Page 122 of The Curse Defiers

“Steven, I’m sorry.” I tried to look contrite, but I had to force it. I wanted to punch him in the face myself, but we were already showing too much of our hand. We’d be lucky to get him to give anything away. “Collin is a family friend.”

“You didn’t answer the question, Dr. Godfrey,” Collin repeated. “What do you know about the collection that got David’s ex-girlfriend killed on Saturday night?”

Obviously, Collin had assumed the bad cop role.

Steven’s face turned white. “I don’t have to answer anything.” He swallowed. “In fact, I’m going to call security.”

“Steven, please,” I said.

He looked around, his eyes wild, before pinning me with his gaze. “Ellie, you need to stay out of this.”

I grabbed his arm. “I can’t…because of David. Please.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help you.” He shrugged off my hand and took two steps down the hall, which had gotten more crowded in the last minute.

“We know about the Guardians,” Collin said.

Steven stopped and turned around; his face expressionless. “What did you say?”

“We know about the Guardians.” Collin took a step closer and lowered his voice. “And we know what they’re doing.”

He spun around, hurrying toward the open elevator car at the end of the hall. We ran after him but had to push our way through a group of students, and the doors closed before we could reach it.

“Now what do we do?” I asked.

“He obviously has information we need, so we’ll stake out his office. He said he was meeting with a student, although that might have been a ruse to get rid of us.”

“Do you think he knows about David?”

“No. If this group has levels of membership, he must be at a very low level. He sucks at subterfuge. He gave away so much without even saying a single word, but he asked if David knew you were here with me, and he didn’t look like he was being coy. He doesn’t know what happened.”

“So what is his involvement?”

“I suspect they use him to get information but give him little in return.”

Just as I pushed the elevator call button, the doors opened and Myra walked out. Her eyes widened and she stopped in her tracks. “Ellie! What are you doing here? I thought you left yesterday.”

“We had to come back. I needed to ask Steven a few questions.”

She stepped out of the elevator and moved to the side, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her.

My palm tingled.

I looked up at her wide-eyed. Why was my palm burning now? My gaze fell to the base of her throat. She was wearing a round pendant with symbols raised in bas-relief. “Myra, what’s that?”

Her hand lifted to it. “This? After Steven saw the markings on my door, he gave me this on Sunday night. Wasn’t that sweet of him?”

My stomach dropped. “I don’t think it’s safe, Myra. You need to take it off.”

“Ellie, what’s gotten into you? Is this your way of getting back at me for bringing up my concerns about David?”

“What? No!”

“Then what are you doing here? You said you wanted to ask Steven questions. What kind of questions?”

“About something he may have found at the colony site.”

“You could have just called him.” She cast a glance to Collin.

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