Bear and Rourke watched her stuff the phone back in her pocket. Rourke popped another chip in his mouth and chewed loudly. Bear had stocked up on her favourite kind, but she hadn’t had any yet. At least, not of that flavour. The moment the big, bad weapon-warping assassin from the Shadow Realm tried one, he snatched the bowl and kept it glued to his lap. He snarled when she reached for a chip, so she let him have the rest. He probably didn’t get out much. Her mouth watered at the memory of the savoury bacon and sour cream flavour. Another time, chips. Another time.
“Did you send our baby brother to a peeler bar?” Bear asked.
“I can’t figure out what’s more disturbing,” she said. “Making plans for my baby brother to go to a strip club or not finding it weird I’m making plans for my baby brother to go to another strip club.”
“If it’s any help,” Rourke piped up and chomped on another chip. “I find all you regs incredibly disturbing.”
She shook her head. “Not helpful at all.”
Rourke shrugged. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Odin’s balls, he finished the whole bowl.
“What’s up with Robert’s necklace?” Bear asked.
“Mike thought he saw something similar.”
Rourke’s gaze snagged on her chest.
She looked down. Her not-black-spinel necklace absorbed the light from the room. “Do you know what this is?” she asked him. He already knew about the necklace because he filched it for Cole, but that wasn’t her question.
Rourke’s expression grew grim. Potato chips fell from his mouth and decorated his shirt. “It’s hard to mistake the Raven’s Eye.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“You can kid the world, but not your sister.”
~ Charlotte Gray
Raven and Juni stared at the black jewel on their mom’s kitchen counter while Pepe bleated outside the window begging for food. Chicken simmered in the slow cooker on the countertop and the warm air carried scents of roasted meat and vegetables and made Raven’s mouth water.
“Doesn’t your science textbook say something?” Raven used her forefinger to poke the rock.
“I’m in grade ten. We don’t even cover rock stuff this year.” Juni pulled out her phone and scanned the screen. Her headband kept most of her red frizzies from her face while she looked down. “Besides, we have the internet. So far, we know it sinks in water, doesn’t fog easily when we breathe on it and doesn’t crack or shatter when heated. We couldn’t test its refractivity very well because of its colour. At least that’s what we’re assuming because the test didn’t really work. And we’re running out of time. Mom has to take me back to the gym soon.”
Trust her sister to help her determine the gem’s unknown identity in the middle of a volleyball tournament. Juni might be full of snark and raging hormones, but she harboured an inner geek and a passion for shiny things. If Raven didn’t know any better, she’d think her sister was a raven shifter like her instead of a fox.
Mike skipped down stairs whistling and bounded into the kitchen. He leaned over Raven’s shoulder. “What are you doing to your not-black-spinel?”
“Testing it,” Juni answered. She reached into the cupboard and snagged a snack bar. Instead of eating it, she shoved it into the front pouch of her sweatshirt.
“For what? Rabies?” Mike asked.
“No, jerk,” Raven said. “To figure out what it is. Rourke called it the Raven’s Eye.”
“The Raven’s Eye?” Mike frowned. “Sounds like something from one of those online games.”
She slipped the necklace back on, the weight of the stone against her breastbone familiar and welcome. “Stop talking like you have no experience with gaming, you nerd.”
Mike shrugged. “Takes one to know one.”
“You’re right, though. It does sound like an object with attributes to boost combat ability.”
Mike nodded. “The question is. Does it give you +10 dex or +25 str?”
She punched him in the shoulder.
“Ow!” Mike rubbed his arm. “What in the Underworld was that for?”
“Well?”
“Well, what, you psycho?” He scowled at her and continued to rub his arm.
“You asked a question. Did you notice an increase in my dexterity or strength? Or both?”
Juni snickered.
“I hate you.” Mike dropped his hand from his arm. “What did Rourke say about it?”
“Nothing,” she said.
“What do you mean nothing? Didn’t you ask?” Mike reached for a nearby apple.
“Of course, I asked! The fae clammed up faster than a…” She glanced at Juni and cleared her throat. “He refused to say more.”
Juni threw up her hands and scowled at Raven.
Mike shrugged and bit into the apple. “You could run a web search.”
Raven rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, genius. Like we didn’t think of that.” Juni reached over and thunked the base of her palm against Mike’s forehead.
He swatted her hand away. “Anything?”
Juni and Raven shook their heads in unison. Coordinated sister power. Booyah.
The front door’s deadbolt turned, and the door swished open. Supernatural hearing did have some advantages. Mom bellowed from the front entrance, “Juni! I hope you’re ready. We need to go.”
Juni sighed and slipped her phone back into the pocket of her track pants. “I think it’s a diamond.”
“What?” Raven’s mouth dropped open.
“A diamond. D-I-A—”
“I know how to spell…” Raven pinched the bridge of her nose. “Thanks.”
Juni beamed and skipped down the hallway. Her curly red hair swinging in a ponytail as a goodbye.
