Greek Gods Bearing Gifts (Click for the back cover copy and Buy links!)

Before Hannah could breeze on to the next part of the tour, the old familiar scratchy intuition telling Liberty to seek and find unfolded in the center of her chest. She slowly walked one aisle, vaguely aware of Frank saying, “No sense in trying to stop her now. She’s in the zone.” The jumbled aisle of laptops, small appliances, and school band instrument cases was a black blur. Bright lights above stung her eyes. The cold chill down her back slowly warmed with each step. Ignoring the pull in the past had meant headaches and sore muscles. Giving in was easiest.

At the end of the aisle, she paused in front of an old bank vault door.

When she touched the door, nothing happened. Normally she could feel…something…when she located whatever it was that drew her. Had being separated from the real world, locked away in a small spot filled with the bare minimum, erased her skill? Liberty couldn’t decide whether that would be good or bad news. She wouldn’t be who she thought she was anymore, but normal would be worth learning to live with the change. “The pawnshop has a vault?”

“Well, not really.” Hannah’s smug tone was replaced with an insider’s excitement.

Instead of slick polished metal of today’s high-tech vaults, this one was bronze and covered in artistic icons: trees, flowers, woodland creatures. It was beautiful, clearly one of a kind.

Hannah pressed her thumb against an intricately engraved rose, then stepped back. “I guess you’re ready. Whatever you do, don’t touch the spindle wheel. The alarms you would not believe.”

Instead of opening out, the door swung soundlessly in. Liberty took two steps forward to see another immense bright white room lit by fluorescent lights and filled with more shelves.

“Here we’ve got one big safe filled with special pieces. There’s another computer system for these.” Hannah tapped a beat-up laptop perched on a stone table. “Before you start exploring back here… Well, I should come with you the first two or three times, until you’re comfortable. Some of these items can be unpredictable.” Hannah smiled encouragingly before she shifted Liberty back and closed the door. Immediately, the ache building behind Liberty’s eyes and faint nausea faded. She wiped clammy hands on her rough jeans.

Living with this every day would be a misery. And so dangerous. Anything the gods wanted to keep hidden had to mean danger.

“What have you gotten us into now? Why don’t you seem amazed by this magic vault and hidden room with ‘unpredictable’ items, Frank?” Fear and anger made her heartbeat loud in her ears. Their whole lives, their father had warned them to keep away from the gods. Hide from the gods. Hide from police. Stick together.

All she wanted was normal.

This was a whole collection of crooked waiting to happen.