The Deadly Diadem: A Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mystery (Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mysteries Book 2) by Tegan Maher (paper ebook reader txt) 📗

“Othello,” Eli said, placing his hand over his heart. “O! beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

I rolled my eyes at his reference to the Shakespeare play. “You know I hated that performance.”

We’d done Othello in college, and by the time we made it to the temptation scene, I was ready to kill three-quarters of the people I was working with.

He cringed a little. “Yeah, that wasn’t a good one for you. I, on the other hand, was a star.”

“Sure, you were,” I said, raising a brow, “but back to, you know, the dead girl and the cursed item that might, at this very moment, be killing somebody else.”

Axel hopped up onto the table. “I remember reading about that. There’s more than one, though. Apparently, those witches shared a glaring personality flaw. Off the top of my head, there’s a silver ring made from a spoon, a crystal goblet—though that one only turns everything that goes into it into spoiled milk—and a diadem.”

“The diadem was sold through here,” I said, thinking back to the day after we’d found the trunk. The day that all our troubles had started. “It was one of the first items sold the day after we brought the chest in.”

“Yeah, but there’s no record of it,” Jake said.

“If it was sold here, there’s a record of it,” my sister Willow said as she swept into the room from the sales floor. “What are you talking about?”

“The diadem,” Eli replied.

She pressed her lips together in displeasure. “Oh, yeah, there’s no record of that. I went home sick and Kylie sold it. That was before she knew we record anything valued over a hundred dollars even if the customer does pay cash. I’m sorry.”

“I’m taking a break and reading while I eat my lunch. If you need me, I’ll be in the break room.”

We turned to the book, and Axel flipped through the pages. “Here’s the ring.”

Before he could continue, the pig wobbled on the shelf. I glared at it. “I’m still mad at you.”

It wobbled again, this time with a little more vigor.

“I think he has something to say,” Axel said. “Put aside your little tantrum—though I agree you were justified—and turn him back. We don’t have time to mess around.”

I sighed and reached for the pig, then set it on the floor. Axel was right, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. I pulled up my magic, did the whole swish-and-flick, and the little pink pig turned into a tall, dark, and handsome one.

I narrowed my eyes at him as he stretched and worked his jaw, wondering how mad he was going to be. Eli was at the ready, too. It probably had been foolish to do it considering Luther was an unknown quantity, but I wasn’t exactly known for thinking before I acted when my temper got the better of me.

“Relax,” Luther said, the devilish glint still in his eyes. “I’ve been turned into way worse than a little stuffed pig and left that way for much longer.”

“Huh,” Eli said, arching a brow at him. “Not that I’m surprised you’ve inspired that in people before, but I took you for a smart man. You’d think you’d learn.”

“Oh,” he said with a wink. “I learn. I’ve never been turned into something for the same reason twice. And to be fair, I do owe you an apology, Sage. I shouldn’t have eavesdropped on you, but your mind is an open book, and it’s almost as if you’re speaking aloud to me. In fact, the first few times it happened, I almost thought you had. Your thoughts are both intriguing and amusing, and I fell into a bad habit. I apologize, and it won’t happen again.”

That put me off kilter a little because even when I wasn’t actively shielding, blocking my mind was something I’d done for so long that it was second nature. In my profession and position, keeping my mind closed was a matter of survival, and I did it subconsciously. The fact that I’d seemed like an open book to him—assuming he was telling the truth—was unnerving.

“Whatever,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Stay out of my head, and we’ll get along just fine.”

“Fair enough,” he said, then turned to the book. “I think you’re right about the jealousy triggering it, which would normally be a good thing if it weren’t for the group we’re dealing with. In all the years I’ve walked this earth, I’ve never seen somebody literally die from jealousy, but I can see it happening again with that crowd. It seemed like every single one of them had something catty to say about the others, at least as long as they weren’t looking them in the eye. That diadem is still on the loose, so the clock’s ticking before another of them turn up dead.”

I shook my head, realizing he was right. “Welcome to the politics of small-Southern-town high society.”

“You’re wasting time starting with the book. Let’s look at the pictures and list first and see if we can find any of those three items.” Though I hated to admit it, he was right. That was the logical place to start.

The list was the easiest, so we started with it. Even though Allison had said nobody got her anything used, she may have missed it. She hadn’t, or at least if she had, it wasn’t any of the three items we were looking for.

“Let’s move on to the pics from the shower.” I handed my phone to Jake, who was the tech nerd in our group.

“I’ve gotten texts from at least a dozen people, and they all contain pics taken this afternoon. Surely we can find the artifact in one of them.”

He took the phone and plugged it into his laptop. “This will take a couple minutes, so do me a favor and grab me a Coke.”

There was a small kitchenette adjacent to