“E=mc2?” I offered, trying to remember something about the man besides his wild, white hair and his mind-shattering equation.
“One and the same.” Ravena settled back into her chair. “Do you know what Einstein’s equation means?”
Yikes. Most of my scientific knowledge centered on the realm of botany – my herbs and spices – with an occasional foray into animal and mineral classifications. The extent of what I knew about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was limited to a few episodes of Dr. Who and Star Trek. But what the hell...I gave it go.
“The ‘E’ stands for energy, right?” I began. “The ‘m’ for mass. And, if I remember correctly, the ‘c’ represents the speed of light in a vacuum?”
“Top marks, Miss Jenkins. That is, indeed, the core elements of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. And its application in the world of scientific research is immeasurable! It explains how electromagnetism works. It played a part in the development of the first television sets. Some even suggest that it allows for the existence of time travel!”
Beam me up, Scotty. I was beginning to wonder if Ravena’s electromagnets were short circuiting.
She pressed on, glad, it seemed, for the scientific distraction from her misery. “In fact, it’s the basis for my life’s work and why I moved here to Cathedral. I needed ready access to the island’s black diamonds.”
I leaned forward in my chair. “Which is how you came to meet Millicent Pond. But what relevance do the BD’s have in all this?”
Ravena nodded at my questions and began with, “Well, first off, to answer your question regarding the diamonds, the BD’s are the most profound conductor of electricity on the planet. They also are the fastest transmitters of information. Light, electromagnetism, you name it. Did you know that these gems are being used for all kinds of Military-Industrial applications? This is why Cathedral wants the runway. So, they can ship these mineral deposits at a faster rate. Their uses are beyond imagination, and each of the world's governments wants a piece of them. No doubt for nefarious purposes. With my work in energy, the diamonds play a central role in my experiments."
Ravena folded her hands in her lap and looked at me calmly as the information seeped in. So much for Violet’s inside info on my hostess being a brilliant biologist. I didn't want to interrupt her flow--I could always ponder this fact later--so I just nodded for her to continue.
"At the beginning of Millicent's E.R.G. campaign...that's 'Equality for Rock Grumlins,' in case you weren't familiar. Anyway, I came across one of her flyers when I first moved here. I wasn't familiar with her work -- I don't watch much television -- so I foolishly thought she was giving a demonstration on energy. An erg, as you may know, is a unit of energy equal to 10−7 joules. Since my work is mostly concerned with power, I attended her meeting. I felt like an absolute fool when I learned what E.R.G. stood for. I was doubly mortified when it turned out I was the only person in attendance. Imagine trying to conduct an educated conversation! I didn’t even know what a Rock Grumlin was!”
“What happened?” I asked.
Ravena let loose a sigh. She reached for a framed photograph on the end table. “Her zeal was contagious.”
It must have been a really infectious variety, I thought, for the eco-activist to have swayed the pixie-like Ravena’s affections. Granted, I’d first met Millicent when she was dead and deep-fried. But, as this picture showed, Millicent was no looker even in life. It depicted a stout, stocky woman standing on the crags of Burning Peak, a dark, wide-mouthed cave yawning behind her. Steam billowed from fissures in the jet black surface under her booted feet. Gloom would have been to see Millicent’s toenails were covered in this photographic tableau.
Millicent beamed a crooked, yellow-toothed smile under the floppy brim of her canvas hat. Tufts of that ridiculous, spiky green hair poked out from the rim like a celebration to Irish porcupines. Her plump, ruddy cheeks were smeared with black dust and dirt. She proudly held up a large, oblong object in her thick, man-like hands. It didn’t resemble much more than an ovoid bit of obsidian and was wholly forgettable when one glanced at Millicent’s companion in the picture. The small, dwarf-like creature standing next to her looked like one of the fissures below had coughed up a dollop of earth and spat it into a squat pile with feet and long, slender, glittering, stone fingers, finely-honed to a cutting edge.
Shush, shush. Click, click.
The now familiar sound swished eerily through my memory.
“Is that a…Rock Grumlin?” I asked. I had never actually seen one of the reclusive creatures before, not even on the news.
