“Who’s to say they don’t relay information back to Pandora if they find her?” Constantine interjected.
“It’s a chance we have to take unfortunately,” I offered.
“What are Nick and I going to do?” Xenobia inquired.
Decimus popped the top on a pen and started drawing lines between each contract. “You two are going to check in with the contracts as well as hit any old locations she might have been lurking in. Constantine, you can give us ones we didn’t know about either, right?”
“Yes, absolutely,” he immediately answered.
Decimus nodded once. “Good, good. I’m going to send some of my lackeys out to try and lure Ambermourn towards us. He’s a Demon Hunter, right, Nick?”
“Yes, as far as I’m aware.”
“Then I’ll have to make a big mess to draw him out.” He sucked his teeth and snapped his fingers twice. “If we could just figure out her next move, then I would know where to place people…!”
“Knowing Pandora, she’s going to go for power. Since we destroyed her scepter, she has to either improvise and make a new one or go after another source of power to fuel her new elements. Does anyone know of anything that might give her extensive power?” Constantine asked hopefully.
“Nada,” Decimus and I replied simultaneously.
Xenobia had an odd look on her face as she was deep in thought. Constantine raised an eyebrow at her, which made her finally speak. “You know, I was thinking…” She pulled her necklace out from under her shirt, which was a piece Seraphine had made for her as a protection charm. “The Original Gods have a thing for jewelry, right?”
“Endymion gave me this ring.” I held my hand up to show the group.
Xenobia took the ring from me and held it up towards the light. “Constantine, this is more a question for you than anyone. Did your dads ever make anything special? Any cool jewelry or special items that could boost power?”
“Well, I should think so. Endymion had a knack for tinkering with finer metals,” Constantine answered.
“Then we start there. Xenobia might be on to something.” I stirred my drink methodically as I thought to myself. “How we get this information without the others finding out is the key.”
“What about Seraphine? She gave you Endymion’s ring, right? So she probably knows about other sacred jewelry if it were to exist?” Decimus offered.
“She’ll rat me out to my mom in a heartbeat,” I sniffed.
“Then it’s my time to shine!” Xenobia cracked her knuckles and shook her frazzled locks out. “I know how to butter her up! I bet you she’ll spill the beans to me!”
“You really think you can handle this, shrimp?” I taunted.
She nodded eagerly. “You focus on finding Ambermourn’s Shadows while I take care of my mom. We’ll regroup tomorrow night with any new information we’ve found.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Chapter thirty-four
I’ll Listen to Every Secret
Xenobia
Mom and Dad were nowhere to be found today. As I raced through the long hallways of Morgan Hall, all I could think about was how important my job was, and how I was going to pull this off successfully. My stomach was in a knot as I knocked on multiple classroom doors, peeked inside, and groaned before moving onto the next floor. “For two people who like to teach so much, you’d think they’d be in their dang classrooms!” I snarled to myself.
As I sped by, Ptolemy looked up from a large tome he was cradling from his seat in the windowsill. He usually liked to study his Wind Elemental stuff in peace, so it wasn’t odd to see him by himself, but his presence did startle me. “Hey, Xena! Whatchya doing?” he chimed lovingly.
I smiled at his innocent tone. “Hey, Ptolemy. I’m looking for my parents, actually. Have you seen them at all?”
“Nope, can’t say I have.”
I looked over his shoulder at the book he was reading. The page he was on read,Particeps Potestatisacross the top, and that made me blink in surprise. “What the heck are you reading, dude?”
“Oh, you know, nothing!” He slapped the book closed with a wicked blush. “Um, while you’re here, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something…”
