Page 39 of Monster's Baby

“You may want to ask her that.”

“No, really.Why are you being so cold to her?”

Pierre shrugged.“I am a shiny new toy.I’m not interested in investing time in a fling when I have work to do.Clarissa, did you find your ring?”He changed the subject so abruptly that my head spun.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”I exclaimed.“I completely forgot to ask at lunch.”

Clarissa shook her head.“It’s fine.We didn’t completely search the room.”

“But the longer it goes missing, the harder it’ll be to find,” I insisted.“I’ll help you right away.”

“We have the Olympic meeting,” Aiden reminded me gently.

“Damn it,” I cursed, and then remembered that the professor was on the other side of Aiden.

He was munching happily on a piece of bread that he dipped into his stew.

“Sorry,” I said, even though it seemed as though he wasn’t listening.To Clarissa, I added, “We can be a little late to the meeting.”

“We might not get the events that we want,” Bruce hedged.

“But my mother’s ring?”Clarissa pleaded.

“How about this,” I suggested before anyone got upset.“Bruce, Aiden, and Pierre can go directly to the meeting.You and I will go to your room.We’ll join the guys as soon as we can, and they can sign us up for any events we might want while we’re gone.”

Clarissa nodded.“We’ll hurry,” she promised.

“What about Professor Reynolds?”Aiden asked.

“Professor Dunlop said he’d look after him during any Olympic events.This counts, I would think.”

We finished our dinner quickly and headed up to Clarissa and Bruce’s room.It was mostly similarly furnished to our temporary quarters, but with little touches that marked it as a more permanent bedroom.There was an extension spell put in near the front that made it look a lot bigger, and there was room for a couch and two desks before the bedroom.

“That’s clever,” I admired.

“It was Bruce’s idea,” Clarissa admitted readily.“He wanted the castle to feel more like home to both of us, especially since we’re hoping to live here in the future.”

“He’s tied to the building in ways we mere mortals aren’t,” I said with a chuckle.“This extension spell is tidy, but it’s bound with blood magic.I wouldn’t be able to cast something like this.”

Clarissa shrugged.“Being a Blackthorn has to be good for something,” she joked.

“I won’t tell Bruce you said that.”I pointed at the bedroom.“You put your mother’s ring on your bedside table?”

“I did.”All laughter fled her expression and she led me over to her side of the bed.“I usually take off my jewelry and put it in this shell dish before bed.”

The shell was a pretty pale pink, and obviously empty.I cast a spell over it to show me any invisible contents, which turned up empty, as I was expecting.

“Okay, let’s give this tracking spell a try,” I said, taking a deep breath.“I haven’t attempted it before,” I added apologetically.“It might not work.”

“That you’re trying is what’s important,” Clarissa reassured me.

Taking comfort in her acceptance of my potential failure, I cast the spell for lost objects.

Nothing happened.

I frowned.

“I should be seeing a trail of magic to the ring,” I muttered, looking around the room and squinting, as if that would help me see.“It should lead my eyes right to it.”

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