Chapter 41

While Anna and Rawlings discussed what they could and could not do, I wrested myself loose from Lisa and moved around the island to stand by Mom. Lisa refused to let me get too far away and followed me. I leaned toward mom and quietly asked, “Are you wearing any jewelry?”

She blinked at me. “Yes, but this isn’t the time...”

I shook my head. “What are you wearing?” I wasn’t trying to be coy. Instead, I gave her my most sincere and serious face.

She studied my expression and then said, “It’s a locket. Your dad gave it to me years ago.” She tugged at the chain, which pulled the locket up from between her breasts, and held the locket in the palm of her hand. It continued to glow the same as the key.

“Rho!” I thought.

Rho appeared again. This time she wore a dress made of see-through lace, similar to the one Olive wore. Only this dress dipped down at the top and stopped at the tops of her thighs like a micro-mini skirt. She wore a black bra and panties under the dress. Otherwise, the dress would expose all of her goodies. Black lace stockings covered her legs and elevated spiked heels adorned her feet. “Yes, Master?” she asked.

“How do I confirm whether this locket is the one I’m looking for?” I thought at her.

“Pretty locket,” Lisa said, leaning into me to see it better. At the same time, she reached behind me and grabbed my butt cheek.

Rho instantly knew what Lisa was doing. She smiled at the blonde and then said, “Hold the tip of the key to the back of the locket. If the two of them stick to each other, like opposing poles of magnets, then it is the correct locket.”

Lisa straightened up, rubbing her breast along my arm. I could feel her nipple at my elbow.

I looked at Rho and thought, “We need to conference, like we did earlier.”

She pouted at me and then snapped her fingers. Everyone froze in place. Lisa froze with her hand halfway down the back of my pants. Rho walked around us to stand behind me. “She seems determined to get into your pants one way or another, even with her mother here.”

“We need to talk,” I thought. “It’s about the locket.”

“Why?” she asked, appearing on the other side of Lisa. She looked the girl over. “My, oh my! She certainly has everything you like.”

“Leave her alone,” I thought. “I need to know why the locket and key didn’t lock together previously, when I had sex with Kelly.”

Rho looked up at me and then over at Mom. “The locket and key are not actual magnets,” she said. “You have to consciously perform this test.”

I groaned in frustration. “Okay, but why didn’t I even notice that she was wearing the locket? I mean, she literally fed me her breasts.”

Rho smiled. “Is that what gets you off?” Then her breasts began to swell. “Milk?”

“Dammit, Rho! This isn’t the time.”

She rolled her eyes and waved a hand, but her breasts remained the same size. “Because the defenses of the locket prevent casual notice while it’s being worn.”

“You mean while it’s being worn by a magus?”

“The key works with a magus only. The locket will work with anyone.”

“Then explain to me, exactly, what the defenses of the locket are.”

“Well, as we’ve discussed previously, the locket cannot be summon or located by magic. You have to find it consciously and mundanely. The locket can also make the wearer forget he or she is wearing it, which would be why she never told you about it. Also, to help keep the defenses powered, the locket will influence the wearer to engage in sex, upping the wearer’s sexual cravings if necessary.”

“I never told her that I was looking for the locket,” I thought.

“That was your mistake,” she said.

Then I thought about the last feature. “Kelly may not be as sexually active without the locket?”

“Maybe,” Rho said and looked mom over again. “I don’t believe that would be the case with her.”

“Why?” I asked in thought.

“There is another spell on her. It’s tied to a collar.” She glanced at the cabinets above the sink, toward the playroom. “I believe you already know what I’m referring to.”

“I do,” I thought. “What else?”

She looked at me again. “The locket also has a number of locks on it. It is a magical container, after all, and is designed to hide whatever has been locked inside. Hence all of the defenses.”

“So, why are the locket and key glowing now, as opposed to when I first arrived?”

“You have unlocked the magical locks.”

“Unlocked? How?”

“The six magical locks each require specific stipulations to be unlocked. Currently, the settings are three by sex and three by spell. To unlock the first lock, you must have sex with someone who considers you her ally. To unlock the second lock, you must have sex with someone who considers you neutral. To unlock the third lock, you must have sex with someone who considers you her enemy.”

