“And he’s doing exactly what you said, covering up the deaths, making it seem like nothing out of the ordinary is going on here. I still don’t understand why but there’s something else.” I pulled the sketchbook and the other document out of my bag and handed them to her. “I found this in the house and I need to find out what it says.” I showed her the email and the blurry picture from Dr. Kent on my phone.

“So Medea was a real person?” Marie asked. “And she had some of the same abilities as you?” She looked concerned, and she sat staring off for a moment before abruptly turning to me. “Come with me.”

She pulled me up off the couch and I followed her down the hall. She led me to a set of double doors at the end of a narrow hallway. She knocked, but didn’t wait for whoever was on the other side to answer before she turned the handle and went in.

“We talked about you walking in on me,” a man’s voice said.

I peered around Marie. Alec sat behind a wide mahogany desk with ornately carved legs strewn with books and several computer monitors. He looked much better than the last time I’d seen him.

“I have something you need to look at,” Marie said.

Alec caught sight of me and stood. “Miss Briseis. Good to see you again.”

“Is it?” Marie asked. “You pulled a machete on her last time.”

“I brought the machete to cut through the brush and I pulled it on the vines that were trying to kill me,” he corrected. “I’d never hurt you.”

“Not if you know what’s good for you,” Marie said.

Alec looked queasy.

“Anyhoo,” said Marie nonchalantly, like she hadn’t just threatened his life. “Look at this.” She handed him the document encased in plastic. “Bri was going to use the library to look into this but maybe you can save her some time.”

His face contorted—first in confusion, then in shock as he studied the parchment. He straightened. “Where in the world did you get this?”

“You know what it is?” I asked. “Can you tell me what it says?”

He sat down, his hands trembling as he held the document in front of him. “This is ancient. It’s in Proto-Greek, similar to Classical Greek, but with a few distinct markers. It was common in the Early Helladic period.”

“Which was when, exactly?” Marie asked.

“Fourth millennium BCE,” Alec said. He threw on a pair of thick wire-rimmed glasses and cleared a spot on his desk to lay the document down. He pulled something up on his computer and clicked on a folder labeled Reconstructed Proto-Greek Phonemes.

“I’m fluent in several languages. Greek is one of them.”

“We get it, you’re smart,” Marie said. “Nobody asked how many languages you know.”

“Jealous?” Alec asked.

Marie rolled her eyes.