Athena's Jewel (Aya Harris Collection 2)

The harpy nodded her head and melted silently into the crowd. My thundering heartbeat slowed with the happy news that Candy and her boyfriend wouldn’t be meeting that horrible fate after all.

"Well, did I pass your test?" I asked weakly.

Never in my entire life did I want to go through that again. One vision was bad enough.

"Very impressive, very impressive." Ruth pointed to the computer screen. "With a combination of science and magic, we're able to view your visions on the screen. They were very detailed. Very specific. You have skills reminiscent of your mother's. She would be proud."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It didn't matter if I had all the skills in the world, I still wasn't going to join the HQ. They couldn't pay me to join them.

"Okay, well, if we're done here, I'd like to go back home please." I began to pull off the sticky pads and the wires still connected to me.

Realization hit me that I didn't even know where I was. For all I knew, we were in India or something. Home could be thousands of miles away.

"You can send me home, right?"

Ruth shook her head. "Not yet. We must show you something very important."

I sighed. "I'm not sure what you think, but I'm really not interested in joining the HQ. You guys are barking up the wrong tree."

Once again, that chilly attitude settled in the room. I could practically feel the resentment screaming behind every pair of eyes that drilled into my skull. You would've thought I was refusing to learn the cure to cancer. Surely, some harpies had turned down this way of life before.

"Bear with us," Ruth said. She pressed her lips together into a tight smile. "We have some news that I guarantee will interest you."

Nothing she could say would tempt me to stick around, but I didn’t exactly have a way home. Already, the feathers on the other harpies’ wings were beginning to bristle. I hated to think what they'd do to me if I refused.

"And will I be allowed to go home after that?" I asked, almost too afraid to voice the question.

What if this was all some sadistic method of torture? Maybe once this was finished, they'd get on with their punishment and stick me in some room to starve to death.

"Of course," Ruth answered, flashing me a toothy smile. "We’re not keeping you against your will."

It wasn't the answer I was expecting. No punishment, no starvation? I didn't know enough about my heritage to be sure that harpies could be trusted to tell the truth. All I could do was trust Ruth and the women standing silently behind her. Not that I had a choice.

"Fine, go on," I mumbled.

Ruth nodded, satisfied with my answer. She turned to the rest of the harpies. With a curt nod of her head, they began to file through a white door, emptying the room until just Ruth and I remained.

“You passed that test with flying colors, just to let you know,” Ruth said, turning back to me.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “That could’ve killed me.”

“I know.” She dropped her arms to her side. “But it didn’t. I knew you were strong.”

Scoffing at her, I hugged my arms around my waist. Visions were no trip. To pile them on like that was asking for trouble. Who knew how many harpies had perished in that stupid test? I didn’t want to think about it. All I wanted was to go home.

“No, it’s true.” She sat at the computer chair and crossed her legs. A dark pair of sheer pantyhose clung to her shapely calves under a pencil skirt. “You’re unique. Usually, it takes years of training for a harpy to get visions like yours. I believe you will even surpass your mother’s powers someday. With your psychic abilities, you could call up visions on command or move objects across the room. There may be no limit. You could have so much power.”

“That power never did my mother any good,” I snapped back.

If my mother had an ounce of the power Ruth was talking about, she would’ve come home to us fourteen years ago. But she died on a mission. That didn’t exactly instill a lot of hope in my harpy powers.

Ruth’s lips tightened into a thin line. The vein along her temple throbbed as the muscles in her throat tightened. She flung her hair back with a light toss of her head, and gave me a grim smile that didn’t extend to her eyes.

“The loss of your mother was hard on us all. But, I have something that will ease that pain…”

I stared up at the ceiling and put a hand on my temple. “I’m not joining your little mob. Haven’t I made myself clear?”

It wasn’t hard to detect the frustration in Ruth’s heavy sigh.