Page 55 of Expose Me

Chapter17

Reflexively, I twisted and shoved the gun up under the chin of ...

“Abraxos?” I hissed.

Stepping around me, Zey punched him in the face.

“Ow,” Abraxos deadpanned. “Was that really necessary? And you can lower the gun now, Sky, darling.”

With a sigh, I lowered my weapon.

“My bad.” Zey shrugged. “Didn’t realize it was you.”

“You punched meafterSky said my name,” Abraxos pointed out.

“Children,” I snapped. “Can we please focus?”

I reached for the handle again, but Abraxos wrapped an arm around my waist and lifted me away from the door, setting me down on his other side.

“What the hell?” I seethed at the same time as Zey said, “Put her down.”

“Unless you’d like to bring several guards and possibly even Asbesta up here, allow me to open the door.” Abraxos looked between us like we were children he was teaching a lesson to.

“The doors are spelled?” I shook my head, berating myself for forgetting that possibility.

“They are indeed. Only certain members of Sea and Serpentine can open the doors on the third floor.”

“And they gaveyouaccess?” Zey scoffed.

“Yes. I am a very important and handsome individual.” He flashed us a grin. Then he reached out, produced a small vial of what looked like plain water, and poured it on the door handle. The water was clearly not plain, because it slithered into the lock, and the click of it unlocking brought a self-satisfied smile to Abraxos’s face before he opened the door with a flourish. “I also stole thiskeyfrom a tipsy mermaid before following you two upstairs.”

“So, it would’ve been fine had I tried to open the door?” I gave him a withering look and shoved past him into the room.

“No. The doors are indeed spelled to members of Sea and Serpentine—they all are. But these ones require a specialkeyas well.” He waved the delicate vial—now full of water once more—in front of my face. I batted him away.

“Sky, it’s not here.” Zey’s worried words drew my attention. He’d closed the door behind us and was looking around the room with a deep frown.

It looked like a space that was being used for storage, but it wasn’t cluttered and messy. There was a lot of stuff, but the boxes were stacked neatly, the several shelves organized though bursting with books and other items.

I rushed to the corner where my power had shown me the Onuei. The necklace was sitting in a glass cabinet, right where I thought it would be. The room wasn’t huge—Zey should’ve been able to feel it at this proximity.

I looked over my shoulder at him. He came to stand next to me as I opened the cabinet and took it out. It was an old-fashioned style of necklace with many pieces of highly polished serpentine set into intricate silver settings. It was exactly what my ability had shown me when I searched for it.

Zey glanced at it, then back at me and shook his head.

“This better not be some kind of trick to avoid giving me what we agreed on,” Abraxos said, a clear warning in his tone.

“Shh,” I hushed him, batting him away as I closed my eyes.

When I’d first searched for the Onuei, the image of the necklace in this room had been so clear. And when we pulled up to the building earlier, I’d checked to make sure it was still here, and the ribbons in my mind had shot up to the exact same room and that exact piece of ugly jewelry.

I gave my power all my attention as I let the ribbons unfurl, seeking the Onuei with more intention.

They stretched and floated all the way back down the three flights of stairs, through the foyer, into the ballroom full of people and ...

“It’s downstairs,” I said, frowning at the necklace in my hands. “It was here when we arrived. This doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re telling me we went through all this effort for nothing?” Abraxos drawled.

---