Page 83 of The SnowFang Secret


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I looked around for some older wolves, but there were just these three. Some pups, maybe, that had been left by runaway parents?

“Winter,” Sterling said.

Time to get out of here.

“You hurt?”I asked Sterling as we drove out of the hamlet up the sand-swept road.

“No, not even a scratch. You shouldn’t have gotten in the middle.”

“Bullshit, I shouldn’t have. You can’t be getting hurt right now, and I didn’t want to deal with a dust-up in that swamp. Or would it have been a mud-up?”

Sterling was not amused.

I sighed at him. “It’s fine. We’re fine. Clever thinking to ask about the necklace.”

“You didn’t need to lean into the rumors you’re an Abomination.”

“It got them to leave us alone with a bunch of humans watching.”

Sterling was still not amused. I took a wad of napkins and fished the necklace out of my pocket, holding it by the silver chain. It swung in my grip just like in the dreams, the fluid inside sloshing back and forth. The crystal was so grimy and filthy the fluid did look green and fetid.

I turned it around. The clasp looked generic and modern, but the chain looked older, and upon closer inspection in bright light, there looked like another clasp under the badly fitted modern clasp wrapped around the top of the spear. The clasp didn’t fit very well around the sides of the spear and some other structure it seemed to be covering.

I used a wet nap to wipe off the grime. It was decades (maybe centuries) of caked on crap, so it took a few wipes, but the result was so stunning Sterling even pulled over so we could take stock.

The crystal was a flawless quartz crystal (or whatlookedlike a quartz crystal) about three inches long and the diameter of my thumb. The interior was filled with a blue fluid that was the same glowing blue as a limpet shell in some lights, then in others, turned milky blue-purple, and it radiated a very soft, diffuse luminescent glow that shifted from green to pale silvery-white.

I had the necklace.

But if I had the necklace… what had happened to the puppies… and what was the damn thingfor?

…I’ll be fine

We headed back to West Palm Beach with our prize. Our first destination? A small jeweler.

The jeweler removed the badly fitted clasp easily enough, revealing that the crystal was in fact two pieces: there was a tiny latch with tiny hinges.

“You open it and change out the fluid, I suppose,” the jeweler told us, studying the clasp.

“Have you seen a lot of these?” I asked.

“Not something like this specifically, but I’ve seen plenty of liquid-filled jewelry. The clasp, though, looks very old. I’m surprised at how good the condition is.”

“How old?” Because I’d never heard of any thing like this, so how far back I was going to have to go in the Archives would be appreciated.

He studied it again. “Two hundred years? At least. I’m not an antiquities specialist. You should take it to a museum. Where did you find it?”

Sterling said, “Roadside shop out in the glades. It was on display in a dingy case next to frog skulls. Caught our eye.”

“Well, good eye. I’d have it checked out, because a hollowed-out crystal spear is unusual, especially if that clasp is as old as I think it is.” He got a small flat jeweler’s box, put the pendant in the box between two small brackets, then dropped the old chain and clasp into the box.

Back at the condo, I stared at the box on the low table while I sat on the couch, and he stood staring out the window.

“I guess I need to call Hamid.” Each word tasted like something that was going to make me gag. I’d been trusted to come out here to Florida, and return when the necklace had been found (or clearly wasn’t going to be found).

It was time to go back to my badly dyed hair. Sterling needed to get back to training. He needed every possible moment, and I was going to get him every moment I could, no matter what it cost.

It was almost June.

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