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What the hell was she thinking?

Dante hadn’t moved from where he stood.

“The artifact,” Rieka clarified. Goddamn curiosity—she must be part cat or something.

“It is a sketch of Vandana, the only one of its existence. It was drawn fifteen hundred years ago.”

Dante’s tone was unchanged, but it was clear she had just walked into his trap.

“I’m not promising anything.”

“Of course,” Dante agreed. He touched a small button on the nearby desk as the lights dimmed.

The surrounding air shimmered for a moment as a hologram solidified. There was no use pretending she wasn’t interested in the artifact. She would have already been in the elevator if that was the case. But looking wasn’t a promise. “Is it still in the collection?”

“The collection has remained untouched.”

She would never understand why the Atlanteans only opened the vault to the royal treasures every five hundred years. There was so much information they could have gathered and analyzed if it wasn’t for their archaic traditions. “When are the artifacts being moved to New Atlantis?”

Dante looked bored, as if it was old news.

“I’ve heard the rumors,” Rieka said. Only the Atlantean elite were daft enough to build a new island—albeit one that floated in the stratosphere—and name it New Atlantis. “It’s not a secret.”

“No,” Dante agreed. “But you are not here to discuss Atlantean politics.”

Strong charcoal lines took shape. The process was painstakingly slow. If she didn’t know any better, she would have bet that Dante had slowed the download for dramatic impact. After a decade of research, she had studied every known version of the last Atlantean queen. Rieka gazed back at the hologram and stopped.

A black-and-white image of Vandana wearing armor towered over her. The queen held a sword in her left hand. Rieka couldn’t breathe. It was the same image she had seen in the temple. She hadn’t imagined it. Rieka saw that face every night before she fell asleep.

“Have you seen it before?”

She glanced toward Dante. He appeared far more interested in her reaction than her verbal response.

Rieka swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. and lied, “No.”

The camera had recorded nothing of her exploration, and she had told no one else—not even Chay—about it before the explosion. Or mentioned it during the investigation.

It took a moment to find her voice. “I will review it.” It could be a clue to finding the location of the tomb and understanding why her mom had dedicated her life to finding it. But she needed to see it in person. “In exchange, I want full access to all the artifacts and to be reinstated to my previous role.”

Silence greeted her.

As far as Rieka was aware, only a handful of Atlanteans were given access, where most of the elites were relegated to viewing the handpicked pieces during the four-day exhibit. A hybrid, especially one with her academic reputation, would not be an easy sell to convince the Atlantean council that she should have access.

“You do not ask for much.”

If she was going to make a deal with a devil, she was going to get something out of it. “Unless you think you can’t persuade the council to give me access?”

A ghost of a smile tugged at Dante’s lips, the humor not reaching his cold eyes.

Rieka swallowed. Were her demands too much? No.

The silence grew between them. Rieka didn’t need to study the image—every part had been etched into her memory since the temple. Instead she was hyper-focused on the handsome-as-sin Atlantean.

“Deal?” Rieka said. “We will be partners.”

Dante looked at her hand.

Rieka refused to budge. Dante needed her. There were thousands of archaeologists he could have hired, but he had asked for her. She would not dig too deep into that one—this would be her only chance to have access to the vault.