A diamond? No. That wasn’t possible. Some stranger wouldn’t gift her a diamond as a tip. And surely Cole would’ve known if he had it mounted, right? If he did, why didn’t he say anything?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible.”
~ Jean Kerr
Loud thumps down the stairs woke Raven from a delicious fantasy featuring the Lord of Shadows, herself, and no clothes. She enjoyed spending time with her brother and Rourke, but it meant no visit from Cole. And last night, she had to work. She missed him. Like an addict missing her next fix, she craved his touch. Her whole body shook with need, not just for his caress, but for his proximity. Her need for him went beyond the physical stuff. Her texts had gone unanswered, but that meant nothing. At least that’s what she told herself. Cell phones didn’t work in the Underworld, but that little factoid didn’t stop her from checking her phone every five minutes.
Maybe some distance was a good thing.
Mike bounded into Raven’s room like a puppy about to get some peanut butter.
“Ugh.” Raven rolled over in bed and pulled a pillow over her head. Maybe if she stayed still, he’d go away. “It’s too early for this.”
“Do you ever see a shark complain its morning? No. A shark goes around eating shit and reminding everyone they’re a fucking shark,” he said.
“You stole that from a meme.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“Did not. That meme was all about sharks not complaining about Mondays. It’s Sunday. I was talking about mornings.”
“It’s still copying.”
“This isn’t an academic paper. I don’t need to cite sources for snarky morning comments. It’s almost noon, Rayray. Get up. I want to tell you about my night.”
“Ugh,” she repeated. While she’d been slogging through another diner shift, moping around and not seeing Cole, Mike had the night off to tail Kelly.
“Did you lose her again?”
A pause. “Yes…”
Raven groaned.
“But once I knew her stage name, a fast web search gave me her second job site. After I lost her, I headed straight for the club
and beat her by five minutes. I don’t know why she’d take Boundary. The street is a hot mess right now with all the construction.”
Raven slid the pillow off her face and sat up. The scythe rested on the bed beside her and she pulled up the duvet to cover her chest. Sure, she wore a tank top but greeting the cold basement air braless wasn’t a show her baby brother needed to see. She blinked a number of times before her blurry vision cleared and she could properly bear the enthusiasm radiating from Mike’s face.
She didn’t need to see his expression to know he bubbled with excitement. It was all in his voice.
Mike eyed the scythe with a mix of horror and disbelief. “Do I want to know why you’re sleeping with a dead woman’s weapon?”
Raven pushed the scythe to the side and ignored Mike’s comment. “Do I even want to know Kelly’s stage name?”
His grin grew.
Nope. She didn’t.
“Champagne Delight.”
“Honestly. She should’ve used her first pet name and mother’s maiden name.” Raven stretched her arms over her head. The delectable aroma of coffee drifted down the stairs into her room. Maybe getting up now wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“Then her name would be Pooky Jackson.” Mike’s smile grew.
“That’s one hell of a background check, Mikey.”
Mike shrugged. “I added pet names to my checklist because they’re often used for passwords.”
“That’s actually kind of brilliant.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“I got pictures of Kelly going into and out of the back entrance of the club.” He handed her a tablet and vibrated with excitement.
She flicked through the pictures. He’d done a great job, clearly capturing her face and the club sign in the same shot. Dressed to impress, Kelly wore a clingy, black wrap dress with a plunging neckline. Her pumps emphasized her toned legs and a silver necklace drew Raven’s eye to her ample chest.
Oooo. Shiny.
“Wait a minute.” Raven flicked back to a picture that caught her eye and zoomed in. “Is that…?”
Mike nodded. “I thought it looked familiar the other night, but I didn’t have any pictures, and didn’t get a good look at it. I made sure to get a close up of her necklace last night. It’s an exact match to your description.”
The pendant on the end of a long silver chain laughed back at Raven, mocking and taunting her like the missing piece of a puzzle she’d been trying to solve.
“Think it’s just a coincidence?” Mike asked.
“If it was a cross or a Saint Christopher or something common like that, then probably, but this isn’t. Robert told me it had been a gift from his mom. He never took it off. Ever.”
“Kelly didn’t take hers off, either. Everything else hit the stage floor except the jewellery.”
“Ew. I could’ve gone through life without knowing that and I would’ve been fine, thank you.” Her face screwed up all on its own.
“So judgmental.”
“No. I don’t like thinking about my baby brother and naked women.”
Mike snorted.
“Speaking of that. Did you observe her dancing at the second location as well?”
Mike nodded, grin uncontained.
Of course, he did. Why did she bother asking these questions anymore?
“I think we have enough evidence to go to worker’s comp. We’ll call them tomorrow and report our findings.”
“That’s not all I’ve got.”
Oh goodie. More crucial information pre-coffee. “Are you sure this can’t wait?”
“I did a little digging to find out more about your unknown black rock of questionable origin. You’re right. A straight search didn’t yield any results, almost as if someone tried to bury the information.” Mike’s glower told her exactly how he felt about that.
“Did you discover anything?”
Mike stared at her.
Of course, he did.
