Palm of Destiny (5 page)

Chapter Eight

“But… how? I mean… what? Why?” Rosalie was struggling hard to keep herself under control. Inside, she felt like she was floundering. What reason would she
possibly
have to take another person’s life? She barely even knew Elijah! Sure he was weird, but
killing
him was an insane and inconceivable thing to her. The only person she really wanted dead was her father’s murderer. “Elijah, that’s just…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. Her lips were opening and closing, but no words were coming out.

“Yeah... So I’m going to leave now. I don’t think the airport and the ferry are that connected.” Swallowing hard, he pulled himself up from the couch.

“Wait!” She stood, too, then reached out and grabbed his right elbow. Ignoring his flinch, she maneuvered herself in front of him. “Wait. What else did you see? How do I kill you in this vision thing? Do you have these…visions…regularly? How do you even know if it will come true?”

Elijah chewed on his lower lip, half tempted to pull away from Rosalie and just leave. He didn’t have any ties to this place at all, and certainly none to her. Aside from, of course, the fact that she was going to kill him.

“Rosalie…just get out of my way.”

The tone of his voice shocked her, and she almost took a step away from him. Her fingers loosened around his elbow, and her eyes grew slightly wider than normal. From what little she had seen of Elijah, he was always stumbling awkwardly over his words. But now, that tone… it spoke of more than a struggling confidence. It made her wonder what—if anything—had happened to make him this way.

“No.” Raising her eyebrows and falling out of her initial shock, she let him go and folded her arms across her chest. Her heart thudded against her chest, and for a moment it felt like she couldn’t draw air into her lungs. “You know me by now. I’ll just follow you.”

Elijah stared at her for what seemed like many minutes. In reality, it was just a few seconds. He lifted his hands up from his sides and shrugged his shoulders up. “What the hell do you want from me? I told you…you kill me. So, I’m doing what every normal person would do in this very awkward situation: I’m leaving and getting the hell away from you.”

This time, Rosalie’s lips parted and she was certain that her jaw was somewhere very close to the floor. What on earth had just happened? She stared at him, her frozen state clear indication of her astonishment. Straightening, Elijah rubbed his hands down across the tops of his thighs. His jaw clenched together, and then he gave her a small nod. There was awkwardness to the way that he sidestepped around her, like he wasn’t sure what had just happened.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I… I just… I want to go, okay? And you’re not…“ He sighed and half turned his body toward her. “You’re not making it easy.”

“No, I get it.” She blinked a few times and swallowed hard. “But maybe if I knew what you saw, I could avoid wearing a certain shirt, or not go to a certain place.”

“I uh… I don’t think it works that way.”

Rosalie sighed, then chewed on her lower lip. “Look. Just sit here with me, and tell me. It’s not hard.” She stepped back before dropping herself back down onto the couch and looked at him. Reaching over, she gave the cushion beside her a pat.

It’s not hard
. Those words repeated themselves over and over again in his mind. They were a strange mantra that almost made sense. But did he really want to relive the vision of his own death? With a small shake of his head, he took a seat beside his very unwanted guest. With his hands pressing hard against the tops of his thighs, fingers gripping into his flesh, he just sat there in tense silence. He almost jumped right off the couch when he felt Rosalie’s hand fall over the top of his, and he quickly turned narrowed eyes on her.

“Did I do it on purpose?”

Her question somehow soothed away some of the tension. “No…”

“It was an accident then, right?”

“Yeah…yeah… it was an accident.” He looked down at her hand, which was still resting over top of his own. With a deep outward breath, he allowed himself to breathe inward slowly. Then out again, just as gradually. “It happens at Morgan’s shop,” Elijah finally admitted. “In the back…where all the antiques are.”

Rosalie pressed her lips together and nodded. She wanted to jump straight to ‘why’, but that had scared him away before. Instead, she went with, “what happened?”

“I was back there, looking…looking for something. Orange. Yes, an orange pendant. I um… Morgan had brought it in earlier that day, and I just felt… I don’t know. Close to it? So I wanted to see…you know, what it was. Maybe find out where it had come from…and stuff.” He rubbed at his thigh with his free hand—the one that Rosalie wasn’t touching. “You were in there.”

