my nerves as I flipped to a blank page in my notebook and picked up my pencil. It didn’t take me long to translate the line.
? ?ρμο? ? ?πολωλ?? ?π?ντων ?στιν ? κλε?? Μυρρ?νη ?θ?να?
The lost amulet is the key to everything.
– Myrrine Athanas
“The lost amulet,” I whispered, “is the key … to everything? What does she mean, everything?”
Zylas frowned at the page. “How is it lost?”
“If Myrrine wrote this note, I guess the amulet went missing during or before her time.” I slumped back against the sofa. “Key to everything or not, it’s no use if it’s been lost for millennia.”
“But it is not lost.” He pointed at the array-marked side of the illustration. “This imailatē was around Tahēsh’s neck before I killed him.”
Chapter Two
“All right.” Amalia paced the length of the living room, her hands clasped behind her back. “You’re saying this ancient amulet, which was lost thousands of years ago, is the ‘key to everything,’ according to a medieval sorceress who may have summoned a Twelfth House demon despite it being forbidden.”
“Not medieval,” I corrected. “She lived during the archaic period, same as Homer. The earliest Greek poet,” I added at her blank look.
“Sure, right.” Amalia strode the other way across the room. “So this amulet, which for some reason has his”—she nodded at Zylas, who was sitting on the breakfast bar—“House sigil smack dab in the middle of it, was lost back in the archaic period, but he”—another nod at Zylas—“saw it a few months ago around the neck of a First House demon.”
“Yes.”
She raked her hands through her long blond hair. “And Zylas has no idea what the amulet is?”
“Not in the slightest,” I told her.
Her face scrunched with bewilderment. “I don’t get it.”
“Neither do we.” I swept over to the grimoire, which waited beside Zylas on the counter, open to the amulet page. “I translated the pages before and after this, but they don’t explain what the amulet is.”
“Why would it be in the grimoire without an explanation?”
“Myrrine knew something about it. My mom’s notes suggest Myrrine added extra entries in the grimoire. Maybe she explains what the amulet is.”
Amalia followed me to the counter. “I’m dying to know why it’s Vh’alyir’s Amulet. Why would something from the Twelfth House be so important?”
“And why did Tahēsh have it?” I looked up at Zylas. “Any ideas?”
He braced his elbows on his knees, his dark brows pinched above his red eyes. “He wore it when I saw him in the kaīrtis—in the circle. He brought it with him.”
“He was summoned with it? But … but if it’s documented in the grimoire, it was here first. How did it get from my world to your world?”
Amalia squinted at Zylas. “Did it not pique your curiosity when you saw him wearing an amulet with your House emblem on it?”
Scowling, he jabbed a claw into the illustration. “I only saw this side. I did not see my House.”
“Careful,” I warned, sliding the grimoire away from him.
“Are you absolutely sure it’s the same amulet?” she asked. “That’s a complicated array. Maybe Tahēsh was carrying something similar.”
“I did not see the other side. Maybe it is a different imailatē, but what I saw was this.” He poked at the drawing again, more gently this time.
“Assuming Tahēsh had this amulet,” I said, “how’d he get it?”
“He was Dīnen of the First House.” Zylas brooded silently. “He was oldest of all male demons except Ivaknen. He knew much secret knowledge.”
Tahēsh’s superior knowledge was the reason Zylas had freed the powerful demon from his inescapable summoning circle. Zylas had hoped Tahēsh would know a way to get home without a soul.
“The First House is strongest,” Zylas continued. “They have many treasures. They take things of power from other Houses.”
“Do you think the First House stole the amulet from the Twelfth House?”
“Var. We are too weak to protect anything.”
“You’re not weak,” I told him firmly. “You made them fear your House, remember?”
He flexed his fingers, unsheathing his claws. “I did this, yes, but it is too late.”
“Too late?”
“I am oldest of my House. All others are younger and nailēris. I cannot help my House be stronger anymore.”
Amalia looked at the demon with surprise. She’d never seen Zylas’s regal side before.
“You can help them again,” I reassured him. “We’ll find a way to send you home. I promised, remember?”
“But I will not return as Dīnen.” He straightened out of his slouch. “The imailatē is important, na? Should we find it?”
“Sure,” Amalia said dryly. “That won’t be