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

the workroom, and we always kept at least snacks, soda, and water there. I grabbed us all a Coke and, as an afterthought, I plucked a bag of chips off the top of the fridge. By the time I got back, his screen was full of pictures displayed as tiles. Many of them were almost identical, but they all had one thing in common—the bride-to-be was wearing a diadem.

Chapter 8

“So where did it go?” I asked. “She’s wearing it in the pics, but it wasn’t there when we got there.”

Axel flipped through the pages of the book and stopped when he came to the one that had the picture of the diadem in it. “Yep, here it is.” He ran his paw down the page, skimming. “The gist of it is that it was cursed to teach somebody not to be envious, not to kill somebody.”

That didn’t make any sense. “Then why did it kill her?”

“I can answer that,” Luther said, stepping closer to me so he could see the book, too. “A witch would have sensed the magic, recognized the diadem had been cursed, and would have taken it off, at least if she had a brain in her head. You have to remember that none of these items were ever meant to fall into the hands of humans. The curses were built specifically for the witches that drove the Romani out of town.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket.

“Who are you calling?” Eli asked.

“James,” I replied as I hit speed dial. Luther frowned, and I waved my phone at him before I hit call. “Not a word from you. You’re still on thin ice.”

James answered on the first ring. “Sage. I didn’t expect to hear from you this soon. Did you find the artifact?”

“Hey, James, you’re on speaker. Not exactly, but we did figure out what it is. The problem is that she wasn’t wearing it when we were there, and I didn’t see it anywhere around. Did any of your guys go through the room before we got there and find a diadem? Is there a chance somebody tagged it as evidence or something?”

“No,” he replied without hesitating. “I instructed them not to touch a thing. I knew what we were dealing with. Or, I guess, I didn’t know what we were dealing with, rather.”

“So that means somebody took it, and it’s still on the loose,” I said, sighing. “We need to get back in contact with those women and figure out what happened to it before it hurts anybody else. I’ll shoot you over a picture of it. For what it’s worth, we don’t think it’s supposed to kill anybody. This situation happened to be the perfect storm, but given the guest list, it’s imperative that we find it sooner rather than later.”

“Not to sound dense,” he said, and I narrowed my eyes when Luther rolled his eyes, “but what’s a diadem?”

“A headpiece,” I replied. “Think of it as an upside-down tiara.”

“Easy enough. I’ll ask around to make sure nobody logged it and I overlooked it, though I can almost guarantee you that didn’t happen. Still, I want it found and off the streets,” he said, his voice steely. “I’ll make some calls and see if I can track it down if we don’t have it. Now the ball’s back in my court and I can treat it as a theft.”

“Thanks,” I replied, then hung up.

“We can’t just sit around and wait for him to find it,” Jake said.

“Of course we can’t,” Luther said, “but we can’t just go charging back in there, either, so the best thing we can do is be sneaky about it.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” I asked, flipping through the pictures trying to see if anybody was admiring the diadem a little more than they should have been.

Eli gasped, and I turned to find a stunning brunette standing where James had just been. It only took a second to realize he’d shifted, but I had no idea why.

“About half those women came in from out of town, and they’re all staying at that glitzy hotel over in Old Town. My guess is that we’ll find them in the bar, chattering away about the murder. The ones who live here aren’t going anywhere, but if somebody from out of town stole it, it’s gone once she’s on that plane.”

“Yeah, that’s all true,” Eli said, giving him a critical look, “but tell me you’re not serious about going like that.”

“Of course, I’m serious,” Luther replied, and it made my brain hurt to reconcile the attractive brunette in front of me with the hot guy I was used to him being. I tried to use my magic to see through the glamour but sucked in a breath when I saw nothing; he wasn’t using a glamour. That was really him. Or her. Or something. I couldn’t think about what that meant because if I did, my brain would break.

“No,” Eli replied, scoffing. “I don’t mean about going as a woman to infiltrate their ranks. I mean, you can’t go dressed like that. Everything you’re wearing is last year, and those girls will spot you as a fake a mile away.”

Luther rolled his eyes, but I nodded. “He’s right. At the very least, those shoes have to go.”

I grinned at Eli. Even though we both preferred to slob around in shorts and tank tops, we each knew how to dress the part when we had to. Within just a couple finger snaps, we had him presentable. I was glad for the distraction because I wasn’t sure what to do with the realization that he really wasn’t using glamours. Eli’d addressed it earlier but seeing it was different for some reason. I’d never met a shapeshifter before, but I was beginning to believe that’s what Luther was.

“I have an even better idea,” I said once we had him ready, and I was already regretting what I was going to suggest