After several minutes of silence, Rosalie pressed her hand encouragingly against Elijah’s, gently rubbing the back of his hand in a soothing motion. “What happened after you saw me?”

“Well…“ His brow drew together. “You…no, I found the orange pendant. And then…I…I opened it. There was this…kind of a bright light. The same color as the pendant…orange. You came over…I guess to see what it was.” Sweat was prickling at his temples, and he gave his head a small shake.

“Elijah…it’s…“ Rosalie sighed softly. This was difficult for her. She was used to being brash and upfront. “Do you know when this will happen?”

“No…” The question drew him out of his frozen stupor.

“All right, I have a plan.” She straightened and gave him a smile. “I’ll call down to Morgan’s shop, and ask him if a pendant like that came in. Then I’ll just buy it and that will be that.”

“But…what if it’s too much? Some of the items are…” He rubbed at the back of his neck, his eyebrows lifting. “They’re just a lot, some of them.”

“Elijah, my best friend’s name is Angelique Valadia. Money isn’t going to be an issue, you should know this by now. Can I call Morgan from here?” When Elijah gave her a nod, she stood from the couch and went to his phone. As she glanced at him with an encouraging smile, she picked up the phone and dialed Morgan’s number.

* * * *

S’mores were baking in the oven, and the smell of them permeated throughout not just the kitchen, but the whole bottom half of the house. Smiling in satisfaction, Angelique glanced at the timer. Only five minutes to go before her favorite chocolaty snack was ready. As the phone vibrated on her desk, she quickly whisked herself into the living room and snatched it. A glance told her it was Morgan. What was he calling about at this time of night?

“Morgan? Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Ang.” There was a fondness in his voice when he spoke to her. “You asked me to call you as soon as the pendant came in.”

“Oh…yes, but…it’s like eleven at night.”

“Sorry. I know you’re a bit of a night owl, though. Didn’t think you’d mind.”

“No! Mm, not at all, no! Can I come pick it up tomorrow?”

“Of course. Shop opens at 9am.”

“Thanks, Morgan, I’ll be there at 9am sharp.” She smiled as she ended the call. For a moment she considered calling Rosalie, but she was probably asleep already. Letting out a giddy sound of excitement, she turned to go back to the kitchen. Three steps there, and a shot rang out. It was quiet, silenced almost perfectly. Angelique was dead even before her body crumpled to the ground.

Chapter Nine

“I already told you, Rosalie, there isn’t a pendant like that here.” With an aggravated sigh, Morgan followed the young woman to the back of the store as she ignored his words and pushed by him. When they passed through and into the antique section, it was all he could do not to grab her and force her to stop. It was almost time to close, and this was the second time she had come in today.

Ignoring the older man, Rosalie moved over to the jewelry section and started pulling the chains and strings from their hooks. She was almost frantic in her search, but she was also methodical. If that pendant was here, she was sure as hell going to find it. No one, not even the big bad Morgan Glassus, would be able to stop her. The worst offences she had on her record were a few parking tickets. She wasn’t going down for killing Elijah, accident or not. She would be
slaughtered
in prison!

“Rosalie!”

The sharp snap of Morgan’s voice made her pause, and she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Listen, buddy. I’m going to find this thing, and you are going to let me. I’m in a really shitty mood, and I’ve spent the last several days running after some guy who is convinced I am going to kill him because of this pendant, so you’ll excuse me if I’m a bit pissed off right now.”

When all he did was stare at her, she turned back to the row of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. She was decent enough to replace everything back in their designated areas once she was finished her search. Morgan let out a sigh of disdain as she made her way over to a cabinet made from rosewood. He was almost tempted to phone the police so that they could come and remove her from his store.

“Damnit, it’s not here.”

Morgan pressed his lips together as he regarded her. “I told you that already. I also told you that if anything like it came in, I would call. Remember that talk we had on the phone last night? You were the one who phoned me?”