Ravena nodded. “They live in the harsh and dark confines of the caves and fissures of The Glimmer Mountains. Millicent first discovered them on one of her long hikes along the mountain trails. She started making maps to mark where she believed they lived. Queer maps, though, almost nonsensical. I’m pretty sure they didn’t actually point to anywhere. Anyway … the Rock Grumlin’s sharp fingers may appear daunting at first, but they really are quite gentle creatures. When Millicent realized that the Cathedral government was forcing them to mine the black diamond from the depths of the mountains with no pay and deplorable working conditions? Well, she took the fight right to the steps of The Black Diamond Cathedral itself.”
Ravena returned the photo to the end table. A pickled look soured the expression on her face.
“And that’s exactly when the trouble started.”
Onyx leaped to the end table to give the photograph further study, his pink nose nearly nudging the glass.
“That’s when Millicent went, ahem, sky-clad against your wishes and you broke off the relationship?” I asked.
“What? Yes. I mean, no. Millicent could have paraded around naked as jaybird all day long if it furthered one of her pursuits. I could have cared less. It was an incredibly effective guerrilla tactic. It was when one of her pursuits started to pursue back that I got upset.”
I didn’t know what I found harder to believe. That more than one person actually found the gruff and abrasive Millicent Pond attractive or that Millicent actually had a supporter for her naked campaign stunts.
“Millicent was seeing someone on the side?” I asked with bated breath. Jealousy was a perfect motive to flesh out the murder investigation. I gave a self-satisfied mental chuckle. I didn’t need Chief Trew’s help. I was going to solve this case all on my own. Then maybe, finally, I could get through the beginning, middle and the end of a date with Gideon.
Eager to discover what Ravena was about to reveal, I prodded for an answer.
“Who?”
“Why, the governor of Cathedral himself! Gideon Shields!”
My jaw dropped, and I fell silent. I looked down at my carefully selected dress and decided right then and there that I'd give it to Fraidy for his luxurious fortress-bed. I couldn't get over the pairing...Gideon and Millicent? Really?
What was it Grammy Chimera used to call odd couples, strange bedfellows?
Understatement of the year, in this case.
Chapter Eleven
“What? Gideon was seeing Millicent?” Eclipse shook his flabbergasted furry head. “Not that I want anyone to go without the love of another warm body, but Millicent? Yeesh!”
I sat at the kitchen table back at the apothecary, head buried in my folded arms. The cats had gathered en masse for a family pow-wow. Or, meow-meow. Well, that and probably to stage an intervention as I threatened to eat the whole of the moist, triple-layer carrot cake Millie had brought to the shop. Who was I dieting for, anyway? I could feel my dress getting tighter as I shoveled yet another lump of cake into my mouth. I didn't care. Not one bit.
Onyx shook his regal head. “I’m afraid it’s true, brother. When Hattie asked Miss Valley if she had given Miss Pond that ostentatious necklace, she quite agitatedly indicated that she would never have presented such a gaudy bauble to anyone. Ravena told Hattie that when she confronted Millicent about the piece, Millicent explained Governor Shields merely gave i
t to her to thank her for her diligent work in championing the Rock Grumlins campaign.”
I lifted my head. “But when Millicent refused to take it off, despite Ravena’s repeated requests, Ravena began to suspect something else was going on. Especially when Millicent’s behavior started to change. Millicent would disappear on long hikes for hours at a time. That, in itself, wasn’t the odd thing. But she started making maps. Or, rather, she’d try to. Tons and tons of odd, screwy maps. With weird, foreign, or even nonsensical words scrawled on the bottom. Like she was trying to find a place that she’d lost. ‘I have to find it again! The spot is the key!’ she'd rave to Ravena. The latter would ask her about it, but Millicent wouldn't elucidate. Other things started slipping, too. She started forgetting meetings. Dates, obligatory conferences, etc. According to Ravena, the last straw was when Millicent seemed to forget their anniversary completely. It was as if she was forgetting EVERYTHING and her brain was turning to complete mush.”
