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Octavian’s mouth twisted into a smile. “You’re welcome, Pandora.”
I snorted.
Bella and Harker stepped into the room, right behind the people from the kitchen. Bella looked frazzled. Her hair, finally back to strawberry-blonde, was half falling out of her bun. It was no wonder. She’d tried to secure the bun with a pencil. My usually-composed sister was quite unravelled at the moment.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Nothing is wrong, Leda. I’ve done it!” Bella grabbed a handful of crackers and stuffed them into her mouth.
“She hasn’t eaten all day,” Harker explained.
“How could I eat when I knew I was so close?” She grabbed more crackers.
“Close to what?” I asked her. “What have you done?”
“I finally found the right chemical to expose the parchment we put together in Purgatory. I’ve made it reveal its secrets.” She grabbed a blueberry muffin and quickly ate it too.
“And?” I asked her. “Where does the map lead?”
“It’s not a where, Leda. It’s a who.”
I frowned in confusion.
Bella showed me the parchment. The image now prominent on the surface was a hand-drawn illustration of a woman’s face.
“This parchment is older than we are, right?” I asked her.
“Yes.”
I knew who the woman in the drawing was: Arina Phoenix. Arina couldn’t have been a day over thirty, but the picture of her on this decades-old parchment showed her exactly as she appeared today.
