but moved to a curved settee, waited for him. And said, “The Stars of Fortune.”
“You believe they exist.”
“I know they exist. The first, the Fire Star, was found only days ago, in an underwater cave in Corfu.”
His interest piqued, and some irritation with it. His network should have picked up that information. If true.
“You have it?”
Something dark, and far more terrible than beauty, slid in and out of her eyes. “If I did, I’d have no need for you. I told you there are six who stand in the way. They found the star, they have it, and—for now—it’s beyond my reach. Now they hunt for the next, and I hunt for them. I . . . underestimated their inventiveness. I won’t do so a second time.”
Now he smiled, believing he held the advantage. “You want my help.”
“Your skills, your thirst, combined with mine. Force alone proved inadequate. I require guile, and human ambitions.”
“Human?”
She said nothing to that, only sipped again of the wine that swam in his head like the heady scent of lilies.
“You know two of the six.”
“Do I?”
“Riley Gwin.”
“Ah, yes.” Even the sound of her name made his mouth thin. “I know Dr. Gwin. A bright, resourceful woman.”
“She’s more than that. Sawyer King. And I see you have no love for this one.”
“He has something I want, and haven’t yet managed to take.”
“The compass. It can be yours. I have no use for it.”
Fascinated, Malmon leaned toward her. “You know of it, what it’s reputed to do?”
“He is the traveler, for now, able to shift through time, through space as long as he possesses the compass. You want that power.”
“I’ll have it. It’s simply a matter of time. One way or the other, I take what I want.”
“As do I. With these two are four others. None of the six are only what they seem. If you choose to do what I ask of you, I’ll show you what they are, what they have. And what they are, what they have can be yours. I only want the stars.”
The compass. He coveted the compass, and only more since he’d failed to . . . acquire it.
But she clearly coveted the stars, so a bargain must be struck. “If, as you say, the stars exist, nothing six people are or have can compare to their worth.”
“The guardians—these six—are not all I’d give you. The offer of money is too usual for you and me, Andre, though I can give you more than any man can hold. You can choose more wealth, but I think you’ll make another choice.”
“What else is there?”
She lifted a hand, and in it rested a clear ball of glass.
“Parlor tricks?”
“Look and see.” Her voice whispered over his skin like ice. “Look into the Globe of All, and see.”
“Something in the wine,” he murmured as clouds and water stirred and stirred inside the glass.
“Of course. Only to help you forget all of this should you choose to refuse me.” And, she thought, to make him—like his servant—susceptible to suggestion.
Hers, should he disappoint her, would be for him to return home, take the weapon he now had at the small of his back, put it into his mouth, and pull the trigger.
If he refused, he was of no use to her.
“Look and see,” she said again. “See the six. Guardians of the stars. Enemies of Nerezza. See them, and what they are.”
He saw Riley standing under the light of a full moon, saw her transform into a wolf that threw back its head to howl before running into shadows.
He watched Sawyer, holding the compass, vanish in a golden light and reappear in another.
He saw a man hold lightning in his hands, a woman who spoke of visions and things yet to come. Another man run through with a sword who rose again, healed and whole.
And the woman, the beauty who dived into a night sea and rose up with a jeweled tail.
“You see the truth.” Nerezza spoke quietly, watching the dazed and dazzled look in his eyes. “What they have, all and each, you can possess. Do with what you will. Think of hunting the she-wolf, the thrill of it. She has a pack, more hunting. Think of possessing the mermaid. Of owning the compass. Of harnessing the magician, the seer for your own purposes.
“Or destroying them. How it would thrill to destroy such creatures. Your choice. Enslave or destroy. And the immortal?”
She smiled when he looked at her again, when she saw what she’d known