back to the nuclear reactor metaphor?”
“Maybe. Probably.” I jerk my hand higher, dragging it through my hair. “She’s a student, for God’s sake. And she’s part of that strange family…”
“Strange.” For reasons I can’t fathom, his retort is bitter. “And you think that…why?”
“We’re still talking about the Valaris, right?” I counter.
“They’re taking advantage of some lucrative business opportunities. What’s so strange about that? Building the brand while they can. Young and trendy has a shelf life. If they’re smart and savvy enough to be conscious of that and are riding the comet before it sheds all its crystals, more power to them.”
As he gets his astronomy geek on, I reach into the side pocket of my carrier bag and pull out Kara’s earring. As soon as the thing catches the light and sparkles against my palm, Jesse abandons his Valari Clan public service announcement.
“What…is…”
“You were saying?” I drawl. “About young and trendy?”
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s Kara’s. But before you get the wrong idea, she lost it in my classroom. I tried chasing her down to return it, but she’d already disappeared.”
“Why didn’t you just take it to campus security?”
I asked the same thing of myself while standing in the middle of that empty hallway, wondering how she’d managed to vanish so quickly. I’m going to sound crazy, and maybe I need to be told that without sugarcoating.
“Something about it”—everything about it—“spoke to me somehow.” Holy shit, I do sound like a moron. But there’s no turning back now. “It’s not exactly something she picked up on Rodeo Drive or snagged from the VIP suite at an awards show.”
A full breath expels from me as I run the pad of my thumb over the sharp metal molding of the wolf. Holding on to the piece wasn’t a conscious choice, and neither are the words that emerge next. “And for a family that radiates young and trendy, why does this feel like it was made a century ago?”
“More than one,” Jesse murmurs. “Definitely,” he adds once he’s holding the earring up. “This thing must weigh as much as she does.”
I force my thoughts away from Kara’s enticing little figure as he rambles on.
“The clasp is probably solid gold, but the hinge is loose. Probably why it slipped off,” Jesse says. The rubies and diamonds glint in the light as he holds it up and twists it from side to side. “This design…it’s…wow.”
“Right?” I say no more. I don’t have to. This isn’t something to be dropped off with a rent-a-cop at the security desk. There’s more than just physical weight and ageless bling in the thing. There’s history. Stories. Meaning. They’re tangible in just the feel of the gold and gems together.
After scrutinizing the piece for the better part of a minute, Jesse finally murmurs, “Cerberus.”
“Stick to star trivia, North. Cerberus is a hound with three heads, not one.”
“Also used to not be a hound at all,” he shoots back.
I push my laptop to the side and lean forward. “Says who?” It’s not a throwdown. It’s a legitimate information request. I can tell Jesse’s switched into Professor North mode, and I’m grateful for it.
“Guy named Hevelius,” he supplies. “Seventeenth-century astronomer. Seven out of the ten constellations he identified are still acknowledged today. Of the three that aren’t, one was known as Cerberus—a three-headed snake that was held by Hercules. The gems in this earring are arranged in that constellation’s pattern.”
Why that revelation has my pulse revving, I have no idea.
“How do you know all that? Last time I checked”—and I know this from Jesse himself—“astronomy isn’t astrology.”
“The constellations straddle both,” he explains. “Which means I also have a passing knowledge of Latin, though that lettering on the earring would take the eyesight of a hawk.”
“Ex ignes,” I supply from memory, as I’ve already spent far too much time inspecting it. “That’s the top part. The bottom says victoria.”
“From the fires, victory,” he translates. “Probably a family motto borrowed from their heraldry.” He hands the earring back to me. “I’ll admit, it’s all a little strange, but not in the worst ways. After looking at this and having graded my first pop-quiz essay from Miss Kell Valari, this family has really begun to fascinate me.”
I halt, the earring halfway back to my satchel. “It was that bad?”
“It was that good.” He leans back and steeples his fingers. “I’ve been crazy about space since we were kids, but the girl talks about the Milky Way like she’s already flown across it.” He laughs