WaterMage Rising

Chapter 15

"Oh, is that all?" Even Adam, ever-upbeat and ready to tackle anything that came his way, sounded daunted at the thought of all the drudgery ahead of them. "When do we come up for air to eat, sleep, or even take in a show?"

His gaze slid over to Selena, and a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. He wanted to ask her to go to a show with him, like on a date or something. Selena had no time for dates with cute but annoying guys, not when she had a murderer to find and a possible nefarious plot to uncover. "Don't look at me. We're going to be spending more than enough time together stuck in this room. I declare hanging out after hours off-limits."

Adam grinned, a mischievous light in his eyes that Selena didn't like. "Oh, you say that now, but I'll get you to change your mind."

"Not likely." Selena pursed her lips and crossed her arms in front of her, wanting to shut him down before he could argue. Still, a tiny, hopeful part of her whispered that she wanted him to try. Not knowing what to do with the traitorous thought, she shoved it to the back of her mind.

Father rolled his eyes. "Get to work, you two, and save your flirting for after hours if you want to keep this job. Now, today we're looking for anything related to attacks by the nonmagical, or references to any of the lost relics of Oberon. I doubt we'll come across an actual relic, but we may discover further leads. Anything you find, bring to me, and we'll send it along to the team putting together the presentation."

"Once again, not flirting, so tell it to Adam," Selena huffed in annoyance and more than a hint of dread. The last thing she needed was for Adam to ruin her best opportunity to investigate Uncle Franklin's murder. She turned on her heel and strode away to a far corner of the room. When neither of them followed, she heaved a sigh of relief and set to work.

"How did we acquire so much stuff, and why is it all here instead of back at the Bureau?" Selena heard Adam ask as she rummaged through a box containing a forensic report from the bombing at the concert in Washington, DC ten years ago.

While the report itself outlined the attack in dry, clinical detail, the included images of its aftermath were horrific. Selena shuddered and set the box aside. No doubt Cunningham would want these. The pictures proved his point with no words necessary — they cried out for a way to render such abject violence impossible.

"This collection has taken years to acquire from various agencies and archives around the world," Father replied. "All of this will be on display at the artifact exhibit in the gallery leading up to the presentation. Cunningham has already reviewed the contents with some weird magic spell that told him somehow what was inside without even looking. He set aside several of the boxes in his quarters for a special reveal at the end of the presentation, but he's kept what he's learned from them to himself, maybe one or two others."

Selena's ears perked up at this. She would have to find a way to get into Cunningham's quarters to see what those boxes contained, sooner rather than later. As she'd suspected, he would keep the most sensitive documents, the ones that told the real story of the lost relics of Oberon, close.

Most of the boxes Selena unpacked held one or two artifacts for the exhibit, so Selena made good progress clearing her shelf over the next two hours. The vast majority of the items fell into the category of general weaponry, whether magical or nonmagical. One box in particular housed an odd clock that caused Selena's kamea to turn a dark black as she reached out toward the clock. She snatched her hand back with a gasp at the last moment.

This artifact had a dark curse on it.

"What's wrong?" Adam came jogging over from his place across the room, his face a mask of concern.

"What, are you spying on me again?"

"Lena." Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. "You gasped loud enough for me to hear you clear across the room. Being the compassionate person I am, of course, I'm going to make sure nothing happened to you. Also, if that gasp meant you found something cool, of course, I want to know."

Selena shrugged, pasting on a composed mask of indifference while her heart pounded fiercely inside her chest. "Sure, whatever. Don't touch the clock. It's bewitched with some kind of dark curse."

Adam took a step back, his eyes going wide. "You didn't touch it, did you?"

"No." She almost had, though. The nitwit who had shipped this to the Bureau should have made sure the artifacts were free of curses before sending them along. Selena hoped that person would end up fired for almost killing her.

'Good." Adam sighed, and his relieved smile made Selena soften just the tiniest bit toward him. "I'll go get our dark objects expert to break or contain the curse. In the meantime, leave it here and maybe stay far away from that thing."

Selena pursed her lips. She didn't like him telling her what to do, but she had to agree with his surprisingly sensible course of action. "Fine. I'll work over in your area until you get back."

Father kept a close watch on Selena when Adam left, probably making sure she didn't do something stupid like try to break the curse on that clock herself.

As if. Selena had more important things to do than worry about than some cursed timepiece.

To keep away from Father's prying eyes, she stacked her unpacked boxes all around her. It wasn't until she had torn into the last box on Adam's shelf that she struck pay dirt.

Instead of artifacts, the box contained a plethora of documents, all related to the lost relics of Oberon. If Cunningham had let these through, they might not tell her everything she needed to know. They could still be worth examining later. Hastily, Selena used her earth magic to enfold the documents in vine-like tendrils. The light inside the tendrils pulsed, fast at first and stuttering to a stop. Then, Selena had her copy, which she added to her pendant. The moment her light faded, Father's footsteps came her way. He stopped at the edge of her box fortress and stared down at her with narrowed eyes.

"What are you doing, Selena?"