Free Inescapable (Eternelles: The Beginning, Book 1) by Zee Monodee, Natalie G. Owens

done well when they’d signed him up to join the FBI. Nothing better than having one’s own eyes and ears in official circles.
    And explain to his boss? “Since when does the FBI investigate petty murder?”
    He sighed. “Murder that happened at the Met, not to mention the disappearance of The Arles Bronze. They brought in the art theft team on that one.”
    That Egyptian artifact? The bronze statue of the Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet, found in Arles, France in the nineteenth century, but its real provenance unknown—a woman’s body with a lioness’ head, sparkling rubies for eyes, and an amber, flame-shaped stone set into her chest.
    Adri remembered seeing it among the Met’s esteemed collection of ancient Egyptian art, and reading speculations that it may have been brought to Europe on the same ship occupied by Mary Magdalene, who left from Alexandria, Egypt for what is now France after the crucifixion of Jesus. Sekhmet’s trademark sun-like crown, denoting her heritage linking her with the sun god Ra, was a missing feature in this statue, replaced instead by thick, carved bronze waves and curls for hair. Another unusual detail—the smooth face and neck of the foot-long statue was untidily streaked by what looked like red paint, as though a child had slapped it on.
    “The Arles Bronze? That’s a gaudy piece for show.” Or not. Which spelt something really, really bad. “And how did the killer manage to kill Susan and make it all the way to the Sackler Wing without—”
    Of course! The mist. No one would see him if he traveled through the ceiling pipes to his intended target.
    “The Met is no small playground. This was well planned in advance….” she thought aloud.
    “We’re still determining whether the art piece was stolen before or after the murder. Susan could have caught the thief escaping with it and he killed the witness,” Craig offered, sounding quite unconvinced.
    “Why would the killer cross all the way to Gallery 522 with the object, which is where Susan was found, rather than make straight toward an exit?”
    And to carry the heavy piece in his hands—much heavier than the vials with Susan’s blood—he most likely had to be in his human form.
    “No,” Adri said. “He had to have killed her beforehand and taken advantage of the museum teeming with people to carry out his other crime. That’s if he was working alone….” She let the last words linger in the air.
    Craig looked at her suspiciously. “How do you—”
    “Well, look at that,” a soft voice crooned behind them. “If it isn’t the crazy cat lady.”
    Adri froze at Sera’s spiteful tone. She turned toward her daughter, to find her throwing daggers with her eyes. If looks could kill, she’d be six feet under right now.
    Seriously, what was her problem? Anger flared inside her, and she threw caution to the wind. “You’re growing catty, ma fille .”
    Sera shrugged. “Are you surprised?”
    Adri winced. No, she wasn’t. “Shouldn’t you be in your room, resting?”
    “Oh, I have had all the rest I needed. Thanks to you.”
    Did she imagine the stress on these last words? Bon sang, non! Sera remembered....
    “What did you expect me to do?” she asked on a whisper.
    Sera snorted. “Anything but that.”
    And let you die? How could a mother kill her child, even after a monster had emerged?
    “I have classes to teach.”
    She reached for the girl on the doorstep of the lift. “Over my dead body. You need to be kept safe, and Craig here will make sure you’re protected at all times.”
    “Huh? What?” the confused man asked.
    Sera glared at her. “Over my dead body!”
    *
    A silent war waged between the two of them.
    Perhaps it was a blessing that FBI Special Agent Craig Tulane insinuated himself in between as they exchanged a barrage of invisible arrows laced with venom.
    “Sera, please, something bad has happened. It isn’t just your ordeal. Susan Gregory has been murdered.”
    So her mother had given Craig