Page 59 of Leda's Log

“She is clearly delusional,” General Fireswift commented, joining us. “The wall is perfectly intact. There are no signs of forced entry.” He tapped his fist to the wall. “Or of an explosion.”

“Tell us what you saw in your vision, Sierra,” Nero said. “Exactly, step-by-step.”

“Well, there was a man…” Her nose scrunched up in concentration, like she was trying to remember details that had eluded her before. “…he was a…djinn. A teleporter. He had a halo, a djinn halo. Kind of a greenish color. He teleported into the facility. That’s how he got in.”

“Doesn’t this facility have anti-teleportation wards?” Harker asked Nero.

But General Fireswift answered. “It does. Dragonsire installed them. So what she’s describing simply isn’t possible.”

“The teleporter nullified the wards,” Sierra said. “He was holding a book…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “…an ancient book with magic unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It allowed him to get past the wards and teleport into this room. Then he grabbed the ring and stuffed it into his bag.”

“Ring?” I asked. “What ring?”

Sierra’s eyelashes fluttered open. She pivoted and pointed at a display case. There had to be over twenty different rings in there, each one with its own velvet-coated pedestal.

“That one.” She pointed at a gold ring. The gold wasn’t just in the material. It seemed to come from within the ring itself, the warm golden kiss of a summer sun. “He took that one.”

“The ring is clearly still there,” General Fireswift said in his typical, clipped, no-nonsense style. “All the rings are still there.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” I said, moving in for a closer look.

Sierra cut in front of me, moving quickly, impatiently, like a string was drawing her toward the display case. Her gaze didn’t deviate from its target. Harker stayed by her side, just as he’d promised Nero.

“She’s in a trance,” I realized.

A murmur of movement, a slight tickle in my fingertips—that was the only warning I had of the impending explosion—and it came too late.

CHAPTER 4

DIVING INTO DISASTER

Thank goodness Harker was right there beside Sierra because I never would have made it to her in time. The display case shattered, the broken shards shooting out like glass bullets. Harker folded his body over Sierra like a shield, taking the brunt of the damage himself.

And out of nowhere, a man in a purple cloak was suddenly here too. He snatched the gold ring out what little remained of the display case, then tucked it away inside the bag slung across his chest. Tucked under his arm was a book with ancient symbols carved into the cover.

“It’s him.” Sierra pointed at the man, her voice shaking as much as her hand.

“She didn’t see the present,” I said to Nero. “She saw the future.”

Legion soldiers had accompanied us into the treasury. They hadn’t wasted any time rushing forward to confront the thief, but even they weren’t fast enough.

“He’s making a run for it!” Nero shouted as that familiar buzz super-charged the air, the telltale sign of an impending portal.

It burst open a moment later, bright and brilliant. The thief hurled the book and the bag with the ring through the portal opening, then moved to go through himself.

Like lightning, Nero’s hand flashed out to catch his arm. He pulled the thief away from the portal, throwing him to the floor.

“Who are you?” Nero demanded of the thief as Legion soldiers moved in to secure him.

The thief said nothing. He simply smiled.

“What do you want with the ring?”

The thief remained silent.

“We found the ring only last week,” General Fireswift said, closing up beside Nero.

Nero turned toward him. “Where?”

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