Page 75 of Dragon Tempted

Eric set the scroll down. “Well, that proves it.”

John stiffened when Megan flipped open the lid of the larger box. There was something about the bowl that made his blood run cold. He wasn’t sure why. But it felt like it was alive in a cold, slithering way.

“Are you okay?” Sienna asked.

He hadn’t realized she moved close to him. “Yes,” he lied. “Megan, what do you think this bowl was used for?”

Megan lifted it out of the box and held it up to the light, which made John clench his hands into fists. “It looks like the metal is pewter, which was used for hundreds of years for dining. It lost popularity in the later part of the 1800s when porcelain became available. I don’t have the expertise to determine the age of this bowl, but the sentry symbol makes me think that this might have been used for rituals. We know that besides this representing dragon sentries, it was also a symbol that was used by witches during John’s time or earlier.”

Megan set the bowl on the table and beckoned John closer. “What do you think?”

He didn’t want anything to do with the bowl, but he couldn’t afford to turn his back on another clue that might put a stop to the curse. He stepped closer and reached out his hand to touch the side, and the damn bowl shimmied over the table toward him. He jerked his hand back.

“What the hell?” Tessa blurted. “Try to touch it again.”

John’s heart attempted to escape through his throat as he slowly reached for the bowl. It wobbled again, and even though his stomach turned at the thought of touching it, he grasped the side.

Lights blinded him like a camera flash. When he could finally see again, he found himself in a small room sitting at a rough table with the bowl in the center of it. His grandmother walked into the room with something shiny in her hand. John tried to get away, but heavy hands on his shoulders held him down. Why was she doing this?

“John!”

He blinked and came back to himself. Sienna stood in front of him, the bowl in her hands now. She handed it to Megan and then turned back to him, grabbing his hands. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” he mumbled, his voice rough as he took in the worried faces of the people surrounding him.

“What happened?” Adam asked.

“I was back in my grandmother’s house. That bowl was sitting on her table.”

Megan set the bowl down carefully in the blue velvet divot in the box. “This bowl belonged to your grandmother?”

He nodded and swallowed hard. “Yes. I think it was the bowl she used for the curse.”

“Holy shit,” Tessa blurted.

His thoughts exactly. Sienna squeezed his hands, and he didn’t want to let her go. Her brothers were both watching the scene play out and, by the glares on their faces, didn’t like what they saw. John wasn’t intimidated by them, but he couldn’t afford to let Sienna get under his skin. He took a small step back, and her hands dropped away. He felt the loss immediately and didn’t like the flash of pain in Sienna’s eyes.

Sienna cleared her throat. “This is more than a coincidence. Mom leaving us this bowl has to be part of breaking the curse, don’t you think?”

“But how did she get it?” Ryan asked.

Megan reached for the box and began to study it. “There is a small stamp burned into the wood on the inside. It says Hx3.”

“What do you think that means?” Sienna asked.

Megan set the box down. “A lot of antiquities dealers will have some sort of mark or label that they use on boxes and other containers they place the antiques in. This bowl must have come from them. I don’t recognize the mark as one that I worked with at the museum.”

“We can have Jonas do some research,” Marcus said.

Sienna nodded. “This makes me think more than ever that the people following us—Templars or witches—were after what we found in the vault. It’s too much of a coincidence that all the times Ryan and I have left the clan house, we weren’t followed until today.”

Eric crossed his arms. “Are you forgetting Mia?”

“Nope. But this seems too messy for her. She thinks if she plays her cards right, we’ll continue to provide her info. She already knows that I’m going to tell her about the second book the next time we meet.”

“You seriously want to meet with her again?” Adam asked.

Sienna’s expression told John she was more than serious. Which made his stomach hurt.