“Check to see if we can remove any of them.”
“If only you could have pocketed that dagger before he found us,” she said.
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Max said, going back to the lock.
She checked the first set of bars, but they would not budge. “Why ever not?” she asked. “The prophecy states that the dove is the only way to stop him. How are we to do that with the blade locked up here?” She had to save Agnes.
“That wasn’t the correct weapon,” he said plainly. “I was not lying to Flynn.”
“Of course it was. It had a bird carved into its hilt. The same bird we saw in the cemetery and again in the bathhouse.” She checked the next window and again found the bars immovable.
Max turned away from the door and walked over to her. “I know it looked as much, but it was merely another clue. Sabine, trust me when I say it wasn’t the right one.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Wrong time period, for one. That dagger was Turkish, from the Ottoman Empire, far too young to have been something made in Atlantis or at least made in the time of Atlantis.” He reached down and tilted her chin up. “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t the correct clue, though.”
For a moment, she forgot herself and allowed his sympathy to squeeze at her heart. Tears pricked at her eyes. More than anything she wanted to lean into him, give herself over to the attraction between them, and for one night, forget the prophecy. But she was afraid that if she gave in to him again, even one more time, she’d never be able to walk away from him. So she moved to the next window.
The windows looked out over the front of the house, and she could see the circular drive off in the distance. The moon lit the forested area lining the estate, and the grounds were lush and well landscaped. When she opened the final window, she shoved on the bars as she had done on the others. This time, they moved.
“Max,” she whispered as she straightened. “These bars shifted. Perhaps we can somehow remove them.”
He sauntered over to her, then pushed at the bars. They moved some more. “Stand back,” he told her before he kicked at the bars. They broke away and fell to the grass below. “We’re on the second floor.” He leaned out, looking at the ground. “It’s quite a drop.”
She judged the distance herself. “The grass looks plush enough. And there are those rounded shrubs.”
He cocked one eyebrow.
“At least we are not on the third level,” she said.
“I could do it, but you might break something,” he said, then peered out the window again. “Several somethings.”
“What about you?” she asked. “If you can make the jump, so shall I. You’re certainly not going to leave me here alone.”
“I don’t suppose we have any other options. Unless we want to wait for the authorities and hope we can talk ourselves out of a prison sentence.”
“But we did break the law. They won’t simply let us go. I don’t care who you are.” She shook her head. “I think we jump.”
“All right. I’ll go first and then I might be able to help you down easier,” he said.
It was those moments that annoyed her the most. Just when she’d about convinced herself that he was an utter cad, he’d do or say something so gentlemanly that she knew no matter how much of a scoundrel he might be, there was a good man inside him.
“Very well,” she said.
He positioned himself in the window, but facing her. Deftly he sprang from the window, but his fingers remained grasping the ledge. He was stretching himself down so that the actual jump would be as short a distance as possible. Then he let go.
She looked out the window in time to see him land on his feet. He looked up and smiled at her, and that wicked smile stole her breath. She suspected that Maxwell Barrett, like a cat, always landed on his feet.
“Come on,” he said into the darkness. “I’ll catch you.” The amount of space between his outstretched arms and the window seemed enough for her to fall and break her neck. What if she couldn’t bring herself to do it? What if she couldn’t jump?
The answer came for her in the form of footsteps in the hall, followed by male voices.
“I caught them in my display room,” Flynn said.
The furniture outside the door scraped against the floor. She glanced behind her just as the lock turned, then she closed her eyes and jumped out the window.
Max caught Sabine, and the weight of her landing knocked them both to the ground.