Reuben, the water witch, pointed to the corner of the room where another spelled box was lying ready. “Already done.”
A huge weight lifted off Nahum’s shoulders. Carrying the box had started to bother him, even though it was spelled with strong magic. It was as if Belial’s power could still leak from it, and even though he knew it wasn’t, it was like his insidious whispers were in his head anyway.
“Fantastic. Let’s do it. You lot, though,” he gestured to the witches and Olivia, “need to go upstairs.”
“Actually,” Alex said, “I’d like to feel the effects once you open it. I won’t touch anything, obviously, but it might help me get a feel for all this.”
Zee was emphatic in his response to that request. “No!”
“You asked for my help, and what I can give is limited. We felt the effects of the other jewels and were fine. This will be stronger. It could help.”
Avery shuffled uneasily. “Alex, we’ve talked about this. What if it kicks off one of your weird, psychic premonitions?”
“Which it could totally do,” Eli agreed.
“It’s my risk, and I’m used to managing psychic energy. You’ll have to trust me on this. I won’t do anything to risk hurting myself.”
“You’d better not!” Reuben said, indignant. “We have wedding stuff to do.”
Nahum exchanged worried glances with his brothers, and resigned, they both nodded. Alex wasn’t a child. “Fine. But everyone else, especially you, Liv, out!” He had slipped into using the shortened version of her name, and found he quite liked it. She seemed to, as well. She was dressed informally today, in her jeans and t-shirt, and still looked good. Focus.
“I’m going.” She headed up the stairs. “I’ll make drinks.”
“We should go to the pub,” Reuben said, trailing after her. “The Wayward Son does a great Sunday lunch.”
In less than a minute, only the three Nephilim and Alex were left in the cellar, and after casting a worried look at Alex, Nahum flipped the lid open. Immediately, Belial’s insidious whispers seeped into the room, as if there were hundreds of him crammed inside, and his power radiated outwards, too.
“Herne’s horns!” Alex exclaimed, staggering back as if he’d been punched. “That’s insane.”
“Are you okay?” Zee asked.
“I’m fine. Just taking a moment to shut my psychic awareness down.”
Nahum and Eli lifted out the jewels, one by one. It was tempting to upend the box and throw them inside without touching them, but Nahum had made an inventory, and he wanted to check that they were all there.
Eli frowned as he lifted a necklace. “This looks and feels important.”
“It was placed on the altar, and nowhere near as big as the one draped around his neck,” Nahum explained. “Do you think he actually wore this?”
“Perhaps, on one of his visits. It makes my skin crawl.” The huge sapphire mounted in silver filigree seemed to blink like an eye, and Eli lowered it into the new, larger box the witches had made.
Nahum quickly transferred the rings, loose gemstones, and bracelets, ticking them off his list. “The necklace on the statue ended up in the hole that opened up when the temple collapsed.”
“Was it as bad as it sounded?”
“Worse. I’ve never been so powerless in my life. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak, even, except when Amato willed it.”
“And this one?” Zee held up the broken necklace.
“Taken from Amato’s neck. Shadow cut it with her Dragonium blade.”
“Impressive, I didn’t know it could cut through metal.”
Nahum hadn’t really stopped to consider it. “That’s true. Neither did I, but I didn’t take the time to consider it in all the drama.”
“Her sword was undamaged?” Zee asked.
“Must have been, or we’d have never heard the end of it.”
Alex crouched close by, careful to keep his distance. “It’s a pure fey blade, right?”
Eli nodded. “Forged in the Otherworld. Dragonium is made from dragons. It’s a pretty gruesome process. Makes the best weapons though, apparently. Even the dryads talk of it.”
“You chat to dryads about weapons?”
Eli smiled. “About all things related to the Otherworld.”
Alex just nodded, thoughtfully. “So, the fey blade can cut through angelic jewellery and not be damaged. Interesting. And Shadow went undetected by Amato.”
“And Belial, I presume.” Nahum sat back, glad to see Alex was coping with Belial. “When we first met Jacobsen, the jewels whispered that I was there. He turned and saw me. That didn’t happen with Shadow. She was using her fey magic, of course. She kept to the darkness, and I couldn’t see her, either. You know what she’s like in her stealth mode.”
Alex sat cross-legged on the floor. “She talked about Raziel’s magic back when you found the temple. Of how the old God tried to stop others from using magic, and laughed. She said it was impossible. That magic is everywhere, especially in the Otherworld.”
“I remember. She said writing it all in some big book and then locking it away was madness. She wittered about the elements.”
“Yes, the fundamentals of life. The elements that we access.” Alex smiled. “It’s a weakness.”
Nahum had been ticking off jewels and throwing them into the new box while they talked, but now he froze. “What do you mean?”