“Yes, yes. I know.” Rosalie sighed as she swept ebony hair back from her face. “I’m sorry, Morgan. Nothing has been going my way lately. At all. I’m barely handling my…” She shook her head and held a hand toward him. She had to stop before she lost control and did something stupid. Thoughts of her father swept into her mind, and she could hardly bear the thought of acknowledging them again. But she had to. “I need to go. Just call, okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll call.” Morgan offered a slight shrug as she slipped passed him. “One thing, though…what’s this about you killing Elijah?”

“It’s what he saw in his vision, Morgan. All of that blood he told you about? I’m the cause of it.” Before he could utter a response, Rosalie walked out of the store, the little bells attached to the top of the door chiming as she left.

* * * *

Thunder rumbled loudly over the small structure that was Morgan Glassus’ shop. Lightning flashed, brilliantly illuminating the store’s contents. As the rain came down in torrents, the large delivery truck pulled up beside the magic shop. It was nearly five minutes past midnight, and the driver was exactly on time. He pulled up the hood of his parka, ducked his head, and half ran to the awning that would protect him from the rain. He knocked on the glass door, a small package held in his opposite hand.

After several minutes of waiting, the door opened. The delivery driver offered a smile of relief as he stepped inside. “Sorry about dripping all over the floor. It’s a real nightmare out there.”

Morgan shrugged. “No problem. Do you have it?”

“Yes, here it is.” He held out the small package to the older man, then offered him a clipboard with some papers and a pen attached to it. “Just sign for it, and I’ll give you the rest of that info that you wanted.”

“Just want to say, thank you very much for doing this,” he said as he signed the paper and placed the package on the counter beside him. After his name was scribbled on the paper, he handed the clipboard and all of its contents back to the driver.

“Anytime. It’s normal for us to have some pretty strange hours. Besides, why question when you own a magic shop?”

That drew a smile across Morgan’s face, and even a small snort of laughter. “True, that.”

“Now for the good stuff. Your assassin took out the girl—the same one who killed her best friend’s father. Funny that, eh? What was her name again? Angelique?” He paused, then waved a hand. “Anyway, I just got word that she was killed about few hours ago. She seemed very interested in the pendant, and even had your home number taped to the bottom of her computer monitor with ‘Pendant?’ written under it.

“It looks like she’s been working with Elijah and Rosalie from the start. If I were you, I’d take the pair of them out quicker than you can say ‘magic shop’. Not that my advice is all that great at the best of times, but they’re pretty smart kids. And now that Elijah’s involved, I can see things getting a whole lot scarier on your end.”

“Scarier how?”

“The kid’s got some power in him. No wonder you’re trying to keep him under your thumb and everything, but keep in mind exactly what’s at stake here. What the pendant can
do
.”

“I’ll keep it all in mind. Thanks.”

“For sure…see you next time, man.” The driver gave him a small wave with a smile, then turned away.

Morgan’s smile grew fainter and fainter until it was gone completely from his lips with the exit of the driver. He waited, standing perfectly still, until he both heard and saw the truck head off into the darkness. When he could hear only the rain, he moved to the door and locked it. Then he turned and strode over to the package that was sitting there on his counter. His fingers shook as he lifted it. There was a weight to it despite that it was barely the diameter of his palm.

Letting out a slow breath, he started to unwrap it. The tape was sticky, but it gave easily when he pulled it away at a certain angle. One more tug, and then the top popped off. Inside, there was something cylindrical wrapped in white packing paper. He didn’t hesitate in pulling the paper away, carefully removing it. The hand holding the box was still trembling, and he could barely take in a breath without feeling dizzy.

“Easy,” he whispered to himself. “Take it easy…”

He licked his lips as he pushed aside the last of the paper. Nestled there in that small, palm-sized box was a dark orange amulet. It was ringed with gold filigree, the gold forming tiny, delicate leaves. The chain was also gold, soft and pure, and it shone with newness. As sweat dribbled down one side of Morgan’s face, he reached in and closed his fingers around the chain. With a nervous swallow, he lifted it up until the amulet hovered in front of his face. It looked almost mundane, glimmering as any precious stone would.

After placing the amulet back into the small package, he placed it in a small slot behind his desk. “Soon, my love,” he whispered. “Soon.”