Peering at the rock, into the rock. And I realized the stone was only a couple inches deep. Any thicker than that, and Dawson wouldn't have been able to put much of anything inside. Also, the silverstone I'd noticed earlier formed a wide, circular shape in the middle of the granite, roughly marking the size of the hollow space inside.
The dwarf probably had the metal triggered to his magic, so that no one could open it but him. Since silverstone could absorb magic, anyone who tried to force their way inside like that would probably spin their wheels for quite a while.
But I was a Stone elemental, just like the dwarf. I didn't have to go through the silverstone - only around it. I held my bare index finger in front of the granite and reached for my magic. A silver light sparked on the tip of my finger like it was a tiny blowtorch. I leaned forward and pressed my finger against the granite, forcing my magic into the stone, deeper and deeper until I broke through the rock shell to the hollow space inside. Once I made the initial break, it was easy enough to drag my finger around the perimeter of the block, forming a square shape much bigger than the circle of silverstone at the heart of the granite.
Less than a minute later, I made the last cut in the stone. The rock creaked, and I used my magic to form a small groove in one side so I could hook my finger inside and pull it out. The granite was heavier than I'd expected, and it took me a moment to lug it out of the case and set it on the floor.
Donovan looked up at the sound of my grunts and did a double-take. "How the hell did you do that?"
I flashed him a smile. "I have many talents, detective. "
I turned my back on him and stared inside the safe. It was an even smaller space than I'd expected, and it was curiously empty, except for a few sheets of paper.
"Here. " I plucked out the papers and handing them to Donovan. "Photograph these. "
The detective spread the documents on the desk and used his cell phone to snap off some pictures. I reached back into the safe, wondering what other secrets it held.
My fingers closed around a small plastic vial, which I pulled out. I played my flashlight over the container. Black foam filled the inside of the vial, cradling a diamond.
The gemstone was small, not much bigger than one of my fingernails, and rough around the edges, but it still sparkled with an inner crimson fire. Definitely a high-quality stone. One that would polish up quite nicely.
But its sound - oh, its sound. That's what held my attention.
The diamond practically sang with its own purity.
The gemstone's inherent vibration was beautiful, breathtaking, enchanting, even. Like a Bach composition played by the master himself. I could have sat there listening to the diamond's clear, pure song for hours.
Too bad an alarm blared out and cut into its lilting melody.
Chapter Nineteen
For a moment I froze, crouched there on the floor, the diamond vial in my hand. The alarm continued to blare like a police siren wailing in my head. Donovan Caine kept sorting through the papers, as if he couldn't hear the unending, violent shrieking. He'd have to be deaf not to hear it.
I frowned and stared at the granite safe. The stone's low murmur had transformed into a sharp, piercing alarm. A rune flashed to life on the front of the safe, on the slab I'd cut out of the rest of the block. A tight, spiral curl burned a cold gray in the middle of the black granite like some sort of all-seeing eye. A spiral curl - the rune for protection.
Tobias Dawson had used his Stone magic to ward his safe with a protection rune, one that would alert him if anyone tampered with the granite. I'd done the same thing to protect myself on more than one occasion. Even used the same rune as the dwarf.
Donovan Caine wasn't an elemental, wasn't a Stone, so he couldn't hear the alarm, couldn't see the rune. But I could, and I knew what they both meant - trouble headed this way.
"Fuck," I cursed out loud this time. "Give me the papers.
Now. "
"What? Why?" Donovan asked in a distracted tone.
"There's some interesting stuff here - "
"Because I've tripped some kind of silent alarm," I interrupted him. "So give me the papers right now. "
To his credit, the detective didn't ask any questions.
Instead, he shoved the documents over to me. I stuffed them back into the hollow space inside the granite, wiped my fingerprints off the diamond vial, then put it inside as well. Although I wanted to, I didn't take the stone. The cowboy dwarf might not pursue us so hard if he still had the diamond. Big, big maybe, but it was the only hope I had.
I hastily wiped down the granite slab and safe with my jacket sleeve, then hefted the stone slab I'd cut out back into its original place. There was no time to be subtle, so I blasted the rock back in place with my magic, sealing it up tight once more. With his Stone magic, Dawson would be able to sense what I'd done immediately, but he shouldn't be able to trace it back to me - or more importantly, the Foxes.
Donovan held out a hand and helped me to my feet.
"We need to get out of here," I said. "Now. "