Ruby hadn’t spent the night. I’d driven her back to Talon’s to pick up her car, and then she went home. She had work early this morning. Now, I was pulling up to Bryce’s aunt and uncle’s house in the city. Chase and Victoria Walker had lost their son, Luke, to the same three men who’d abducted and tortured Talon.

Bryce’s car was already there, so I walked to the door and rang the bell.

Bryce answered, holding Henry. “Hey, Ry. Come on in.”

I walked in as Bryce’s mother, Evelyn Simpson, came up and took Henry. This was Tom Simpson’s widow. I opened my mouth to say something—I had no idea what—but she turned quickly and took Henry to another room.

“Sorry about that,” Bryce said.

“No problem. I wasn’t sure what to say anyway.” I handed him his father’s ring.

“She’s still trying to cope. Being around Henry helps, and being here with her sister, who’s also trying to heal, helps a little too. But honestly they’re both still a mess.”

“And your uncle?”

“He’s better. I mean, at least now he knows what happened to his son. Closure, he says.”

I cleared my throat. Chase Walker was the Freemason we were going to talk to today about the future lawmakers ring. “So…I don’t mean to sound stupid, but should I mention Luke?”

Bryce shook his head. “No. Like I said. It’s closure to him. He’d rather not dwell on it. Not like he’s in denial or anything. He’s just trying to move on. He doesn’t want to hold my mother responsible for her husband’s actions. Neither does my aunt. But it’s hard.”

“I can imagine.”

“He’s in his study. We’re supposed to go on in.”

I nodded. Here went nothing. I followed Bryce to the study. Chase Walker sat behind a large oak desk. He was a big man, bearded and burly, nothing like his son Luke had been. Then again, Luke had only been ten when he was killed. He could have grown into anything.

I shook my head to clear it. I couldn’t go there right now. Couldn’t think of the life that might have been for Luke Walker and so many others. I had to move forward, not backward. If we could unravel the mystery of the ring, maybe we could finally nail Theodore Mathias and avenge his victims.

“Uncle Chase,” Bryce said, handing him the ring. “This is Ryan Steel.”

“Ryan,” Chase Walker said. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”

The Walkers had left Snow Creek shortly after Luke had disappeared. I hadn’t come into contact with them since. This man had last seen me when I was seven years old.

“How have you been?” I asked. And then wanted to strangle myself. How did I think he had been?

“We’re dealing with everything as well as we can.” He held up Tom Simpson’s ring, eyeing it. “Give me a few minutes to take a look here.” He grabbed a jeweler’s loupe and started taking notes.

I held my breath. Seconds seemed like hours.

Then Chase cleared his throat. “There are some markings on the inside of the band that I’m going to need a stronger magnifier to see, but this symbol is enigmatic.”

“How so?” Bryce asked.

“It’s nothing I recognize, but it has similarities to several symbols that I am familiar with. Hmm.” He typed on his computer. “Let me try something.”

We waited a few minutes while he continued.

“I’ve been using this new program developed by archaeologists to interpret oddly shaped symbols. I’m going to input a few things here.”

More tapping on the keys.

After a few more minutes, Bryce asked, “Finding anything?”

Chase’s brow was furrowed. “Yeah, as a matter of fact.” He turned the computer screen toward us. “Can you see the screen okay? Any glare?”

On the screen was the symbol from the ring, an elongated oval with an X next to it, one of the ends of the X touching the oval, enlarged.

“No glare,” I said.

“Good,” Chase said. “Now watch. I’m going to twist the ellipse into a circle.”

Slowly the oval rounded into a perfect circle, the X still attached.

“Does that make sense to you?” Bryce asked.

“Not yet. Not like this. But if I take the other part of the symbol and twist it the other way, look what we get.”

The X slowly maneuvered until it emerged as a cross at the bottom of the circle. The female symbol.

“Now you recognize it?”

We both nodded.

“Why would they put the symbol for female on their ring?” Bryce asked.

“We don’t know that they did,” Chase said. “All I can tell you for sure is I moved each part of the symbol in opposite ways to the same degree, and this is what I got.”

“How did you think to change it in that way?” I asked.

“The ellipse is simply a circle seen from a different slant,” Chase replied. “But I noticed the X was comprised of right angles. It’s not a stretch from the X to a cross if you know what you’re looking at. The ancient Romans used both for crucifixion.”

“I can’t believe my father would have come up with that,” Bryce said.

I didn’t believe it either. But Theodore Mathias? I wouldn’t put it past him. Everything about him was twisted.

“Whether he did or not, there’s something else you should know about this symbol,” Chase said.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s known as the symbol for female, but it’s also a planetary symbol. It represents Venus.”

“So?” Bryce said.

“That’s not all,” Chase continued. “The symbol has another meaning.”

I held my breath, not sure I wanted to know where this was heading.

Chase’s low voice emerged. “Lucifer.”

Satan. The devil. Nausea crawled up my throat.

“Before you think your father was a devil worshipper, Bryce,” Chase said, “some scholars believe that Lucifer has nothing to do with Satan. It literally means ‘light bringer,’ which coincides with the planet Venus being the morning star.”

My nausea didn’t subside.

“Still,” Bryce said, “Lucifer is associated with the concept of evil, the devil.”

“That’s true,” Chase agreed. “But there are many symbols that occultists believe are more associated with the devil than this one. There’s the sigil of Lucifer, the double-horned pentagram, and that mythological bird, whose name escapes me at the moment. You know. The one that erupts in flames and then rises from the ashes?”

I had to swallow to keep from heaving before I spoke my next words.

“A phoenix.”