Page 96 of Fall into Place

He was sitting up in bed, entirely naked except for a sheet sort of half covering his lower regions. He’d glamoured a platter of charcuterie and cheeses, and Tess was grazing as he opened one of the leather-bound tomes she’d lugged across the compound.

“A compendium of gems with magical properties,” he read. “If you want me to scare you up some rubies, all you have to do is ask, love.”

“I think emeralds go better with my coloring, don’t you?”

“Emeralds it is,” he agreed as he flipped through the book. “Blue diamonds for loyalty, yellow for healing, red for blood. That’s funny, I had a dream about a red diamond while I was loopy on poison.”

“You did? What about?”

“Suppose it was more like a memory.” He scratched at his jaw. “This time in the 1920s, Konstantin sent Octavia and me to nick a pendant off some guy in Paris. Thought it would be easy, but he walked in on us mid-heist—about lost his mind when he realized what was happening. Guess it was a family heirloom, worth a fortune even then—can’t imagine what it would go for now. He tried to fight us, but obviously that didn’t go too well. Fell to his knees weeping, begged us not to take it.”

“But you did?” Tess asked.

“Had to.” Callum shrugged. “I didn’t care about some stupid pendant, but Konstantin wanted it, so. Not worth the trouble to disobey, even if it did ruin some poor sod’s life. It was ugly too. Giant stone, all this gold, really gaudy. I thought it was a ruby, but Konstantin said it was a red diamond. Rarest stone on Earth.”

“Wait.” Tess sat up and looked at Callum, something jogging in her memory. “The pendant—was it a gold cross? A medieval one, like you’d see on a knight of the Crusade?”

“Yes, actually.” Callum peered at Tess. “Have you been researching telepathy too?”

“The paintings at Octavia’s—do you remember, she had those watercolors? One of them was of a gold cross pendant with a giant red stone. I assumed it was a ruby, but it’s the same necklace you’re talking about, right? It has to be. And if you had a dream about it, and Octavia drew it, then do you think…”

“It might have something to do with the portal?” Callum asked.

They looked at each other—had they stumbled upon something real here?

“The book,” Tess said hurriedly, flipping through the pages to the one about red diamonds. She scanned the text as quickly as she could: “Red is the rarest color for any diamond—only about fifty red diamonds have ever been found throughout history, and they sell for well over a million dollars per carat. These powerful stones are most commonly used in matters of blood magic, and their presence can immeasurably increase the strength of any existing blood bond.”

“Blood magic?” Callum frowned. “That doesn’t have anything to do with portals.”

“Unless…” Tess’s brain was spinning as she put the pieces together. “Didn’t you say you could feel Octavia on the other side of the portal? Maybe it’s not about strengthening the portal itself—but the underlying bond that creates it.”

“So all I need to do is glamour a red diamond?” Callum asked.

“Oh.” Tess’s face fell. “No, a glamoured stone won’t work. It says so in the book.”

“That’s that, then.” Callum leaned back against the pillows. “Pretty unlikely one of the fifty red diamonds ever found throughout history is here on this island.”

Tess sighed heavily as another memory surfaced. “Actually, one is. And you’re not going to believe who has it.”

Callum frowned in confusion—then his face turned stony as he figured it out.

“Felix? Really? Really, Tess?”

“Technically it was Isobel who had a red diamond ring,” Tess offered. “It’s still in her room in his castle, so all I would have to do is go there—”

“We’ve been through this.”

“—and get him to show it to me, then, I don’t know, smuggle it out somehow? So we could take it back to the moonflower meadow and try to make a portal last long enough to get back to New York? Callum, please, you know it’s the best idea we’ve had.”

“I suppose it’s worth it to you, risking your life for a chance to leave this place.” Callum sulked.

“Hey.” Tess snuggled closer to him, taking his hands in hers. “It’s not that I’m not happy here. These last few days, with you—Callum, this is the happiest I’ve been since I left school. But I think…I don’t know. I’ve been having this feeling.”

“What kind of feeling?” he asked.

“Like I need to go back. Not just to New York, but—to Columbia, maybe. Three years ago, I quit on my life. But now I’m thinking…I don’t know. Maybe it’s not too late to try again.”

Callum bit his lip—which made Tess want to kiss him, but she could sense it wasn’t the time.