to see if they were as deep as they looked He put his hand on her leg It made her insides buzz He looked like he was about to say soht be impossible to believe

"Gills"

Eureka blinked "Gills Like a fish?"

"For breathing underwater, yes Brooks has the "What do you ills noell? What do you ills?"

The roo with her?

He reached behind hireen leather-bound book "Do you believe what you read in this?"

She didn’t know hie his tone of voice It sounded desperate--but what else? Did it also betray anger? Fear?

"I don’t know," she said "It seems too …"

"Much like fantasy?"

"Yes And yet … I want to know the rest Only part of it’s been translated and there are all these strange coincidences, things that feel like they have so to do with me"

"They do," Ander said

"How do you know?"

"Did I lie to you about the thunderstone?"

She shook her head

"Then givethis book" Ander pressed a hand to his heart "The difference between you and me is that from the moment I was born I have been raised with the story you found on these pages"

"How? Who are your parents? Are you in a cult?"

"I don’t exactly have parents I was raised by my aunts and hed "My people come from the lost continent of Atlantis"

"You’re from Atlantis?" she asked "Madame Blavatsky said … But I didn’t believe …"

"I kno could you have believed? But it is true My line was a the feho escaped before the island sank Since then, our mission has been to carry forward the seed of Atlantis’s knowledge, so that its lessons will never be forgotten, its atrocities never be repeated For thousands of years, this story has stayed a the Seedbearers"

"But it’s also in this book"

Ander nodded "We knew your e of Atlantis, but my family still has no idea how much The person who murdered your translator was my uncle The people you encountered at the police station, and on the road that night--those people raised ht"