Page 86 of Dark Rover's Luck

"Now what?" she asked.

"Just concentrate on it," Kyra instructed. "See if you feel anything."

Fenella stared at the amber, feeling faintly ridiculous. But just as she was about to hand it back and suggest they call it a day, something changed. The warmth of the stone seemed to intensify, spreading up her fingers into her palm. The laboratory around her grew distant, sounds muffling as if she were underwater.

And then—images.

A darkened room, men with guns, the acrid smell of blood and gunpowder. The pendant burned hot against her skin as bullets flew overhead.

A mountain pass, snow blinding in the sunlight, the pendant growing warm in warning as hidden snipers took position.

A concrete room, a young girl tied to a chair, her eyes wide with terror. The pendant was vibrating with urgency as Kyra cut through the ropes.

The visions came faster, one bleeding into the next—fragments of missions, moments of danger, split-second decisions. Fenella gasped, overwhelmed by the flood of memories that weren't hers.

The pendant slipped from her fingers, clattering to the laboratory floor, and Fenella staggered backward, would have fallen if Din hadn't moved with immortal speed to catch her.

"Bloody hell," she whispered, her heart racing. "What was that?"

Kyra bent to retrieve the pendant, examining it for damage. "What did you see?"

"Your bloody life," Fenella said shakily. "Is the pendant okay?"

"It's fine. Nothing got damaged." Kyra pulled the string over her head and tucked the stone under her shirt. "What did you mean by my bloody life?" She imitated Fenella's accent.

"Gunfire. Rescues. Places I've never been. Things I've never done." Fenella ran a trembling hand through her hair. "It was like the pendant was showing off, letting me see everywhere it had been with you and how it had helped you."

Amanda's face broke into a delighted smile. "Psychometry," she said, typing rapidly on her tablet. "The ability to obtain information about a person or event by touching objects associated with them."

"Brilliant," Jasmine breathed. "That's why the Clan Mother thinks you are the key to finding Khiann. If you could touch something of his..."

"You might be able to see where he is now," Kyra finished.

Fenella shook her head, still dizzy from the intensity of the visions. "That's not how it worked. I didn't see where the pendant is now—I saw where it had been in the past. It was its history, not its present."

"But Khiann is in stasis," Syssi pointed out. "For him, there is no present—only the moment he was placed there. His 'now' is still five thousand years ago. The problem is that we don't have anything of his that he carried with him when the earthquake happened. Whatever he had is buried with him."

Din put his hand on Fenella's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said automatically, then reconsidered. "Actually, no. I feel like someone just force-fed me a decade of someone else's memories."

"That's essentially what happened," Amanda said. "Your brain processed years of sensory information in seconds. It's no wonder you're disoriented."

"Can any of you do this?" Fenella asked, looking around at the others. "Get visions from touching objects?"

They shook their heads.

"Each of us has different abilities," Jasmine said. "Kyra has precognition, I have far-viewing, and you have psychometry."

"But together we are stronger." Kyra's eyes were bright with excitement. "Together, we might be able to find Khiann when none of us could do it alone."

"I don't really see how." Fenella sat heavily in the nearest chair. "And how come it has never happened to me before? I've touched plenty of objects that belonged to other people. I never got any impressions from their lives."

"Maybe it has to be a special object," Syssi said. "We should have you talk with Jacki, Kalugal's wife. She has the same type of talent. They are in Egypt right now, but they are coming back for Kian and Allegra's birthday on Saturday."

"Those visions hit me like a freight train," Fenella murmured.

"The shared lineage must be the key," Amanda said. "That could be another reason why it never happened to you before. You need Kyra and Jasmine to resonate with you." She shook her head in wonder. "The Fates have outdone themselves this time."

---