Violet lowered the volume on the television. “I know what she did was wrong, but I feel so bad for her. If I were in Jackson Chase’s shoes, I might have done the same thing.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” When we were younger, she used to talk about what it would be like to be a faerie, but she never would have left her parents or me.”
She sighed. “You’re right. My life is too awesome to risk it.”
I snorted and went back to trying to free myself from the shackles. I had barely fitted the pick into the lock when my phone vibrated on the couch beside me. I looked down at the screen and frowned at the Agency insignia displayed there. Picking up the phone, I logged into their secure app and read the message I’d received.
“Something wrong?” Violet asked.
“It’s a notification to go to the Plaza tomorrow for an important announcement.” I set the phone down. “The only other time I got one of those messages, it was about the two kelpies in the East River.”
She pursed her lips. “You don’t think it has something to do with Jackson Chase, do you?”
I resumed work on the shackles. “They already know what happened, so I can’t see why they’d involve us. Plus, something that high level would be handled by the Agency.”
She started flipping through channels again, and it was no surprise to see most of them were covering the Jackson Chase story. This was as big as Prince Rhys’s debut last month, maybe bigger, and people would be talking about it for a long time.
I held my breath when my pick found a mechanism inside the lock that I hadn’t noticed in all my hours of trying to pick the shackles. It was cleverly hidden behind the row of pins I’d been working on for what seemed like forever, and it moved when I nudged it carefully with the pick.
My stomach fluttered when the tiny lever clicked into place, and I eagerly went back to the pins. Seconds later, I let out a triumphant whoop when the shackles sprang open.
Chapter 2
“Jesse, over here,” Trey called when I entered the crowded lobby of the Plaza the next morning. Looking around, I found him and Bruce standing off to my far right, and I headed over to join them.
Bruce smiled broadly. “I heard your father woke up yesterday. How is he?”
“He’s still a bit out of it, but the doctor said that will pass. I’m going to see him and Mom tonight. The doctor said she’ll wake up soon.”
“Tell them they are missed,” Bruce said.
I leaned against the wall beside him. “If you want, I’ll try to get you added to their visitor list.”
“I’d like that.”
“Dad would, too.” I scanned the lobby, seeing a lot of familiar faces and a few new ones. “You know what this meeting is about?”
“No idea.” Bruce’s brow furrowed, and I followed his gaze to the main entrance where three agents had entered the lobby. My lip curled at the sight of Agent Curry, whom I’d had some not-so-pleasant dealings with last month. The fact that he’d freed me from the cage in Rogin’s basement hadn’t made me forget how determined he’d been to prove my parents were guilty of crimes they didn’t commit.
I recognized one of the men as his partner, Agent Ryan. The third man looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. The way he walked in front of the other two agents told me he was in charge.
“Do you know who that is?” I asked Bruce.
“Ben Stewart.” Bruce watched the agents cross the lobby. “He runs the New York Special Crimes division.”
“I knew I recognized him from somewhere.” Ben Stewart was Agent Curry’s boss and the person who had ordered Curry to stop harassing me after Violet’s mother had talked to him on my behalf. I’d seen him in passing when I went to the Agency to give my statement two weeks ago, but he hadn’t spoken to me. I wondered why the Agency’s head of Special Crimes was at the Plaza.
The elevator opened, and Levi Solomon got off, along with the other bond agents who worked in the building. They shook hands with the three agents and conversed for a few minutes before they turned to face the room.
Ben Stewart stepped forward, and everyone grew quiet as an air of anticipation filled the lobby. Whatever he was going to say had to be big to summon us all here like this.
“Thank you all for coming today,” said the sandy-haired man who looked to be in his early thirties. He went on to introduce himself and his two companions before he finally got to the reason for his visit. “What I’m about to share with you is highly classified information. Something of this nature is normally handled within the Agency, but the need for expediency requires us to utilize all available resources.”
Translation: they were looking for someone or something, and they had hit a dead end, so they were calling in the cavalry.
The agent cleared his throat. “Six months ago, a sacred religious artifact was stolen from a temple in Faerie and brought to our realm. The faeries asked for our help in locating it, but our investigation has turned up nothing substantial so far. The disappearance has been kept under wraps, but the artifact is part of an important Fae religious ceremony that will take place this spring. This makes its retrieval one of our top priorities.”
Quiet murmurs spread throughout the room in the short pause before he continued. I held my breath as I waited to hear what he would say next.
“The artifact is called the ke’tain, and it’s a small stone roughly the size of a walnut,” he said.
My hand automatically went to the small stone hidden in my hair.
Ben Stewart continued. “The stone is round and closely resembles blue labradorite. The difference is that the ke’tain will glow when you touch it. It also has a distinct energy signature that can be detected by Fae magic. We’ll be issuing sensors tuned to pick up the ke’tain’s signature. There are no photographs of the ke’tain, but we have an artist rendering we will be sending to each of you. You should receive it in the next thirty minutes.”
“What the heck is labradorite?” Trey whispered, but neither Bruce nor I answered him. I’d never heard of it or the ke’tain.
A dozen hands shot up, and Ben Stewart pointed at one of the hunters. “Go ahead.”
“Is this thing dangerous to humans? Do we need to take special precautions with it?”
“The ke’tain is harmless to us.” The agent answered before he pointed at someone else.
“Does the Agency think there is a connection between this and the death of Jackson Chase?” another man asked.
“No. The ke’tain’s power is lethal to faeries. If Princess Nerissa had used the ke’tain, she would be dead.”
Kim, one of the few female hunters I knew, raised her hand. “Have you called us in because you think the ke’tain is in New York?”
Ben Stewart shook his head. “All we know is that the ke’tain is no longer in Faerie, which means it could be anywhere in our realm. Bounty hunters all over the US and the world are getting the same information I’m giving you now. That said, New York is one of the top five locations in the world for travel to and from Faerie, so it’s highly likely the ke’tain was brought here.”
“Can you tell us more about the artifact?” Kim called over the voices firing questions at Stewart. “Any reason why someone would want it? That might give us an idea about where to look.”