I closed my eyes against the assault of panic overwhelming me. Not only was the mother I thought long dead actually alive, but now they wanted me to dive headfirst into a dangerous mission to find her. It was absurd. I knew what Gideon would say. He’d tell me to refuse and run to the SI for help. But, this was my mother we were talking about. I couldn’t just run away.
As if Ruth could read my mind, she placed both her hands on my shoulders and gave me a small shake. “You can do this, Aya. Do this for your mother. Bring her home.”
“She’s been alive? All this time?”
Ruth nodded, her dark eyes glued to my face. “And going through hell, I’m sure.”
“And I’m the only one who can save her?”
“We wouldn’t put your life in danger if that wasn’t the case.” Ruth dropped her hands and took a step back, tilting her head to the side. “Will you go after her?”
Looking into her dark eyes, I knew my mind was already made up. No one else was going to risk it all to save my mother. I had to go after her. I had to join the HQ.
Chapter Five
Ruth led me to a silver elevator door. It slid open and carried us up for several minutes before we rose above ground and a busy lobby appeared through the glass walls. People were rushing around in tailored suits with briefcases. They passed through a metal gate and ran their badges over a sensor on their way in.
"We share this building with several other companies," Ruth explained. She stood with her back against the furthest wall, her thin arms crossed over her chest. "Attorneys, IT companies, start-ups. It's a busy place. Our offices take up the entire fifth floor."
It wasn't what I'd expected. For some reason, I'd imagined the HQ working out of a shady little restaurant back room, like the mob. This building was sophisticated. Everything from the sleek chrome decorations to the high tech security camera pointing at me from the elevator ceiling had “expensive” written all over it.
The elevator pinged when it stopped at the fifth floor and the door slid open. We walked into a brightly lit reception area with a single obsidian desk in the middle. Behind the desk, a young woman with black hair and blue highlights tapped on a keyboard. She wore a headset over her left ear and a pink lipstick that matched her olive skin tone perfectly.
"Linda, is our gift ready for Ms. Harris?" Ruth asked.
Linda looked up from her computer screen and nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I put it in the safe this morning."
I threw Ruth a questioning look. The last thing I expected was to get some kind of welcome gift from the HQ.
Ruth held her hand up and flashed her giant diamond wedding band. "I'll explain in a minute."
Linda discarded her headset and led us down the hall past several offices and empty meeting rooms. If I hadn't known better, I would've thought this was a law office or an investment firm. Women in expensive stilettos and power suits filled the rooms. They chatted on phones and clicked manicured hands on glass desktops.
"I had this gift dug up especially for you," Ruth said as we turned into one of the rooms.
In the wall was a giant metal door with an electronic panel next to it. Linda approached the panel and pressed a few buttons. A beam of red light shot out of the panel, into her pupil. She didn't blink as it scanned her eye, then it disappeared, and the door opened with a low hiss.
Ruth pushed a black strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "We have the best security money and magic can buy. This is where we keep most of our magical weapons."
Linda entered the safe, which should've been called a vault because it was massive. Two of my bedrooms could've fit in there. A hundred little metal doors lined the walls, each with a silver keyhole.
I swallowed and clamped my jaw shut. My mission was to get my mom back. I didn't want a weapon. Weapons were made to hurt people, and that was the furthest thing in my mind. I didn't need another Theo showing up in my dreams, haunting my sleep with his lifeless face.
"Look, I don't know much about weapons." I took a step back. "I'm just here to get my mother back."
Ruth gave a shrill laugh. "This isn't a weapon. But… it's just as valuable."
Linda emerged from the safe with a small rectangular black box that spanned her two palms. She offered it to Ruth, and then entered a code on the panel and left. The door to the safe slid shut. Ruth popped the lid off the box and held it out to me.
Inside was a long delicate gold chain that lay on a soft cotton bed. At the end of the chain was a beautiful pendant with a dazzling green stone the size of a quarter. It sat in an intricate gold setting, reflecting the light of the fluorescent bulbs above us.
If I didn't work at a museum for supernatural things, I wouldn't have been so suspicious of the beautiful piece of jewelry. But through my work, I had come to learn that most mysterious and ancient pieces of jewelry had some sort of curse or spell bound to them.
Leaning in close, I fought the urge to pick it up. "What is it?"
Ruth smiled. "This, my dear, is Athena's Jewel. That emerald you see in the center here has been worn by queens and kings over the centuries. Anthony gifted it to Cleopatra at one point during their tempestuous love affair. It is a priceless artifact that the HQ was lucky to obtain."
I found myself staring at the way the light refracted in the emerald. "What does it do?"