Jet, who had just helped himself to a generous slice of the carrot cake (for my sake, he argued), shot a querulous look at Eclipse.
'Clipsy threw up two padded paws in defense. “Hey, don’t look at me, bro! That sounds like one lovers’ triangle that’s more trouble than Bermuda! I had nothing to do with this.”
My mind-wiping cat looked indignant. Even with cream cheese icing on his nose, his seriousness had to be respected.
“Ravena suspected Millicent was sneaking out on trysts with the governor,” I continued. “She tried to tell Millicent that Gideon was just using her. That he was trying to win her over so he could get his way with the mining campaign and the runway proposal.”
“And?” Carbon asked, whose warm proximity to the cake was melting the icing.
I shrugged. “And Millicent ignored her. She’d just laugh it off. Said the notion was ridiculous. That she was just going for long walks on the beach.”
“Which is where we found her,” Fraidy shuddered.
I nodded. “But without the Black Diamond necklace.”
Before the cats and I could ponder the levity of that little fact, the back door burst open with a loud bang.
“Seraphim Joyvive Jenkins!”
My full, God-given name exploded from Chief Trew’s mouth. The sudden outburst sent the cats scurrying in a million different directions. And me? Let’s just say I would have preferred a zap from Ravena’s Taser.
I shot, rigidly straight, every muscle in my body shocked to painful attention. I couldn’t help it. The mere utterance of the weighty name my parents had shouldered me with still made me instinctively cringe. It didn’t matter that recent events -- specifically a conversation with our own Portia Fearwyn -- had revealed my innocence in the tragic and mysterious death of my parents. I still bore the guilt. Plus the Chief didn't use that name as a general rule. I would have to be in some kind of trouble if those words tumbled from his lovely lips.
Seraphim. It was a name derived from the angels. Those heavenly beings charged with the protection and guardianship of the human race. Human race? Forget that. I hadn’t even been able to muster enough magic to protect just my parents. I had failed to live up to the name. “Hattie” carried a lot less baggage.
But, like so many of life’s issues, it seemed impossible just to ignore the problem in the hopes that it would magically just disappear. Nope. It certainly looked as if “Seraphim” ( the ultimate guardian angel) was here to stay. Especially now that Grammy Chimera’s ancient wand, Uirgae Malum, had resurfaced. Part of me wondered if the old Fae bough was connected to the string of mysterious happenings throughout the Coven Isles. Happenings that kept landing me in the middle of police investigations.
To the Unawakened, Uirgae Malum looked like a cute piece of carved folk art. But, to anyone with even a lick of magic blood in their being, the thin milky-white wand practically vibrated with energy. However, the latent power of the wand was secured by five wards; magical symbols inscribed along the length of the apple wood, a series of magical locks of sorts. Only if one who could surpass the challenges each ward entailed could they correctly use the wand. The Fae believed, that in passing all of the tests, a single human could, as a race, be capable of enlightenment and become worthy enough to join in protective custody of the world and its inhabitants. If not, then…
Great, I thought. No pressure.
Grammy, powerful witch that she was, had been unable to unlock all five wards and master the full power of The Apple Wand. I myself had only managed to open two of the strange symbols.
When I had saved David from being poisoned to death by Amber Crystal, I had managed to unlock the Protection Ward. The intricate carving of intertwined swans had come alive, making the wand seem like a living, breathing entity.
And when I had succeeded in stopping The Strands epidemic from wiping out the whole of The Coven Isles, the Healing Ward had glowed to life. According to Portia Fearwyn, once all five of the wands wards were unlocked, it would unleash the most powerful magic ever seen in the Isles. Let’s just say, for now, The Apple Wand was tucked safely away under some powerful, protective runes. Until “Seraphim” was good and ready.
Right now, Hattie was good and ready to put a fat, flat foot into the bellowing mouth of the Chief.
I stomped toward the door and gave it a satisfying slam. “Put a sock in it, Ethel Merman. I’ve already had two noise complaints filed against me this month, thanks to Romeo over there!”
I jabbed a finger toward a distinctly Shade-shaped shadow. David waved a piece of paper under my nose.
