Surprised, I fidgeted, my fingers sliding off my dad's arm. Man… this was creepy. It was like the entire world had stopped, but I was a walking dead, so I guess my dad being frozen was a small thing. «See what?»
«The stone,» Ron said, and the hint of anxiety in his voice struck me like fire.
He wanted it. He wanted it, and it was the only thing keeping me alive. Or not quite dead. «I don't think so,» I said, sure of its value when Ron's expression became alarmed as my hand crept up to feel the stone's cool surface.
«Madison,» he soothed, standing. «I simply want to look at it.»
«You want it!» I exclaimed, heart pounding. «It's the only thing keeping me solid. I don't want to die. You guys messed up. I'm not supposed to be dead! It's your fault!»
«Yes, but you are dead,» Ron said, and my breath hissed in when he extended his hand. «Just let me look at it.»
«I'm not giving it up!» I shouted, and Ron's eyes lit in fear.
«Madison, no! Don't say it!» he shouted, reaching.
I stumbled back out of my dad's questionable protection, clutching it. «It's mine!» I shrieked, my back hitting the wall.
Ron lurched to a halt, dismay clear on his old features as his arm dropped. The world seemed to balance. «Oh, Madison,» he breathed. «You really shouldn't have.»
Not knowing why he had stopped, I stared at him, then stiffened when a shiver moved through me. A cramping-ice feeling rose from my palm and the amulet, and it raced through my entire body, making me stiffen. It was like an electrical shock. I heard my pulse echo in me, the thump coming back from the inside of my skin before it filled the space and made me feel almost… whole. An instant later, it backlashed with a feeling of heat to balance out the cold, and then… it was done.
My breath slammed out of me, and I stood, frozen with my back to the wall. Heart pounding, I stared at Ron. He had a miserable look, quiet and depressed in his robes. I was afraid to move. But the amulet in my hand felt different. Little sparkles of sensation still shot from it, and unable to stop myself, I opened my fingers to look. My jaw dropped, and I stared. It wasn't the same. «Look!» I said stupidly. «It changed.»
His back bowed, Ron slumped into the chair, muttering under his breath. Shocked, I dropped the pendant to hold it by the cord. When I had ripped it from the black reaper, it had been a simple, gray, river-washed stone. Now it was utterly black, like a spot of nothing dangling from the cord. The black wire cradling it had taken on a silver sheen, catching the light and throwing it around the room. Crap. Maybe I had broken it. But it was beautiful. How could it be broken?
«That's not what it looked like when I got it,» I said, then went cold at the look of pity Ron now wore. Behind him, Barnabas looked almost terrified, his face white and his eyes wide.
«You got that right,» Ron said bitterly. «We had a hope of ending this properly until you claimed it. But no-o-o, now it's yours.» His eyes met mine in wry disgust. «Congratulations.»
Slowly my hand dropped, and I shifted nervously. It was mine. He said it was mine.
«But it was a black reaper's stone,» Barnabas said, and I started at the fear in his voice. «That thing wasn't a reaper, but it had a reaper's stone. She's a black reaper!»
My lips parted. «Whoa, wait up.»
«She's a black reaper!» Barnabas shouted, and my jaw dropped when he shook his shirt and brought out a short hand scythe, twin to Seth's. Jumping, he got between me and Ron.
«Barnabas!» Ron bellowed, cuffing him to send him stumbling back to the door. «She's not a black reaper, you idiot! She's not even a white one. She can't be. She's human, even if she is dead. Put that away before I age it to rust!»
«But it's a black reaper's stone,» he stuttered, his narrow shoulders hunched. «I saw her take it!»
«And whose fault is it that she knew what it was, Barney?» he mocked, and the young man dropped back, ducking his head, clearly embarrassed.
My heart pounded as I stood in the corner, holding the pendant so tight my fingers hurt. Ron glanced disparagingly between us. «That isn't a black reaper's stone any more than a black reaper would be strong enough to leave corporal evidence of its existence behind, or…» he continued, raising a hand to keep Barnabas from interrupting, «have a reason to come back for the soul of someone they culled. She's got something more powerful than a reaper stone, and they'll be back for it. You can count on it.»