Page 35 of Dead and Gone

"But you obviously didn't sell the mole," I interrupt before Kai throws the punch I can see in his mind.

"No. I told the guy I couldn't risk selling the mole after the curator visited school and lost his shit, so the buyer told me to just sell him the eyes. I did and replaced them with these." Dale pulls red beads from his pocket.

Grayson chokes a laugh. "Wow."

"Then the eyes fell out into my bag on the way to the visitor center."

I raise mine to the spotlights on the ceiling. "Have you not learned anything about goings-on in this town? The supernatural forces at work? Your buyer may not have been who he said."

"Nah. His Insta profile was all taxidermy and shit, wasn't it?" says Dale.

"Why would a keen taxidermy collector only want the eyes of a rare specimen?" I ask in disbelief. "He would want the whole manikin! That profile is fake."

"You morons," mutters Leif.

"Chances are the buyer was a witch searching for a magical item rather than a fan of taxidermy," says Rowan. "The mole originally belonged to a witch family."

"Did you meet this buyer in person, Dale?" asks Leif.

"No. I dropped the eyes off in the town graveyard. The buyer left the cash under a stone behind one of the mausoleums."

"Graveyard." I look at the others. "Was this last night?" Dale nods. Nobody followed us, and we were close to discovering the truth. I grind my teeth. If only I'd insisted on waiting around—we might've caught Dale or his mysterious buyer. Possibly both. "Any contact since?"

"No."

"Where's the money you got for the eyes, Dale?" asks Kai.

Dale sucks his lips together. "Someone else took the cash for safekeeping."

I straighten. "Someone elsewas involved with selling them?"

"Yeah." I raise an expectant eyebrow at him. "Corrie."

This time, Kai leaps from his seat. "What the actual fuck?"

"Was her idea," Dale mumbles. "Corrie bought some glass beads and we swapped them. The glue she used must be crap since the eyes fell out."

Oh.Oh. The buyer isn't upset about losing money, just as the curator isn't panicking about his missing manikin. And the threat to Corrie isn't about returning the mole—it's due to the fake eyes.

The pieces snap into place.

"You sold this collector beads because someone had replaced the eyes already," I say. "A witch bought the so-called eyes from Dale and Corrie."

"What do you mean?" asks Kai sharply.

"Give me the mole." Dale cautiously passes the manikin to me.

I unzip my jacket pocket and remove the red gems from the pouch, which I haven't let out of my sight since Rowan gave them to me. As I tip them into my palm, Rowan straightens. "Do you think…?" He trails off as he catches my small smile. "Oh, wow."

"What's happening?" asks Leif.

"I have the mole's original eyes." Biting down on my lip, I carefully push a gem into the eye socket.

A gem which fits perfectly.

A collective hush fills the room as I place the other eye into place, bracing myself for magic.

Nothing. Hmm. But the rubiesfit.

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