Page 298 of Caelum

Adam and Eve.

Seven wishes will slay Tamag’s gatekeeper,

with Erlik hiding amid Derinkuyu’s labyrinthine walls.

The Original Sin Eater guards that which doesn’t belong to him.

With caution approach, a wish worn on safety.

When lost, be found, a wish worn on discovery.

Let the last slay the beast before his leader surfaces.

The clue had been whizzingaround my head all night, but there were no real answers to be found. How could there be?

Until we got there, to the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu, there were no means of us even beginning to understand what the next step was.

The three wishes evidently had a purpose, but the other information in the longer clue? We were all hypothesizing and getting nowhere.

“Nicholas can use Caelum’s resources to get them out of Mexico and into Europe,” Avalina said softly. “We must trust him to have faith in us. This one last time.”

“I agree,” Samuel stated, like his opinion mattered.

The thought had my lips twitching, and when I saw my mate’s do the same, I grinned at her. She smirked back and winked, and I was relieved to see that she was relatively calm considering the clusterfuck we were currently dealing with at the moment.

“If he tries to detain you, then all is lost,” Bartlett argued.

“If he doesn’t help us, then God only knows what will happen. For the moment, Erlik is where the clue states he is?—”

“Won’t the ink change if Erlik’s location shifts?” Eve questioned. “I mean, it’s not like anything is fixed. It might change.”

“Or it might not,” Avalina replied gently. “I’d far prefer for you to get a handle on this situation sooner rather than later. We must act.

“The world will endure another so-called Armageddon if it happens shortly. But to give the humans a reprieve of three weeks, only to take their safety net away from them again? It’s beyond cruel.”

“I wish the private jets we had were capable of transatlantic flights,” Frazer admitted on a sigh, “but they’re mostly for shorter journeys. Max, a red-eye flight from New York toLA.”

Avalina wafted a hand. “It can’t be helped. We’ve been fortunate that you have great wealth at your fingertips.”

“Why don’t you?”

The question came from Eve, but the bluntness of it surprised us all.

Avalina stared at her. “Why aren’t we rich? Because riches come in different forms, and when you’ve lived as long as we have, then you?—”

Eve snorted. “Your library doesn’t exactly scream poverty, Avalina. And I get the feeling that a university wouldn’t pay for such luxurious surroundings as your office.”

The harshness in my woman’s tone had me reaching over to grab her hand. Not as a prompt to quiet her, but to comfort her.

What was going on inside her head?

She’d awoken this morning with a big grin, and the smirk on Dre’s face was answer enough that he’d finally been Claimed. But that smile on her face had died as soon as we’d explained the clue to her, and when Samuel had hooked us up to Avalina and Bartlett’s office, her mood had just disintegrated entirely.

“No, and we live in comfort, but truly, when you live a long time, riches come in many shapes and sizes.”

Eve’s mouth tightened, and Samuel, casting a look at her, began to speak, but as he said, “If—” Eve blurted out, “Why are we even doing this? What if the Ghouls are the only thing containing the humans? Have we ever thought about that?”

Bartlett shot Avalina a look. “Where is this coming from, Eve?”

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