“What the hell?” I opened my hand and looked at the small object. Before, I simply saw a stone. Now that I was looking for magic, it wasn’t what it seemed. It didn’t even appear to be solid. A glowing white sphere floated just above my palm. The closest thing I could compare it to was a miniature moon. Complete with its own glow.
“I guess we know what they were after,” Elias said.
“What is it and why did Lola have it?” I asked.
“That’s a moon stone.” He reached out with his index finger and touched the glowing sphere. The stone fell back to my palm, the glow doused.
“What did you do?” I pulled my hand away and held it up against my chest, trying to protect the thing my friend had died for.
“I deactivated it for now,” he said.
“Explain,” I said. “And no more lies, no more bullshit. What the fuck is going on? How are you connected to all of this?”
“I can assure you, I had nothing to do with your friend’s death. I didn’t even know there was a moon stone in your world, let alone that it was here,” he said.
I lifted my eyebrow at the mention ofyour worldbut I didn’t stop him. This was the most I’d gotten out of my temporary partner since we met.
“This changes things.” He stood and extended his hand, offering it to me.
I hesitated.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.
“I’m not sure I want you touching me. I’ve seen what your hands can do.”
He dropped his hand. “Look, this isn’t ideal for either of us. But you need my help right now. And I swear I will get you out of this.”
I looked down, back to the little box that was so important to Lola. It suddenly struck me how true it was that you can’t take it with you. “She deserves vengeance. I’m not going to play nice when we find the killer.”
“Finally, something we can agree on,” he said.