Even if Julianhadn’t shared the directions to his birdcage, I would’ve found it from the smell. His vibrant-colored and cacophonous parrots reeked. As I approached their cage, eyes prickling from the aggressive stench, I lifted a hand to block mynose.
No wonder he’d hidden the fossilized wood inside. The birds’ awful stink would cover up the artifact’s. I wasn’t sure what the old thing I needed to find would look like and regretted not having asked what color it was or where it rested in the cage. When Julian had mentioned a cage, I’d imagined a smallish thing, not one I could step into without hunchingover.
The birds turned their beady black eyes toward me, growing still and quiet at my advance. I uncovered my nose and sniffed the air for what I needed to find. My eyes watered, but I kept sniffing, strolling slowly around the cage. I caught a whiff of cold rot and stopped. Both parrots had swiveled their neckless heads to watch me, their sharp beaks buried deep in their puffy redchests.
I crouched to see if the smell emanated from the wood-chipped floor. My nose burned. The rancid odor was definitely worse below. In the pale light of the moon, I tracked my gaze over the woodchips until I found a disturbance in their evenness. Something glinted among the dull carpeting like polishedbone.
Pressing one palm over my nose, I made my way back around the cage to the door and slid the key into the lock. When the latch clanked open, I pushed the door open and slipped inside, shutting it back quickly so Julian’s prized pets didn’t flock out. Keeping one eye out on the quiet birds, I moved toward the irregular patch of flooring and dug out what I’dseen.
Thick. Yellowed. Shiny.Putrid.
The key to genderselection.
How had anyone been able to swallow a drink sprinkled with this was beyond me. I would’ve thrown up at the meresmell.
Perhaps that’s what had happened to my father. Perhaps he’d thrown up the vilething.
I wrapped my fingers lightly around the disgusting object and exited the birdcage. The parrots hadn’t fluttered a single feather. I turned the key, then buried it in the palm that wasn’t holding the Boulderrelic.
As I turned, I bumped into abody.
A tall, broad body with glowing yelloweyes.
Chapter Forty-One
Liam stoodin front of me, jaw so hard it could cutglass.
My pulse raged from his presence, from hisnearness.
“You found it.” The low timbre of his voice rolled toward me. He was angry. Terriblyangry.
I pressed the key harder into my palm. “I did.” I should probably have dropped the key into the grass and prayed he wouldn’t see its shine, but I didn’t drop it. I didn’t dare move. “You’ve arrived toolate.”
“You wouldn’t have had any help, would younow?”
“Would it matter? The rule of the game was to find the artifact. They didn’t specify our method for findingit.”
A rough smile perched on his lips. “You’re good, Ness. Sneaky,even.”
I tried to step around him, but he blocked my advance. “Get out of my way,Liam.”
“Youcheated.”
I glared up at him defiantly. “I used my connection to find it. How is thatcheating?”
“Your connection…or yourmouth?”
I uncurled my fingers from the piece of wood. It tumbled onto the grass at the same time as my hand flew into Liam’sjaw.
How could I ever have considered letting him win? “I’ve never ever touched a man thatway!”
“Then why is Julian helping you?” he asked, rubbing hisjaw.
“Maybe because he thinks I’d make a better Alpha than any of you.” I crouched to pick up the fossil. Woodchips had caught in the hem of my dress, but I didn’t bother brushing them off. My hands trembled too fiercely to do much more than focus on clutching the key and thewood.
I shook my head as I rose and passed by him, knocking my shoulder into his chest onpurpose.
“You’re going the wrongway.”
