Dangerous Designs Page 4

  ***

  This was an easy job?

  A simple job, Paxton had said to him and his father. "Go find the girl. Become friends with her, and if she has the stylus - retrieve it. Preferably, without her knowing. You're close to her age, so it should be easy to gain her confidence. The important thing is to bring the stylus home. Before the girl causes irreparable harm through her ignorance."

  Eric Jordan had jumped at the opportunity, not giving his father, the Councilman, a chance to argue. Not that he would have. Eric had studied all he could, become the best Ranger he could be. In all that time, he'd never been allowed to cross the veil that separated the two worlds. This was a great first assignment. How hard could it be?

  Harder than he’d thought. Storey was also turning out to be an interesting female. He'd been watching her for a couple of days now. He got along well with girls. Friendly, caring, comfortable to talk to, what wasn't there to like? And if that were all true, why was this one so prickly? However, she was an otherworlder. Could that account for the difference?

  And he suspected she did have the lost stylus, making Paxton's, his mentor, guess correct. If her drawings were anything to go by, the stylus had started bonding already. Not good. The stylus had been lost when a scientist had fallen ill on a rare research trip across the veil that divided the two dimensions. Soulbound items were special in his world. Important, coveted, and passed from one person to another only through death. They were also incredibly powerful.

  He watched as Storey bolted from the classroom as if demons were chasing her. Had that been fear tightening her fine-boned features as she'd looked at her artwork?

  Why? She'd created it.

  Or had she?