Silence fell.Even the hum of the fluorescents seemed suddenly intrusive.
“What is it?”I whispered.
“A sword,” Dougal said softly.
“I can see that,” I snapped, eyes locked on it.“But who does it belong to?”
Owen swallowed.“Do you think it’s the Sword of Light?The one the Red Queen mentioned?”
“And if it is,” I said slowly, “what’s it doing here?In Hickory Hollow.In my aunt’s crates?”
Dougal shook his head.“I have no answers for that.Alice only said it needed to be kept safe.”His gaze lifted, distant, as if he were seeing something beyond the ceiling.“This town attracts things from the in-between.Relics don’t simply wander into ordinary places, Piper.They arrive where the paths cross.”
Right.Like Hickory Hollow.
My skin prickled.
“I don’t get it,” Owen said.
“Me either,” I muttered.“I don’t have answers.I have more questions.”
Dougal exhaled.“I suppose we’ll have to open the rest—”
“No.”I snapped the case shut and stepped back.“Close them up.Both of them.They’ll be safer here for now.”
I turned to Dougal.“Who else knows about these crates?”
“No one besides you two,” he said.“Alice didn’t want anyone else involved.”
“Good.”I nodded.“Let’s keep it that way until I can figure this out.In the meantime, I’m going to talk to Tani and see what she knows.If that is the Sword of Light, she’ll want to take it back to Faery with her.”
But I wasn’t sure it was the Sword of Light.
“You believe all that?”Owen asked.
I met his eyes.“I think I have to believe it, Owen.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“I can handle Tani on my own.”
“Too bad.”He thumbed at his chest.“I’m your wheels, remember?”
He had a point.Hickory Hollow wasn’t exactly overflowing with rideshares.
“All right,” I conceded.“Mr.McAllister, thank you.For all of this.”
“Anytime,” he said.“You two be careful.”
Owen nodded.We stepped out of the storeroom, then threaded our way through the main shop.We pushed out onto the sidewalk in front of Enchanted Blossoms—
—and stopped short.
A smear of black smoke hovered over Owen’s truck like a storm cloud testing the wind.It twisted once, twice, then darted toward us as if it had caught our scent.
“Owen,” I breathed.
“Piper, look out!”
