Glumly, she closed her laptop, and spent the rest of the afternoon casually wandering through the areas of the castle where she was allowed to go and concentrating on mentally scanning for power gems until her head hurt so badly she wanted to cry. She found a few when she wheedled an excuse to visit Tabitha’s room, and Tabitha cheerfully showed off some of her jewelry collection. Her collection was enormous, and the power jewels that she owned were very mild. There were garnets that would make a dragon shifter mildly sleepy, and there was some ebony that could cause nausea.
Kelly finally gave up and went to take some more aspirin. If this case didn’t give her an ulcer and a permanent migraine, nothing would. She’d never had to spend this much time using her powers before; it was getting to the point where as soon as she started scanning, her head started throbbing right away. She was going to have to take a break from it.
She was probably wasting her time searching the entire castle anyway. She was pretty sure that the ruby was in the south tower, but until she could get close to it, she figured she might as well eliminate all the other possibilities.
Teresa had gone off to sulk; when Kelly checked on her, she was sitting outside in the rose garden berating Winthrop about how terrible the Kingsleys were, and he was gloomily agreeing.
When Teresa finally finished with her tantrum, Kelly called her over.
“Did you get anything useful from him?” she asked.
Teresa scowled at her in annoyance. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s complaining about the Kingsleys. Did he give you any useful information?”
“They have no respect for tradition; Tabitha actually wants to wear cream to the wedding, which is far too close to white; they drink cocktails before noon; they use appallingly bad language—”
Kelly waved her hand impatiently to cut off the verbal torrent. “No. Did you get any useful information about their history as jewel thieves? Anything about the Dragonsblood?”
“Of course not. Why would he tell me anything like that?”
“Did you even try? You’re the one who’s desperate to wrap this up and get home to her fiancé.”
“No, I did not try. There wouldn’t have been any point. He’s too loyal to them.” But Teresa looked guilty as she said that.
“You mean you were too busy enjoying the excuse to sit there and complain to someone who doesn’t get up and walk away when you go off on your tirades,” Kelly said irritably. “Because he can’t. Because it’s his job to sit there and keep an eye on you. So stop abusing him.” She turned around and stalked off.
Going several days without sex with Gabriel was making her surprisingly itchy and irritable.
“For your information, Winthrop actually agrees with everything I say!” Teresa yelled after her. Always had to have the last word.
Fine,Kelly thought wearily, it wasn’t worth arguing with Teresa about this. She was starting to get another headache without even using her powers.
