Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
She pulled it off the shelf, feeling the hum crawl through her fingers and up her arm. The inside started to flicker and then glow a pale blue.
“Oh wow,” Thane murmured, pushing in as well. “That’s magical. I wonder if the Chester sergeant could tell. He probably would’ve put nicer towels under them if he could.”
“Well, this Chester can tell,” Jack said as she handed the item back to him. He took it and stepped away, content to look at his new toy and give her more space.
“That is true,” Thane said, each word clipped, basically calling himself an idiot.
Daisy grinned as she went back to looking at the items. If she waited long enough, they’d show themselves. That seemed to be how they worked.
Another glowed, this one a vibrant chartreuse, flickering from the middle of one of the twisty glass blocks.
“Ooh.” Dylan pushed in, reaching around her to grab it. “It’s vibrating. Here, Lexi. Feel this.”
It was a crystal, the glow not much more than a dull throb of chocolate brown but ending with a little light show, like a disco ball catching and throwing the light. Three more, their glow or interaction all different, but no less special. No less obviously magical.
“It makes sense why he hid these away,” Kieran said, hefting a stone item cut through with rings of blue that glowed like the deep recesses of the ocean, blue-black. Or so Kieran had said when he nearly shoved her out of the way to get at it. He was no more immune than anyone else to how cool these various items were.
Daisy looked over the rest of them, waiting, seeing if any more would show their magical ability.
“That might be it,” she said, straightening from her lean. “They kinda call to you when they kick off.”
“Yes, they do.” Thane hefted an item with a mournful cherry glow, the longest-lasting performer of those they’d found.
“Take them all.” Kieran glanced at the door. “Jerry, grab the duffel bags.”
“Not like Mr. Whiskers’s less impressive name-cousin really needs them.” Donovan turned to go help Jerry.
“Where is Bria to tell you how stupid you sound right now?” Jack asked after him.
“Outside guarding Jerry’s treasured dead bodies, thankfully. I’ll never know.”
“None of the others are probably worth anything,” Daisy said, putting her hands on her hips. “The fae is looking for power, and that hum seems to signify that power. Without it, it’s almost certainly just an ordinary crystal or rock or strange glass sculpture with a rock driven into it.”
“Why were there so many of those magical items in this one lot, I wonder?” Lexi asked, her eyes traveling over the remaining items. “Didn’t you say there was only one in that apartment?”
“Yeah. But who knows what he found in the other places he visited,” Daisy said, stepping back and bumping into Jack. “Would you skedaddle?”
“Nope. You’re short. Bend down and start collecting the rocks on the bottom shelf.”
“I want to know how his supplier came by all of this.” Lexi stepped away, chewing her lip in thought. “This seems like too big of a payload.”
“We can cross-check—”
Henry’s words fell away as Daisy closed her fingers over the mostly round rock in the far corner. The second her hand touched the strangely silky surface, a violent jolt flared up her arm and exploded within her body. Heat unfurled from her middle and crackled through her limbs, a feeling like her blood was flash-boiling and scalding her skin from the inside out. It rushed her length, came back to her middle, and lodged there with a heavy, white-hot flare of agony. The air pulsed around her, a sonic boom that blasted out and blotted out her vision. Something hard and unmovable hit her back a moment before her head thunked against it.
The ground. She’d fallen.
Pulses of heat, of electrical current, of raw power continued to pour into her body from where her fingers were still closed around the object, her thumb dipping in a hole in the side, the sharp points within blistering her fingers with heat.
“Get it out of my hand,” she panted, darkness threatening to take over her. “Get it out of my hand!”
13
Afoot connected with her wrist. If there was pain, it couldn’t register. The orb shook loose. Her arm tingled in its wake, and her vision was still splotchy black, with the lantern glow filtering in around.
“Daisy, hey.” Lexi bent over her, putting her hand under her head and peering into her face. “Daisy, are you okay? What happened? What was it?”
Daisy’s body shook with the residual power, like she’d been electrocuted. Her feet felt numb.
“That’s one of them,” she managed from a scratchy throat. Had she been screaming? “Maybe don’t touch it, though.”
Lexi helped her to sit, kneeling beside her. Everyone had gathered around. The orb lay up against the metal of the shelves, and she could now see its details. What she’d mistaken for rock was actually crystal around the outside of the misshapen sphere. It glittered in the low light, grays and creams and whites creating planes and textures within. An opening in one side went through to the other, leaving the middle hollow. Glittering points, like princess-cut diamonds, flowed along the inside like a river and spilled over in three places, where it traveled over the surface and dipped into the other side. The overall effect was breathtaking, a piece of art or décor that would be highly sought after.