The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)(89)

"All places with freaky anomalies," I interrupted. "Especially the fish thing, but if we don't think the tablet is a joke or a decoy, then it's an authentic clue from whoever took the staff. In that case, nothing on it was accidental. So, maybe the ‘Made in Poland' decal was left on there for a reason."

Adrian stared at me, my meaning sinking in. "You think the staff is in a church in Poland," he stated.

"I think it might be," I replied, and that wasn't even the craziest part of the theory that had taken over my mind.

Costa let out a disbelieving snort. "Talk about hiding a clue in plain sight! The decal was so small, anyone could have missed it."

"You didn't," I told him, with a grateful smile. "I probably never would have noticed it in those pictures."

He grunted. "You didn't have those pictures as your only escape from endless sermons."

No, but Costa had. Coincidence? I was starting to doubt it.

"So, let's assume we're right about the significance of ‘Made in Poland,'" I said, continuing with my theory. "Was Poland on your list of places with freaky weather occurrences?"

"No," Adrian said, his arched brow questioning where I was going with this.

"When we get back to the real world, we can google Poland to see what parts have freaky natural occurrences," Costa said.

"We could do that," I agreed, taking a deep breath. What I was about to suggest sounded insane, but after all I'd been through, I was starting to believe that more than a series of random coincidences and flukes had led us to where we were now. Add in some cryptic Archon speech about a map "of sorts" and a staff that might be controlling a lot more than nature, and maybe we'd been looking at this puzzle from the wrong angle.

If not, well, then, this wouldn't be the first time that someone called me crazy. "The staff is what Moses used during his infamous standoff with Pharaoh, but what was the point?" I asked, plowing ahead with my theory.



       
         
       
        

Adrian lifted a brow. "To call down crushing plagues?"

"Yes, but what was the point?" I insisted. "Everyone knows the ‘let my people go' line that Moses kept repeating to Pharaoh, and after the plagues, Pharaoh did. So, what if the staff's influence isn't limited to nature? What if, just like with Pharaoh, the staff's greatest accomplishment is influencing man?"

I began to pace, so consumed by my theory that I couldn't stand still any longer. "And if so, what if thousands of years later, the staff's influence caused two sets of people to do the exact same crazy thing? After all, it cost huge sums of money to have an obscure little chapel disassembled and moved brick by brick over thousands of miles just to be reassembled again, and for what? There's nothing special about the chapel! But we know that's what happened, and we know the staff moved with it from France to New York to Milwaukee. So what if the staff made both those chapel owners do something senseless and costly, just like Pharaoh did something that he would have considered senseless and costly by letting his entire enslaved work force leave? And if so, then instead of looking for the staff in places with freaky nature anomalies, should we be looking for it in places with freaky human anomalies?"

I was almost panting by the time I finished, having rushed through those last sentences without taking a single breath of air. When I was done, Adrian said nothing. Neither did Costa. They just stared at me, until the silence passed awkward and headed right into uncomfortable.

Okay, so they didn't seem to share my views on the staff. Wait until they heard the rest of my theory, and it was either tell them now or keep it to myself forever.

"There's more," I said. No way could I keep this to myself. "I found the slingshot in your former realm when I was looking for Jasmine. We found the tablet by going to your former home at the campus, the chapel's location in New York just happened to be at a chateau that you used to stay at, and its original location of Chasse-sur-Rhône in France just happened to be the first place you went to when you were exploring the human world. Yes, you've been all around in your very long life, but that's too many coincidences. I think the tablet isn't our only clue to the staff's location, Adrian. I think the real map is you, so let me ask you-have you ever been to Poland?"

If I thought they'd looked skeptical before, this time, both Adrian and Costa's faces registered sheer disbelief. Then, after a silence that slashed across my nerves, Adrian's expression changed, becoming so hard and calculating that, for a split second, he reminded me of Demetrius.