construction plans. The only place safer than the hospital is my aunt’s house. Did you manage to read any of them?”
“I made it through the first three. Your dad switched to ideographs midway through book two and never looked back.” I’d have shown him, but even reading it myself was hard enough. “Five books later, he’s writing in a combination of scripts just like the Re-Animus. The man was a combination of genius and crazy.”
“I hear that a lot. You seem to be doing just fine here.”
I pointed to the floor. “No scorpions. Go home. Sleep. Shave. I can take care of myself for one night.”
His gaze dropped to the floor; his lips turned down. I couldn’t get a read on him. Angry? Disappointed? “All right. You have my number. You know those meat-skins that nearly killed us out at the farm? They were in Louisiana the day before, in a funeral home.”
He was hiding something. Something he thought would upset me. He wouldn’t make eye contact. “How’d they get all the way to New Mexico?”
Brynner picked up my laptop and logged on. “Here. I got these from Director Bismuth. It’s a spell a team found on a cargo barge in New Orleans the same day our meat-skins went missing.”
My first inclination was to argue over the term “spell,” but he’d definitely talked to the director. Had he called her because of me? “You think this just magically transported them across two states? I think we’re up against something intelligent, sure, and alien, but not magic.”
For one moment, I thought he might yell at me. “You don’t know what you are talking about. And I need some sleep. Can you translate that for me?”
I read the outer ring of glyphs, standard late-kingdom symbols. “Yeah, it’s just like all the others, only still in a circle.”
“Others?” Brynner stared at me.
I nodded. “Yeah. Normally I don’t see them still written like this, but it’s a variant of the other eight I’ve translated. Related to the one you found on your boat.”
Brynner leaned over the hospital bed, staring into my eyes with an intensity that both frightened and thrilled me. “You’ve read these before. For sure?”
I tore my gaze away, looking at the screen. “Hold on. There’s a standing bonus for alternate translations on all of these. I have a lot of time. Every BSI translator takes at least one shot at them. Don’t you think if there were some secret to them, at least one of us would have succeeded?”
He put both hands on my cheeks, making me look at him. “Tell me you didn’t read them out loud, Grace. Please.”
The warmth of his hands and the rough calluses on his palms made me dizzy. “I have. Hundreds of times. I’ve tried every phonic combination you can imagine, and I’m one translator, in one small office.” I took his hands off, holding them in mine, and looked him in the eye. “I know you think there’s something special about them.”
Brynner snapped open his phone, turning away. “Dale, I need you to confirm something. Grace says the spell engravings have been shared with all the BSI translators.” A computerized burst of profanity erupted from the phone, followed by a noise like a fax machine. Brynner nodded. “Find out if it’s true. Those are supposed to be classified.”
He jabbed the phone like he wanted to stab it, and turned back to me. “I’m sorry, Grace. I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”
If he knew how many weekends I’d spent arranging glyphs into various combinations, playing a several-thousand-year-old game of Scrabble. Nothing had ever happened. Ever. “Tell me something. What would it take to convince you these are just artifacts? Like cave drawings, or engravings? What would I have to do?”
His knuckles turned white on the laptop edge, his voice came out almost a whisper. “You could give me my mother back.”
I had no answer for that, only questions. “What happened to her? Your uncle said to ask you. Your aunt told me some of it, but I don’t understand. I just want to understand. Help me with that.”
“You want to understand magic.” The dubious look he gave me matched how I felt.
I wanted to understand Brynner. “Yes.”
He shook his head. “Why did you lie to me? You told me you’re in a relationship, but I tried to contact your kin. There’s no one listed.”
I’d known before I lied to him it would come out. Lies had a way of doing that. “It