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We stepped through the portal. I felt more confident this time because I’d watched Seth cast the spell, and despite his alternative look, he came across as extremely knowledgeable. Also, I wasn’t stepping into a void. It felt like I was stepping directly into Tony’s disaster of a motel room.
As we stepped through, Tony at least bothered to brush the Cheetos crumbs off his shirt.
“You’re early! I wasn’t expecting—um…uh…” Tony stammered. His eyes widened when he saw me. “Eva? What the hell?” He looked between me and Mateo. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I should ask you the same question, Tony,” Mateo retorted. “Were you expecting someone else?”
Tony squinted at Mateo, then burst out laughing. “The mall cop from the museum? Are you fucking kidding me? Oh, little sis, you’re so dumb. Of course, you’d help them look for the artifact. You’re always such a goody two shoes.” He rolled his eyes with disdain. “You probably don’t even know what it is you’re looking for. Has this traffic cop reject shown you a picture of it? Have you even asked?”
I wished I could have looked the condescending ass in the face and told him that I did, in fact, know precisely what I was looking for, but that would have been a lie. Mateo had mentioned it was a locket of some kind, but I didn’t know what it looked like.
“It’s a locket,” I said, trying to sound like I knew more than I did.
Tony just laughed and gazed at me like I was a total idiot. Then he looked at Mateo. “Go ahead. Show her a photo of this locket that supposedly belongs to Desmon.”
I turned to Mateo, who looked just as confused as me. Keeping his eyes on Tony in case he tried something stupid, Mateo dug into his pocket and handed me his phone, with the image of the locket on the screen.
A sense of recognition hit me immediately. I knew this locket. I knew the detailed scroll work on it. I knew the secret to working the special mechanism that popped the locket open. Even the chain was familiar.
“That’s Mom’s locket! They told me they accidentally buried it with her.”
I zoomed in on the locket as disbelief messed with my ability to think. Wait. It wasn’t polished like the last time I’d seen it. And something else was wrong. Everything was backward. The clasp was on the wrong side, and so were the little carved leaves I liked so much when I was a little girl.
What about the little notch on the back of Mom’s locket? I scrolled to the next photo, and sure enough, there was also a little notch on the back of this one. But again, it was backward, like they were supposed to slot together.
“Wait. No. Oh, hey! It’s the other half of Mom’s locket!”
“Ding ding ding! Someone give the dummy a prize. So, you see, sis, I’m not stealing anything. I’m just retrieving something that belongs to us. That locket is ours.”
I shook my head. “No. This half belongs to Desmon. Mom’s half belonged to us, but that’s gone, Tony.”
I hadn’t thought Tony even missed Mom and Dad. He sure never acted like he did. But maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe he did have feelings for them after all. But did he miss them enough to steal a locket from a dragon because it looked exactly like the mirror image of the one Mom wore? Somehow, I didn’t think so, but I figured I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.
“I know you miss her, Tony, but you can’t just steal the other half as a replacement. They buried Mom’s locket with her by accident, you know that.” They were supposed to remove it from the casket before they closed it up, but the worker had forgotten.
A mocking look crossed Tony’s face, and he barked out a laugh. “Shows how much you know.” He dug into his pocket.
Mateo instantly stiffened, his hand on his sidearm, but instead of a weapon Tony pulled out Mom’s locket.
“They never buried it with her. They just said they had to hide the fact that they took a bribe from me. I’ve had it all along.”
I blinked as shock ran through me. That asshole! He’d stolen it. I’d wondered why he’d even bothered to show up at the funeral. He hadn’t even said hi to me. He’d just stopped by the caskets briefly and was already heading out by the time I’d spotted him.
“That’s mine,” I finally managed to get out. “She left it to me. It was in the will.”
“They gave you everything in that stupid fucking will,” Tony hissed. “I got one fucking penny.”
“Yeah, that was on purpose! So you couldn’t claim they’d forgotten about you.”
I was so done with him. Just when I thought maybe, just maybe, he had some humanity in him, he hit me with this? I should’ve listened to my parents and cut ties with him myself when they disowned him. Suddenly, this wasn’t about retrieving a missing artifact anymore. It was about finally teaching my good-for-nothing brother a much-needed lesson.
“Alright, smartass.” I stomped over to him. “If you have Mom’s locket, then why go after Desmon’s? You now have a freaking dragon on your ass. And don’t think I’ll put in a good word for you or take the fall for you. You’re on your own.”
Tony scoffed. “Do you think I care? I don’t. In about two minutes, I’m going to be filthy fucking rich.” He looked up at the clock, and I turned too, to see what time it was. It was exactly two minutes to six.
What happened at 6 PM?
A swirling at the edge of my vision caught my attention, and another portal started to open in the motel room.
