to confiscate this.”
“But it’s mine!”
“You’ll get it back,” he said. “Once I’ve cleared it with the Department of Antiquities. People are constantly smuggling treasures from our ancient sites, selling them on the black market.” He set the box down. My gaze remained pinned to it as I searched my brain for a solution.
Pulling a pad and pen from his uniform pocket, he handed them to me. “Write down the address of the place where you are going in the U.S. I will see to it that this is shipped to you once it has been cleared.”
I obediently jotted the address, and then a symbol, one my grandmother had taught me, because I wasn’t entirely powerless. It was a minor hex of sorts—for along with the history of the witches, a few of their skills had been handed down through the generations of my family. It was part of our legacy, and my grandmother had taught me all the bits and pieces of magic that had come down to her with the tales. So I drew the sign that would ensure he would know no peace until he returned the box to my hands.
I eyed the box, and while my head was down, muttered in a whisper, “I bind you now, oh box, to me, by the power of three times three, return return return to me.”
“What was that?”
“I was praying,” I said, straightening and handing him the paper. “That you would take mercy on an innocent orphan girl and not steal from her the last thing her dead grandmother gave to her.”
His eyes held mine for a long moment.
“I promise you will regret it if you don’t,” I added, letting my fury show in my face.
His marble eyes narrowed angrily. “It will be shipped to you when it clears the Department of Antiquities. Now go, before you miss your flight.”
I kept on staring. He thrust out an arm. “Go!” he shouted.
I knew I would be arrested if I stayed, so I went, feeling I had failed my grandmother utterly.
I didn’t see the box again for ten years.
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