“Hi, sweetie, how are you?”
Cassie jumped at the soft pressure of a hand on her shoulder. Rhonda had walked up behind her while she’d been busy with her internal monologue.
“Hey Rhonda,” she replied shakily, rising to hug the plump older woman. She didn’t know why but every time she saw that concerned maternal look in Rhonda’s eyes, it made her want to cry. It would have been such a relief to pour out all her cares to a sympathetic ear, but she couldn’t allow herself to do that. Instead, she blinked back a few tears and resettled herself in her chair.
A brisk waiter arrived to fill their water glasses. They sat patiently while he regaled them with the day’s specials. Once he had retreated back inside, they took a long look at one another.
“So?” Rhonda began tentatively.
“So?” Cassie echoed warily.
“So, how are you?” her friend added. “I haven’t seen you since that one time you stopped by the shop, and it’s been nearly two months. What have you been doing with yourself?”
There it was. Out in the open. How could she answer that very innocent and entirely awkward question? Cassie’s mind flashed back to the night her sister died. How she had wakened from a nightmare that showed her every detail of the crime as it was being committed.
“What have I been doing?” She repeated the question to buy time. “Oh, I found a few things to keep me busy.” Busy didn’t begin to describe it. Cassie had discovered her sister was part of a secret organization called the Arkana and that its mission was to collect ancient artifacts that revealed human history to be radically different than the version being taught in schools.
“Care to elaborate?” Rhonda urged.
Cassie shrugged. “Nothing earth-shattering.” That’s a lie, she thought to herself. Her sister Sybil had stumbled across an artifact which a fundamentalist cult known as the Blessed Nephilim killed her to get. If that wasn’t enough, Cassie discovered she, herself, could touch a relic and instantly receive visions about the object’s past. Her sister had possessed the same gift, and Cassie had been persuaded to step into Sybil’s role as the Arkana’s seer—their “pythia.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to avoid giving me a straight answer,” the older woman teased.
Cassie smiled nervously. “That would be silly,” she demurred. “What have I got to hide?” What have I got to hide, she asked herself. Absolutely everything! For starters, there was the trip to Crete. Together with two other agents, she’d been sent to retrieve a vital artifact, and they were all nearly killed by a Nephilim and his henchman. Now she and her team were on the brink of finding another relic somewhere in Turkey which the Nephilim coveted too. It was quite a lot for your average co-ed to juggle between classes.
Rhonda was giving her a quizzical look.
Cassie rolled her eyes, trying to breeze through the interrogation. “OK, mom. If you need the details, I got to know some of Sybil’s friends in the antique trade, that’s all.”
“Really? I’m glad,” Rhonda commented encouragingly.
The waiter returned to take their order. Cassie’s digestive system was churning so violently that all she wanted was a bowl of soup and iced tea.
“I know Sybil was active in the antiquities market, but she was always very close-mouthed about who she worked with.” Rhonda stirred cream into her coffee. “Are they nice people?”
Cassie mentally reviewed the staff that ran the Arkana. Faye: a mild-mannered granny by day, the head of an international secret organization by night. Griffin: the mentally hyperactive wunderkind who managed the global catalog. Maddie: the frizzy-haired chain-smoking Amazon who controlled worldwide operations. And Erik: the annoyingly handsome smart ass who arranged security for the team when they were in the field.
The pythia paused and stirred a packet of sugar into her tea before replying. “Yes, they’re very nice,” she answered noncommittally.
Rhonda reached into her purse, drew out an envelope and handed it to Cassie.
“What’s this?”
“Your share of last month’s profits from the store.”
“Oh, right.” Cassie had forgotten that since her sister’s death she was now Rhonda’s business partner in the antique shop she co-owned with Sybil.
“Last time we spoke, you mentioned that you wanted me to buy back your interest in the store.” Rhonda hesitated. “Do you still want that?”
Relieved to be away from touchy topics, the pythia answered decisively. “Actually, I don’t. I mean, if you don’t mind, that is. Sybil wasn’t an active partner anyway. She just put up the front money, didn’t she?”
Rhonda nodded. “Yes. I ran the store, and we divided the profits.”
Cassie shrugged. “Why mess up a good thing, right?”
The older woman seemed relieved. “Honestly, I’d prefer it that way. It would take years for me to buy you out.”
The pythia sipped her iced tea, her stomach calming down a bit. “No worries, then. We’ll just keep it like it is.” She opened the envelope to take a peek at the size of the check. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Wow. You must have had a good month!”
Rhonda smiled. “Not especially. That’s about average.”
Cassie couldn’t see a downside to collecting a tidy sum every month for doing nothing, especially now that she had become so deeply involved with the Arkana that the idea of a job was out of the question.
“I expect you’ll be going back to school in the fall,” Rhonda hinted gently.
Cassie knew that the older woman was worried about her lack of academic interest. “I’ll be going back at some point,” she hedged. Given her intense involvement with the relic hunt, college wasn’t an option for the foreseeable future.
“Then what will you do in the meantime?” Her friend sounded mystified.
“I… uh…well, those people I told you about. Sybil’s friends in the trade. They asked me to help them with something.” It was the closest she dared come to the truth.
“Asked you?” Rhonda frowned in
