Page 309 of The Defiant Curse

“I just spoke to Catherine. She hasn’t told anyone about the necklace.”

Sarah laughed.

Honestly, she wasn’t shocked the woman was verifying. The spirits told her all about this woman and how she was important.

And dangerous.

All around her, she felt death, like she wore it like a cloak. It clung to her, and not only because she fought it.

She reaped it.

“Ceit’s heart, the necklace, never belonged to Duncan or her father. It was a family heirloom for the Connaught. As a promise that he’d find her and marry her when he got back from battle. That’s why he gave it to her. Ceit was seventeen, and he was twenty-seven.”

Well, that wasn’t something anyone should be proud of, but back then, things were different.

Clearly.

“So, the child was Cathal’s?”

She nodded.

“Ceit is saying there is proof.”

Oh, well, Elizabeth was hell on proof. That made her world go around. Granted, this woman was damn accurate.

And scary.

“Where is it?”

Before she could say a word, they heard a horrible crash. Everyone jumped and looked around to see what it was. It sounded like it was right next to them.

“Oh, Jesus,” Graham stated. “Why did that sound like something just fell?”

Because it likely had.

Getting up, they headed down the hall, and toward where the dust was flowing out into the hall.

The ballroom.

“Oh, boy,” Michael said, waving the dust away.

When they went in, there was a mess.

The whole façade of the fireplace had fallen off and was lying across the floor in a pile of destroyed stone.

“Well, shit. That had just been inspected and found to be fine,” Graham admitted.

Clearly, whoever passed it hadn’t seen this coming.

The two gargoyles that had been on the fireplace had fallen off, taking all the stone with them.

The floor was toasted, and the stone…yeah, that was going to have to be repaired.

AGAIN.

Moving forward, Sarah pointed.

“In the one statuette,” she said. “Look inside. Ceit hid it there.”