Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) Read Online Free Page B

uncomfortable.”
    “It’s not like we can just haul it out and toss it in the back of my car.” Becca crossed her arms, mimicking Lilia’s stance. She had the strangest desire to reach out and run a finger over one of the swooping tendrils of gold. She wondered if Lilia was experiencing a similar urge.
    “We might be able to move it by magic,” Lilia said thoughtfully. “But even then we might have to touch it. The thought of one us touching it without knowing what it does gives me the creeps.”
    Becca grimaced. So she really was the only one suddenly fascinated with running her hands down the wicked-looking claws. “We just leave it here? A random piece of very powerful magic in the middle of a populated area?”
    Alex nodded. “At least until we find Nicholas. Maybe we can get more information from him about where it’s from.”
    “Yes,” Becca commented sarcastically, “I’m sure Nicholas will be very helpful.”
    “It’s the best I’ve got right now.” Alex shrugged. “Let’s check the rest of the upstairs and then we can figure out where to go from there.”
    Their search of the upstairs of the mansion didn’t yield Nicholas or his cold, lifeless body. They found a master bedroom; the bed was neatly made and didn’t look like it had been slept in recently. There were a few personal items on the mahogany dresser, including a man’s leather wallet. Becca opened it and stared down at Nicholas’s driver’s license.
    Nobody took a good picture at the DMV, except, apparently, Nicholas. Her eyes flicked over his familiar features—the black hair, the dark blue eyes, the slightly insincere smile. She scanned the information on the license, slightly disappointed to learn his middle name was Adam and not “Creep” as she kept insisting to Alex. “Well, he was here. If he left, he didn’t mean to be gone for very long.”
    “That’s really not good,” Alex said seriously. “We may need to involve the police.”
    “Everyone needs to calm down,” Lilia said. “For all we know he just drove to the grocery store and forgot his wallet and will come back any minute and want to know why we’ve broken into his house.”
    “Lilia’s right.” Becca flipped the wallet shut and tossed it back onto the dresser. “And there’s the little matter of the magic mirror in the other room. Until we know what that spell does, I’m not sure I want anyone asking questions about it or, god forbid, touching it. Nicholas may have even left when he saw me drive up. Maybe he’s skulking around out in those trees or something, waiting for us to leave.”
    Alex giggled nervously. “It’s hard for me to imagine Nicholas skulking.”
    Becca grinned. “That’s because you always had a hard time seeing past his general hotness to the smarminess underneath.”
    “In my defense, he was—I mean is —pretty hot.”
    The room next to the master bedroom was an office, complete with a large desk and tall bookshelves filled with scientific texts. Nicholas may have been kind of a jerk as an advisor, but Becca had never once doubted his ability and knowledge. Though, having seen his house, she was wondering why he’d chosen to work at GeMMLA at all. Not that Becca was interested in delving into Nicholas’s motivations. She was more interested in the laptop sitting in the middle of the desk.
    “Bingo,” she flipped it open. It was charged, still plugged into the wall even, but password protected.
    “Are you planning to hack into Nicholas’s laptop?” Alex asked.
    “Possibly. I’m definitely planning to take it with me,” Becca answered as she started sliding desk drawers open and rifling through them.
    “Seriously?”
    “Yeah. I want to know what kind of information he has about Lilia, and about you or me on this thing. Especially if we’re going to end up having to call the police and report him missing. I don’t want anyone looking into Lilia’s past too closely.”
    “You do not think my documents will