Okay... maybe that was wrong. Eve wanted to get rid of Eliot, but pawning him off on Cindi with an 'i' wasn't the kindest thing she'd ever done. It was obvious that the woman hoped their little excursion into the ruins would lead to something more, and Eve had no way of knowing how well Eliot would play that off. Maybe he was in a relationship. Maybe he didn't know how to flirt. Maybe she'd just stuck Cindi with the dangerous man Eve feared he was.
But no matter how much Eliot set her guard up, she couldn't believe that someone with Jake's face could be cruel. It wasn't logical, but there it was—Eve believed Eliot would keep Cindi out of the way without hurting her physically or emotionally. There was no evidence to prove that theory, but in her heart, Eve knew it was true. Cindi would be safe with Eliot.
Eve, on the other hand... she didn't think he'd appreciate being given the job of babysitting Jake's fangirl. She wasn't looking forward to that confrontation.
But she had other things to worry about. The auction would be starting any minute now, and the Librarians needed her to watch their backs. She hurried back into the welcome center and down the hall to the auction room, grateful to hear silence within. She hadn't missed it, then.
Eve jogged to the doorway and leaned inside to find Flynn, Jones, and Stone right where she'd left them. They hadn't seemed to notice her absence, which was reassuring. Hopefully they wouldn't notice Eliot's either. She didn't think Jake would appreciate the way she'd ditched his brother.
She'd make it up to him... to them both. As soon as this was over.
"Ladies and gentlemen," boomed a voice over a microphone—except there was no one in the room holding a microphone. Eve glanced down the hall and found it as empty as before, which sent a familiar magic-is-involved-again shiver down her spine.
"Please take your seats and direct your attention to the front of the room," the voice continued. "The auction will begin momentarily."
The few people still in the aisles found their chairs, and an expectant silence descended over the room. Eve wished she'd had time to scout the room itself, to search for secret exits or hiding places, but she supposed she'd have to trust in Eliot's report. He obviously had some kind of specialized training, and if he was half as competent as his brothers, there was a good chance he'd made a more thorough search than she could have.
So why did she still feel so nervous?
"We will begin with the jewelry selection," announced the disembodied voice without preamble. "First, Solomon's Seal, able to imprison demons. We will start the bidding at $500,000."
Eve tuned out the bidding and focused on searching out the source of the voice. A slight echo made it difficult to tell the speaker's gender, let alone finding a location, and Eve didn't want to enter the room and call attention to herself. Perhaps another pass down the halls, into adjacent rooms, maybe even the floor and ceiling vents...
Eve's attention was ripped back to the Librarians when Jones raised an enthusiastic paddle to bid on—what was it? The Necklace of the Lady of the Lake, apparently.
"$700,000," acknowledged the auctioneer.
"Seven..." Eve breathed, glaring at the back of Jones's head. Why wasn't Flynn keeping him in line?
"$750,000," the auctioneer said as another man raised his paddle.
Flynn promptly thrust their paddle into the air, effectively answering Eve's question. But if Flynn wasn't going to check Jones, then surely Stone would—
"$800—" the auctioneer started, then paused as Jake waved their paddle again. "$850,000."
She really should have known better than to leave the three of them alone.
The man bidding against them lifted his paddle, turning in his seat to glare at the Librarians. Before Eve could go in and take their paddle away, Jake stretched his arm across the others and pointed at their opponent. The man's face split into a grin, all animosity forgotten.
"Stone!" he said, half standing while the auctioneer announced that he had won the bid.
"Please move any discussions not related to the auction outside," the auctioneer said distastefully.
The man stood without argument and made his way to the back of the room. Stone whispered something to Flynn and got up as well, meeting the man in the middle of the aisle with a firm handshake. He muttered a greeting and led the way out of the room to where Eve was waiting in the hallway.
"You're not going to believe this coincidence," Stone said, looking half pleased and half uneasy. The unease won out when he realized she was alone. "Where's Eliot?"
"Just checking something out," Eve hedged. "Who's your friend?"
He frowned, as if sensing something more in her excuse. Darn perceptive Librarians. But the other man had joined them, and Stone had no choice but to accept her word or risk continuing the conversation in front of an audience. So he gestured to the man beside him and said, "This is David Jensen, a friend from grad school. David, this is Colonel Baird."
David gave an enthusiastic salute. "Pleased to meet you. Any friend of Stone's, etcetera."
"What are you doing here?" Jake asked him. "You collect art now?"
David shrugged. "I've always collected art, but I can't afford this kind of stuff. No, sometimes rich people hire me to scout out new acquisitions, verify they're not forgeries, that kind of thing. I got a huge commission to come here and pick out jewelry for this guy who's stuck in London and couldn't make it back to the states in time for the auction. Something about wanting something for his wife after she found out he wasn't in New York like he said he'd be."
Stone lifted his hand to cut off the rest of what would no doubt be a lengthy over-explanation. "So you went for the Necklace of the Lady of the Lake?"
"Why not?" David said. "Anyway, what are you doing here? You run your own museum now? I always figured you would."
"Uh, not a museum," Stone said. "I work for a Library. Kind of the same idea though."
David made an impressed face. "I don't know any library that can afford these items, but it makes sense you'd work for them. You have a way of finding those kinds of places."
Stone smiled, and Eve watched his expression carefully to find any hint that he was faking the reaction. But his eyes were crinkled up in the corners, and his southern drawl had become a little more pronounced. He liked this David and was genuinely pleased to see him. It made some of the tightness in Eve's chest relax. She rarely got to see her Librarians in the normal world, and while this situation could hardly be called normal, at least she was getting a glimpse of plain old grad school Jacob Stone.
"Actually," David said, reaching into his back pocket. "Maybe you can help me with something. I didn't really know what it was when I bought it, but I'm starting to wonder if I bit off more than I can chew."
And the warning bells were back. Stone shared a concerned glance with Eve before crossing his arms—he was back in Librarian mode now—and frowning at his friend. "Okay... what d'you got?"
David held out his phone so Eve and Stone could both see the picture on the screen. It looked like a wooden flute, carved with patterns that meant nothing to Eve, but Stone's intake of breath said he'd recognized them.
"Choctaw," he said. "From the 17th century, at least. Where'd you get this?"
David rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Last auction I went to. For a different patron, inquiring after different artifacts. And honestly... I'm a little worried about bringing it back."
Stone tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's... Don't laugh, alright? I know it sounds ridiculous. But I think it's... uh, haunted."
He waited, but Eve had heard much more ridiculous things than that an ancient flute picked up at an unknown auction was evil. "Why do you think that?" Stone said gently.
Encouraged by their reaction, David took a shaky breath and pocketed his phone. "I hear it humming sometimes. It's this really creepy melody, I can't explain it—you just kind of feel it turning your stomach, you know? But I can't ever remember how it goes when it stops. And then things started happening."
"What things?" Eve prompted.
He gave a half shrug. "Stuff would fall over, doors would slam or open, and I'd feel this... presence. Like I was being watched."
That was what Eliot had said about the ruins, and Eve didn't really believe in coincidences anymore. "Do you have the flute here with you?"
"It's in the trunk of my car," David said. "I was going to head to the airport from here."
Stone nodded. "Show me."
