I thrashed around, begging my body to wake up. My brain couldn’t handle another vision.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared in front of my face. I blinked several times, steeling myself for another vision, but it didn't come. Instead, I found myself staring into the long straight bulb of a fluorescent light.
Turning my head, I came face to face with Ruth, still sitting at her computer. She watched me with an interested stare, as if she couldn't make up her mind about something. The women standing behind her were silent again. I could feel their eyes scanning me.
With a snap of her fingers, Ruth pointed at the nearest harpy with curly brown hair. “You. Send out a team to take care of that evil sprite before those children end up as her supper. Got it?”
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.
“Just hear me out.” She spun the computer chair until she faced the screen and pulled up a computer file.
From over her shoulder, I could see that the file contained pictures of my mother. We had similar blonde wavy hair and fair skin. I kept some of her old pictures in a shoebox hidden in my closet.
Once in a while, when I was feeling sentimental, I’d take out that old box and flip through the contents. Nicky hadn’t been a deranged killer, dad hadn’t been addicted to alcohol, and my mother had been alive. Our family wasn’t perfect, by any means, but we had our good days.
“Why are you showing me old photos?” I asked. “If you want someone to reminisce with, I’m the wrong gal.”
“Just listen…”
“I’ve had enough listening for one day. When’s my flight back to Arcana?”
She slammed her fist on the glass top desk, causing a crack to web out along the surface. “You are just as stubborn as your mother. Give me a minute to explain!”
I threw my hands in the air in surrender. The threat of death might’ve disappeared, but I was still on harpy ground. It wasn’t a good idea to make her angry.
“I’m listening.”
“Good.” She turned back to the screen and clicked on one of the photos to enlarge it. “This is your mother.”
It was a picture of my mother strolling down the street with a paper bag in her arms.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Yes… I can see that.”
She clicked the next picture. “This is your mother as well.”
This was a photo of my mother through the window of a coffee shop, sitting at a table and sipping on a mug. All the photos must’ve been taken from a camera a long distance away. While my mother’s shape and hair were clearly visible, the finer details of her face were hard to make out.
“The interesting part about these photos,” Ruth continued, “is that they were taken in Arcana only seven days ago. Not far from where you live, I believe.”
My mouth fell open as I stared at the computer screen. Seven days ago? That was impossible. My mother had been killed on an HQ mission fourteen years ago. If she was still alive and walking down some random street of Arcana, she would’ve reached out to us.
“No, that can’t be her.” I squinted at the computer. Her face may have been fuzzy, but it was definitely her. “Your sources got it wrong. These are old photos.”
“This was definitely from a week ago.” Ruth flipped through the photos, more than a dozen of them. “Anita, our source, never gets it wrong. Olivia Harris is alive.”
“Wait… what?”
“We believe she was taken by Robert Caro, a nasty little human who trafficks supernatural c
reatures on the black market. He was just a small operation when your mother first went to disband it, but he’s grown since then, and has evaded our attempts to infiltrate. That was, until very recently. Due to an arrest of one of their thugs, we acted fast and got our man on the inside.”
Her words flowed through my brain like water through a drain. Nothing she said stuck. I gazed at the computer screen with fuzzy vision, trying to comprehend what Ruth was saying. My mother was still alive. She’d survived the mission. The proof was there, in the pictures.
I leaned on the desk for support. “If she’s still alive, why hasn’t she contacted her family? I mean, I’ve lived in Arcana for years. Why wouldn’t she let us know she’s okay?”
Ruth sighed. “We believe she’s still under duress. This is the first we’ve seen of her, so she was probably locked away for a long time. Who knows what they did to her?”
I nodded. Images of torture, small rooms without windows, and meals just big enough to keep her from starving filled my head. Maybe they’d been able to brainwash her into forgetting her family. It happened all the time in the movies.
“This was your big surprise?” I asked Ruth. “The way you were going to get me to join the HQ?”
She pushed away from the keyboard and stared up at me. “We’re not trying to manipulate you, Aya. But yes, we want you to join the Harpy Quorum. We want you to help us get your mother back.”
I gawked at her. Here we were, surrounded by dozens of harpies far more skilled for secret missions than me. They were crazy if they thought I could take that on.
“How am I supposed to get her back? I’m just a museum curator. Why don’t you send one of your super spies for that?”
Standing up, Ruth placed a hand on my elbow. Her skin was cold and rough. “We have reason to believe Caro’s organization has intelligence on our agents that has allowed him to successfully evade us until now. They would have nothing on you. It would be the perfect ruse.”
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?"
"This jewel will enhance your abilities. If you were a king, it would make you a better ruler. If you were a warrior, it would make you fearsome on the battlefield. For you, it should enhance the physic abilities that you’ve already began to manifest."
Leaning back, I chewed on my bottom lip. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. My visions are already hard to handle. Something like that might make them unbearable."
Ruth slid the pendant from the box and held it up by the golden chain. "It's not a miracle worker. It simply speeds up the process of developing your powers. With this jewel, you will be able to handle those visions with the clarity of a harpy who has been training for decades. No more headaches, no more fainting s
essions. This will help you master those skills."
I had to admit, the idea of having visions without the hangover was tempting. My hand reached for the chain before I could stop it, and soon, the jewel was in my hand. For such a little stone, it was surprisingly weighty.
"Put it on," Ruth encouraged.
I obliged and pulled the chain over my head. The pendant hit my torso, just below my breasts. I tucked it under my shirt, suddenly struck by how much unwanted attention such a gift would attract. Arcana was usually safe, but I didn't need every mugger hot on my trail for this jewel.
"I don't feel any different," I told her. No sudden clarity had come from the weight of the jewel. Just a dull weight on the back of my neck. "Should I feel something?"
She smiled, a tightlipped grin that pulled at her hollow cheeks. "Not at first, I imagine. Make sure you’re always wearing it. The next time you get a vision, you'll feel the difference."
Turning on her heels, she marched back into the hallway. I scrambled to follow her, Athena’s jewel bouncing against my chest under my cami. She took a sharp left and led us further into the HQ headquarters. Gone were the offices and conference rooms. Replacing them were rooms full of gym equipment, a locker room, and training spaces.
I caught glimpses through the glass doors of harpies with their wings unfurled, running drills, lifting heavy barbells above their heads, and training with combat dummies. None of them even glanced my way as we passed.
A million questions bubbled up from my gut, but I didn’t dare ask them. The more I knew about the HQ and its inner workings, the more deeply entrenched I would become in their organization. I didn’t intend on staying around once my mother was free. There was a supernatural museum waiting for me back home – a museum I intended on making half mine. That plan hadn’t changed with my sudden kidnapping.
“Do you know how I’m supposed to infiltrate Caro’s organization?” I asked Ruth. Back to the plan. That was a safer topic. “You said you had a man on the inside?”
Athena's Jewel: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Aya Harris Collection Book 2) Page 4