Kiss of Frost (The Dragon Stone Saga Book 1)(6)
"Ha! I think I've got something!" Jem shoves the box she's digging through away from her and holds up a black velvet pouch.
"Well, let's see it. Don't keep us in suspense." I eye the object in Jem's hand, the magic pouring off of it raw and unlike anything I've ever felt before.
Kay practically vibrates with excitement and nods her agreement.
Jem unties the knot at the top of the pouch and shoves her hand inside. Slowly, she pulls out a silver necklace with blue stones on it. The chain is long and sprinkled with the ice-blue gems, and I watch, entranced, as she reveals the beautiful piece. There's a larger stone that lies horizontal in the middle surrounded by smaller blue ones, each of them shooting out of the middle one like a starburst of ice.
"Let me see that." I reach out my hand, unable to control my actions. There's a pull deep inside me to touch the necklace. Something wild and uncontrollable.
Jem hands it over, and as soon as my fingers wrap around the pendant, a chill goes up my arm and down my spine.
"It's beautiful. Whatever kind of magic is trapped inside of this is powerful." I hold it up closer to my eyes so I can watch as each stone shimmers in the beams of sunlight in the room. My breath puffs out in front of me like it would on a cool fall morning and I frown. That's odd. "Does this feel cold to you?" I hold it out to Kay and she touches the middle stone.
"Yeah, a little cool. It's probably from being in storage for so long?" She says the words as a sort of question and I nod.
"Who knows. We found it. So now we just need to find the white and purple ones so you can bring them as much as possible at once."
Kay nods, keeping her gaze locked on the necklace.
"Do you feel something, Kay?" She seems entranced but I don't want to add to her stress by letting her know that she's also a witch, and a very powerful one at that. Hopefully our continued hints will open up her mind a bit more to the prospect when the time comes to drop the bomb of witchy powers.
Kay shakes her head. "I don't know what you mean."
Jem opens her mouth to respond but I cut her off. "Never mind. I just meant like intuition. Let's grab some lunch really quick and then we'll keep looking. Kitchen's that way if you want to poke around. If you see anything you like, grab it. Our house is your house." I smile reassuringly at her and wait until she's out of the room.
"What is it?" Jem asks.
"I don't know. There's just something about this that I can't put my finger on." I purse my lips. I press my thumb against the edges of the outer jewels and curse when a sharp edge cuts my skin. "Shit. Little bastard is sharp." I pull my thumb back, blood smearing across the large center stone. I put my thumb in my mouth and suck on it. The coppery tang of blood in my mouth makes me scowl. I wipe the blood off the necklace with my shirt and place it on the table. "I need a Band-Aid. Can you grab me one?"
"Yeah, one sec." Jem heads out of the sunroom toward the bathroom.
"And Jem?"
She stops and looks at me over her shoulder. "Yeah?"
"I think we should wait to tell Kay about her magic. She seems freaked out every time we mention anything magical and right now I think she's got enough on her plate."
"So we should stop hinting about it?" Jem asks.
"No, I think we should keep dropping hints and asking her questions so we know what she is and isn't aware of. She saw my altar last night and Ann and I joked that she'd know what magic is soon enough, but I don't want to freak her out. She's got enough to worry about without realizing she's magical."
"Agreed. I'll be right back."
I look down at the necklace on the table, trying to filter through all of the vibrations that I'm feeling. I trace the smooth surface of the stones and I feel like I touched a live wire. Powerful, potent, and dangerous.
Chapter 3
The sound of glass breaking and tinkling against the tile in the sunroom makes us all jump at the kitchen table, where we were finishing lunch, and I stand up, pushing Kay toward Jem. "Keep her here. I'll check it out."
I grab a knife from the block on the counter and draw up my mental shields in case it's a magical attack. I crouch low before peering around the corner into the sunroom. My breath whooshes out of me in a hiss as I take in the man standing in the middle of the room.
The giant naked man.
He circles around, looking just as confused as I feel. One hand in his straight blond hair, the other on one of his muscled hips. I grab a piece of glass that landed close to where my foot is and I throw it to the other side of the room, hoping to distract him so I can slip in behind him. It works. I get as close to him as I can and press the knife into the lower part of his back. Hard enough to let him know I mean business but not hard enough to break the skin.
"I hope you've got one hell of an explanation for why you're in my house and, more importantly, why the hell you’re buck-ass naked."
A low growl sounds and I watch as his chest expands, trying not to lose focus on the task at hand. He's sculpted like something straight out of Rome and one of the temples of gods. His skin is tanned, like he's spent the past year naked on a beach, and his shoulders are broad. Every inch of him is muscled perfection and he moves like a giant cat. Sleek, powerful, and deadly.