“Somebody broke into our car.” Simon ran a hand through his hair. “Shit.”
“The box.” Shanna scrambled for the glove compartment. Before she even touched it, it fell open, revealing a few of the car’s documents they stored inside … and nothing else.
She turned to Simon, panic building in her gut. “The bracelet is gone.”
Chapter 19
“The problem is, if I auto-generate a password, nobody is going to remember that shit.” Everett spread his arms as he walked down the hallway, side to side with Simon. “Including me!”
“They’re safer than whatever you can come up with on your own,” Simon said.
“And thus, you mercilessly crush my dreams of having a password be 4EVERett.”
“You’re not serious. That password is so weak a parrot could figure it out.”
“Good thing we don’t have parrots in the company, then,” Everett mused. He hurried up toward his office, turning back to face him. “Don’t worry. I’ll auto-generate most of them. But this one … I might use it for something. Just for fun.”
***
“Yeah, that was a kea.” The forest ranger scratched the back of his head as he observed the damaged car. “Classic signs.”
“It’s a known culprit?” Simon asked. “Why haven’t you caught him yet?”
“It’s a parrot.” The ranger pronounced the word slowly, as if Simon didn’t know what parrots were. “About this big, olive green.” He spread his hands about a foot. “Lives in the forest. They love to wreck cars and steal stuff.”
“A parrot took my things?” Shanna said, incredulously.
Simon threw his arms up. “Is there a bird in this country that doesn’t steal stuff?”
“What do we do?” Shanna asked the ranger.
“Nothing much, I’m afraid. I hope they weren’t valuable.” The ranger nodded goodbye and left.
Simon rubbed the bridge of his nose and leaned on the car. “This isn’t happening. They’ve got to be joking.” What kind of twisted version of “the dog ate my homework” was this? And they were so close to breaking the bond. They had the bracelet.
Maybe it was a sign they shouldn’t pursue the ritual. They should let things be. He and Shanna would be bound together forever, and it would be slightly annoying but also kind of sweet. Simon smiled as he imagined his future life. Maybe they would have to make neighboring offices for themselves. One next to his at Aries, where she could do her crafting. They’d have to walk out perfectly parallel with each other so as not to yank one another into a wall. They’d have to sync their whole lives, but suddenly, it didn’t sound exhausting anymore. It sounded fun, because it included Shanna.
“I could try tracking the box,” Shanna interrupted his thoughts.
Then maybe, he was being fanciful. When it came to bonds and other witchy stuff, Shanna knew better.
“Like how you sensed where your mom was before?” he asked.
“Not the same. That spell is more about following the feelings. But I know exactly what I’m looking for this time, and I’ve touched the object myself. I could do it with a dowsing rod or—oh, a pendulum!” Shanna fished her heart-shaped golden locket from under her shirt. “Already on a chain, has a pointed end. Perfect!”
“Uh, what are we doing now?” Chris asked, a glimmer in her eyes betraying her interest despite her folded arms.
“If I use this is a pendulum for dowsing, it can lead us to the bracelet.”
“Which is somewhere in the forest, we’re assuming,” Chris said.
Simon looked down the valley, bordered by endless forested mountains. “How precise is that …tracking?”
“I can ask the pendulum yes or no questions, but if I get a map of the area, I can also try to pinpoint the location on it.” Shanna shrugged. “It’s the best I can do.”
Said the woman who literally brought on a biblical storm yesterday. Oh, Simon had no doubt she could do it. “Then let’s try it. We have nothing to lose except another day.” And honestly, he didn’t even mind losing that day.
“I’ll go find us a map. And maybe a guide. Maybe both.” Chris walked away.