“I had to get a little creative, but yes.” He pulled out his phone to pull up his notes. Must be good. He was personally delivering the information again. “The Raven’s Eye is the largest monocrystalline black diamond in the world at 34.29 carats. It doesn’t refract or reflect light like a normal diamond and has an adamantine lustre, instead. The last known sale of the gem was in 1965 for three-hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars, but its current value is estimated at two point one million.”
Raven’s mouth went dry.
Mike continued. “The origin of the diamond is unknown as is its current whereabouts. It is believed to hold immense power that can only be wielded by someone of Other decent, specifically someone with corvid energy.”
All thoughts fled from Raven’s mind. What the actual fuck? Why would some random Other gift her an incredibly rare and ridiculously valuable gemstone? That only she could wield? Unease gnawed at her gut.
“Well, I’m not sure I’m ever going to top this tip.” Oh good. She could still form words.
“Do you think he was unaware of its worth? Maybe he thought it was a black spinel,” Mike said.
“Rourke said it was hard to mistake. I think it’s safe to assume anyone from the Underworld would recognize it.” Bane certainly had.
“You have enough money to quit your diner job and go to school full time. Why do you look like you’ve sucked on a lemon?”
She took a deep breath and searched for the words to explain her unease. “Cole saw the stone twice. Once on the night I got it and a second time when he had Rourke steal it and set the stone in a necklace for me.” She held the rock up to her face. The light absorbing surfaces had no answers for her.
“And he didn’t tell you.”
She shook her head. “He didn’t want me to know its true value.”
“But why?” Mike gathered the photos.
“I’m not sure but he’s done nothing but try to protect and shield me from the Underworld. I don’t think his motives are nefarious.”
Mike grumbled.
She glared.
“Okay, I agree. But I’d still like to know why your ignorance was beneficial in this instance.”
She continued to glare.
Mike rose his hands in mock salute. “I agree with you. I really do. I just don’t see how not telling you protects you, unless…”
“He didn’t want me to sell it,” she finished his thought. Cole knew how strapped for cash she was. Her first coherent thought after Mike prattled off the estimated worth was cashing it in.
“He doesn’t want me to sell it,” she repeated her thoughts and held up the rock again. Her dark essence perked up and the beady-eyed attention of the raven conspiracy she hoarded within zeroed in on the light absorbing surface.
“If Cole’s recent actions have all centered on your safety…” Mike nodded at the necklace. “Then the most likely explanation is the Raven’s Eye is tied to the same objective somehow.”
“It protects me,” Raven said.
Mike nodded.
“The real question is how?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Our lives may not have fit together, but ohhh did our souls know how to dance.”
~ K. Towne Jr.
Energy tethered around Raven and tugged, potent and familiar. Cole. As if he’d heard their discussion, the Lord of Shadows sent his energy forward through the realms to tap her power. The energy knocked against her senses. Oh, this was some sort of magical love tap, or was it just a knock on the door?
She gathered the energy and pulled.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Mike said something about metal glowing, but she ignored him, his words drowned out by the thrum of power pulsing in her veins.
Oh for fuck’s sake. What did she need to do? Why couldn’t there be a Dark Arts for Dummies book out there?
The shadows in the room gathered into a small tornado of darkness. Her scalp prickled with the increasing culmination of Underworld en
ergy.
Mike groaned and snatched the tablet from her hands. “Later.”
He left the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
Cole formed in the center of the room. Today, he wore his court clothes—black matte armour with shining silver details, a long flowing cape with a mind of its own, and matching gauntlets, vambrace and boots. His intoxicating scent curled around her.
Raven’s mouth watered.
He’d styled his ink-dark hair back and his skin shone with ethereal brightness.
Good thing she wasn’t standing.
“Well,” he said. “That was better. You recognized my incoming portal. Did you…try to hug it?”
“Yeah.” She sat up and flung back the sheets. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“You will with time.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“What?”
“Time. I don’t have much left.”
He cocked his head sideways. Her fear amused him somehow, but she failed to see how or why. His gaze flashed with streaks of silver as if an internal war waged inside. The look was gone in an instant, replaced with heat and need so intense it stole her breath away.
Thank Odin’s shriveled nuggets, Mike made himself scarce. “My brother thinks I’m moving too fast with you.”
“Which one?”
“Mike.” Bear didn’t know enough to disapprove, or if he did, he’d remained silent. He hadn’t shared much about his relationship with Chloe, either.
Cole nodded. “He doesn’t trust me.”
“You are a dark fae lord. We all grew up with the stories.” Although a number of dark fae attacked mortals with wild abandon the moment the barrier fell, a large faction remained aloof and let the mortals come to them. Instead of using might and power to conquer a weaker party, they used seduction and promises of ecstasy to enslave the easily led. Banshee’s tit, even Bane acknowledged other options for waging war aside from violence existed.
Cole’s lips twitched and he stepped forward. “I am feared by many and for good reason, but I am not the Lord of Lies and deceit.”
Nevermore Page 15
