Page 73 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
As Seraphina looked down to finish her adjustments, Nora remembered what Adam had told her about Seraphina’s husband. He had died in the Defeat, just as she had. Adam and Nora had gotten a second chance at their love. Seraphina hadn’t.
“I hope I’m not doing all this work for you to go out and waste it all by getting killed in seconds,” Seraphina commented as she finished up. “Please tell me you have some sort of plan besides charging blindly into a trap?”
Nora chewed her lip for a second.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
Seraphina raised a brow. “Another favor? Will the wonders never cease?”
Nora ignored the dig.
“I need you to give Adam a message for me.”
* * *
Nora walkedthrough the museum after hours for the second time in three days as she mentally berated herself. A few months ago, she had felt nervous bringing Adam down to the office when it wasn’t strictly allowed. Now she had made a habit of breaking into the museum and was planning to steal from her job. Although, she could argue that this no longer counted as stealing considering she had recently found out that the spear in the museum had once belonged to her former incarnation.
She might have been afraid as she walked through the darkened hall to the arms and armaments exhibit, considering what had happened last time she was alone in this museum. But some voice in her gut told her that the Shadow would not touch her while she was here. The agent was waiting to spring his trap for her.
Not to mention that Nora was too angry to be afraid right now. The icy numbness that filled her when she first heard the fear in Odelle’s voice had gradually melted into a simmering rage that boiled through her veins. Nora had never let anybody bully Odelle about her legs on the playground as a child, and she was not about to let anybody bully her now.
The only feeling that managed to cut through the anger was a shred of guilt in the back of her mind. She tried not to envision Adam coming after her and what he might be doing, knowing her plan would never work if she thought about him like that.
Nora reached the case with the spear and slowly opened it with the key she had grabbed from the downstairs office. She had already deactivated the alarms using the system they used when they took artifacts out to clean them, so all she had to do was reach in and grab the spear from its plinth. Her hands immediately slid into the worn handholds comfortably, like walking back into her apartment after a long vacation. Nora loved having her wooden practice spear in her hands, but it was nothing compared to this. Armed with this spear, she would be a force to be reckoned with, and the agent had better be careful who he tried to catch in his snare.
