Page 16 of It takes a Psychic

“Do you know what’s inside?” she asked.

“There should be six human-engineered crystals in the box. All Old World tech.”

“What were they created to do?”

“That’s a more complicated story.”

“Translation, you’re not going to tell me.”

“Open the box, Leona.”

She got a ping that sent a flicker of awareness across her senses. He was telling her the truth, she decided, but there was something missing. She needed context. One thing was certain: whatever else was going on here, this was much more than a simple repo job. The box was important to him. This was personal.

A thousand questions sprang to mind but she decided to go with the subtle approach. “What, exactly, is this foundation you mentioned?”

“Let’s discuss that some other time. It’s not important tonight. Open the box.”

So much for subtlety. It was not her strongest suit.

“You don’t think I can open it, do you?”

“Do it.”

She rezzed her senses, feeling her way into the psi-code. The lock had been installed by someone who had a real talent for the work. It should have been resistant to all but a high-tech quartz lock pick, one capable of jamming the paranormal frequencies. But she had a very high-rez talent.

She concentrated. It was a more complex lock than the one that had secured the Society’s lab, but the basic principles of picking a psi-lock did not vary. Step one, locate the anchor frequency. Step two, flatline it.

There was no satisfying click or snick or snap when she neutralized the currents of the anchor, but the lid of the box popped open.

“You are very, very good,” Oliver said softly.

There was sincere respect in the words, she realized. His professional admiration warmed her for some reason.

She looked down at the contents of the box—and almost stopped breathing.

As Oliver had predicted, there were six lab-grown crystals inside. Each was round—a couple of inches in diameter—and faceted. Each stone rested in a velvet-lined pocket. They were arranged in two rows.

The crystals were all highly polished and charged with heavily locked power. She knew intuitively it would not be easy to release the energy in the objects.

But as intriguing as the six crystals were, they were not what made her catch her breath. A fresh jolt of adrenaline flooded her veins and briefly sent her senses spinning into stunned chaos.

Oliver glanced into the box and frowned. “There’s a seventh crystal?”

Leona pulled her scattered senses together. She could not allow him to see just how shaken she was. Priorities. “Yes. I gather you were not anticipating that.”

“No.” Oliver went back to his driving. “I wasn’t. This is…interesting.”

“Yes, it is,” Leona said faintly.

The seventh stone looked out of place in the box. It was palm-sized and cut in the shape of a pyramid. There was no special pocket for it. Instead, it sat alone between the two rows of round crystals as if someone had tucked it inside for safekeeping because there was no other place to put it. Or maybe no other place to conceal it.

She could sense the power in the pyramid but it was secured with an unusually elaborate psi-code. Given time, she could flatline the lock, but that was not what fascinated her. What mattered was that she could feel a faint whisper of energy from the yellow crystal she wore beneath the bodice of her evening gown. The pendant was resonating with the pyramid.

She had no clue what that might mean, but one thing was crystal clear—the pyramid was a direct link to the Griffin Family Secret, the dangerous secret that she and Molly and their parents had vowed to conceal.

This changed everything. She could not let the crystal pyramid vanish back into the vault of a mysterious private museum.

Chapter Five

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