“I’ll shut up when you tell me what this is all about!”
I squinted at the handwriting on the slip. “Pinto beans. Cannellini beans. Red beans. Black beans?”
Midnight padded through the kitchen, yawning. “Somebody expecting a gas shortage?”
“What?!” David spluttered. He looked at Esme’s grocery list and huffed. “No, no, no! What is this all about, Seraphim?”
He flipped the piece of paper around and tried again. It was the note I had scribbled at the police station telling David my suspicions about Millicent’s necklace and letting him know my plans to travel to Cathedral and talk to Ravena Valley.
“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. I mean one of us needed to do some investigating. It looked like you and Miss Falk were otherwise…occupied.” I paused for a moment to let the dig sink in.
“And don’t call me Seraphim,” I glowered.
“I should call you stupid for going alone to question a potential suspect in a murder investigation. Do you realize the danger you put yourself in? Or the worry you put me through? I’ve been going out of my mind thinking about what could have happened to you!”
Memories of Ravena’s buzzing Taser filled my mind. Maybe David did have a point. I wasn’t a trained police officer. I had no clue on how to defend myself or even disarm someone with a potentially harmful weapon. I usually tried reasoning with people. It had worked so far, but what happened when I crossed paths with an unreasonable lunatic? Then again, I thought about the two cats. I hadn’t been completely alone in my hasty endeavor.
“Keep it up, Seraphim, and you might be,” Onyx warned, reading my mind.
Shade nudged the back of my leg and nodded in the Chief’s direction. “In case you missed it, that was your moment.”
I looked across the room at David. He had crossed his arms and was pacing a trough in the worn floorboards of the kitchen. I halted his furious stride with a gentle hand on his arm. The thrill of the hard muscle rippling under his skin sent a delicious shiver through me. Luckily, I felt none of that hot/cold sensation that had made me numb a few days earlier.
“Wait...you were worried about me?” I asked with some degree of surprise.
He stopped and looked into my eyes. “How can you even ask such a thing? Of course, I was worried about you!”
One by one, the cats all made their presence known. Eclipse jumped down from his pride of place beside the cake he was sharing with me. Gloo
m wiggled a wide bottom from behind the onion bin. Jet, whiskers full of carrot cake crumbs, poked his head up over the cake plate. Carbon peeked out from under the hearth rug, two glowing yellow eyes wide with anticipation. Shade, Fraidy, Midnight and Onyx sat in a patient row, looking expectantly at the unfolding conversation.
I have to admit. My eyes were a little on the full side as well. Maybe I really had been misreading David for the last few weeks. Maybe my insecurities were all just in my head.
David took my petite hands in his own strong ones.
“How could I not be worried about my bestest bud?”
Eclipse tumbled off the top of the fridge. Jet knocked over the cake plate. Onyx shook his head. And Gloom blew a big fat raspberry.
“Aw, come on, Chief! Are you kitten me!?” Shade moaned.
“I know dead people with more exciting love lives,” Midnight muttered and moseyed off in search of more scintillating situations.
“Sorry, Hat, but I don’t even know if I can get the Chief’s pilot light going,” Carbon mumbled under his breath.
I pulled my hands from David’s and walked toward the front of the shop quietly.
“What on earth is everybody talking about?” David blinked in stupefied wonder as he followed me out.
“If I gotta spell it out for ya, Chief, you might as well FUR-get about it,” Shade marched ahead. “Humans...what a bunch of crazy cats.”
I picked up a few loose bottles Millie had left lying on the counter and pretended to organize.
“So, even though I don’t approve of you heading out to Ravena Valley’s on your own, what did you find out?” David asked, seemingly oblivious to my hurt feelings. He walked up to the counter where I was busy looking busy. I picked up my materials and stalked off towards the shelves. I started angrily shoving the bottles of herbs back where they belonged, getting madder with each successive clink of the glasses.
“Why don’t you ask your new friend?” I suggested.
“Who?” David asked.
The Black Diamond Curse (Hattie Jenkins & The Infiniti Chronicles Book 4) Page 12