I thought about those three. Alyssa and Mom both would consider me an ally. I could easily see Sheila seeing me as an enemy, since she was willing to blackmail me into having sex with her. Yet there was only one other person I had sex with, Olive. Did she really consider me neutral?

Rho continued. “To unlock the fourth lock, you must cast a spell to assist someone who considers you an ally. To unlock the fifth lock, you must cast a spell to help someone who considers you neutral to perceive the truth. And to unlock the sixth lock, you must cast a spell to hinder someone who considers you an enemy.”

I removed the geas on Sergeant Rawlings, and he seemed to be on my side most of the time. I removed the manipulation spells and the keys influence from Mrs. Hartwell. It helped her understand that I wasn’t a threat to her daughter. In addition, I cast several minor spells to hinder the deputies and the Sheriff. However, the key didn’t start glowing until Anna tried to talk the Sergeant into arresting me. Was it was the protective spell I put on the Sergeant? It certainly hindered Anna’s efforts. That was when the glow kicked in.

I looked at Rho. “Okay, so the six locks are unlocked. What now?”

“Well, it’s obvious that your mother is wearing the locket, though I never knew the locket would glow like that. It defeats the purpose of the defensive spells.”

“The defensive spells were meant to keep the locket from being found, especially by magical means. The key wouldn’t work unless it’s worn by a Magus. Putting those two elements together means whomever is wearing the key won’t necessarily find the locket. If a Banal is wearing the key, then he or she would never be able to unlock the locket.”

“True.”

“So, the only way for a magus to find the locket was to unlock it, which I’ve done.”

“Not entirely,” Rho said. “There is one last lock on the locket. It can only be unlocked with the key and anyone can do that.”

“I would ask how, but then I don’t really want to know.”

“Master, if you’ll allow me to say so, you have a habit of doing things you don’t already know how to do. Maybe this time, by knowing how to do this, you’ll be able to avoid doing it?”

I sighed and nodded. “Good point. How do I unlock the locket with the key?”

“After the six magical locks are opened, you must use the key to physically open the locket. Do so by touching the key to the locket, turning the key in one full circle clockwise, one full circle counter-clockwise, and one full circle clockwise again. Any other combination will restore all locks.”

“So, I could reset the whole thing by using a wrong combination with the key, on purpose.”

“Yes.”

I nodded and said, “One more question: do you know what is in the locket?”

“No.”

I frowned. “Hayden said the locket was of paramount importance. Why don’t you know what’s in it?”

“I don’t know. Whatever is in the locket may have been placed there either before it was acquired by your family or by someone while I was dormant.”

I wanted to pace the room, but couldn’t move due to the way this conference spell was designed. “Okay, I have the locket and the key. I know how to unlock the locket, but because I don’t know what’s in the locket, I should leave it alone. Really and truly, the best thing for me to do would be to fly back to Texas and hide the each of them in two different locations.”

“If you did that, someone else could eventually find them, bring them together, and unlock the locket.”

I nodded. “Okay, I could reset the locket, leave it with mom, and take the key back to the manor to put back in the vault. I would be the only person who knows the location of the key. It has been safely hidden for almost eighteen years now.”

“Yet Hayden insisted that you hide the locket once you found it.”

“Until it started glowing, I didn’t know where it was!”

Rho looked at my mother. “Good point. That’s not to say another more intelligent Magus couldn’t find the locket.”

“Hayden never said anyone was after the locket. She only wanted me to hide it.”

“Why would she want you to hide it, especially if the safest place would be in the vault?”

That question stopped me. Why wasn’t the vault good enough to hide the locket in?

Rho ended the spell and mom reached for me. “Seth, are you okay?”

I nodded and almost jumped when I felt Lisa’s bare hand on my bare butt. “Yeah!” I squealed. “I was just thinking too hard.”

Rawlings, Anna, and the Sheriff were all arguing. Alyssa whistled to get their attention. They turned to us with different expressions. Rawlings looked flustered, Anna looked upset, and the Sheriff looked ready to burst with anger.