Page 80 of Dusk Macabre

Brittney sucked in a breath so hard it echoed through the room. “Oh my god, I want to see.” She stepped closer to me, bracing herself on the armrests while she tried to peek inside the box.

I closed the lid and pulled it closer to my chest. “They are coming for this, and for your blood. You do realize this, right?”

She bit down on her lip and looked away before dragging her gaze back to the box. “I know. Which is why you need to try and teach me some more magic before they get here. And why are you being weird about the diamond?”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to know about it; she obviously already did. Okay, I didn’t want anyone to know about it but if I was going to keep her around, I’d have to be more open with her.

“I haven’t had a companion since my wife,” I told her. Her mouth dropped open a fraction as she looked at me. “Come closer,” I instructed her.

Brittney moved to the side of the chair, and I handed her my prized possession. She glanced at me and I nodded, indicating she should open it. Slowly, she lifted the cover and then she placed the box down and pulled out the small, velvet drawstring bag.

“Okay, whatever is in here is small.” She loosened the threads and peered inside, frowning before she turned the pouch upside down on her palm.

“Holy shit,” she breathed as the stone caught the light, sending rainbows across the room. “What the fuck is this?” She marveled.

“Fae diamond, several carats,” I answered, though we both already knew what it was. “They mine them.”

She giggled, waving it around. “This is one acceptable way to wear color.”

“I do, sometimes,” I said. She held the stone so that my black suit was covered with illuminated primary colors. “Here,” I interrupted her play and held my hand toward her.

Brittney pushed the stone back inside the bag and placed it in my palm. “That thing is gorgeous. And you said it helps you go to different Realms? What else does it do? Can it help us now?”

That was the burning question. “I don’t know enough about it yet; it might be something that only really works to its full potential for the Fae. You touched some of its dust before, remember?” She nodded. “Did you feel any different?”

She rubbed her chin. “I don’t think so—but I had a weirdly quick death in your stupid trap. I could talk to a crow. But I licked that napkin with Adrian’s blood on it, so I don’t know. Adrian has that piece of bone that I accidentally took.”

“Are you sure it was an accident?” I lifted a single brow at her.

“Yes,” she insisted. “You chased me out of the house. Wait—wasn’t that a dream? I thought it was a dream, but now I’m all mixed up and don’t know what was and what wasn’t.”

Her consternation was adorable. “You were in my house, and I was there every time, watching you break my things while you stumbled around.”

Brittney crossed her arms. “You knew. The whole time, you knew. But how does that even work?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t fully understand the ways of the universe myself. “I don’t know.” I placed my hands on her shoulders. “As much as I complained, I have to admit I wanted you there. I’ve lost all reason, when it comes to you.”

Her gaze softened as she peered up at me, and I had to calm my racing pulse. This woman was my undoing. “Whelp, apparently I wanted to be there, too. So, do you need that bone back? Do you have more dust? We need to do something.”

She was right. “I’m not going to give them the diamond back but on the off chance they manage to take it away, I’ll make more dust,” I announced.

There was a small grinding wheel at one of the tables, and I brought the box and pouch to the workstation. After I sheared some of the stone away, I put it in a small glass vial just as I’d done previously and placed it alongside the other empty ones. Then, impulsively, I grabbed a couple and shoved them inside my pocket.

“The bone?” Brittney reminded me.

Losing it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, and I’d be lucky if I could get it back. “I doubt I’ll get it back.”

Her jaw slid to the side. “My fault, I guess. Sorry about that.”

Setting the diamond in its box and placing it on the shelf, I said, “There will be more. Come to the circle with me.”

Brittney followed me across the floor, and we stepped inside the space, both of us standing on the symbols I’d carved. “Rub your hands together and practice feeling the energy between your palms like I showed you.”

She followed my instructions, staring at the space between her palms. “It doesn’t make sense that the diamond dust wouldn’t have affected me. Not if it's supposedly so powerful. It can’t just be that it helped kill me. I don’t even know if that’s what happened.”

With a groan, she slapped her hands together. “I can feel that energy but now what do I do? What if you sprinkle some dust on me or something?”

“That’s not going to happen.” There was no way I was going to potentially waste any of it. “Focus. On your hands, on feeling your own power. Everyone has it to a degree and being here, in this Realm, amplifies it in a way that’s not possible back in the Third.”