Free Dark Magic (Harbinger P.I. Book 3) by Adam J Wright Page A

bottles of Bud from the fridge, I put them on the coffee table and said, “Help yourself. I’ll be right back.” I took the stairs to my bedroom two at a time and found a fresh pair of blue jeans and a black Harley Davison T-shirt.
    I changed quickly and checked myself in the mirror before frowning at my own reflection. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Harbinger? This isn’t a date, it’s work.” I was right, of course. Just because Felicity had showed up looking like a million dollars in a black denim and lace package didn’t mean anything.
    Besides, she was still getting over Jason. I would never be able to live with myself if I took advantage of her recent breakup and became some sort of “rebound guy”.
    I went back downstairs as the pizza guy knocked on the door. Felicity had been going to answer it but I beat her to it, opening the door before she reached it.
    The delivery guy was a dark-haired young man in his early twenties and he wore an Al’s Pizzeria dark green cap and T-shirt. “Twenty-four-inch pepperoni pizza,” he said, handing me the large flat box he’d been holding. The smell of pepperoni and melted mozzarella drifted up through the cardboard, making my mouth water.
    I paid him and gave him a tip. He smiled and said, “Thanks. Have a great evening.” His eyes flickered to Felicity then back to me and he gave me a wink before turning and heading down the driveway to his car.
    When I turned to face Felicity, she was smiling. “Well, that was rather cheeky of him.”
    “Yeah,” I said, taking the pizza into the living room and putting it on the coffee table. I opened the box and the mouth-watering smells got even stronger, rising into the living room with the steam from the hot pizza.
    “It’s too hot to eat yet,” Felicity said.
    “We have plenty of time,” I said, pointing at the big cardboard box on the floor. “Let’s open the mystery box and see what’s inside.”
    She nodded and began picking at the edge of the packing tape with her fingernails until she had enough free to tear the tape off the top of the box.
    I opened it and looked inside. There were papers and photos in there, pinned to the bottom of the box by a large stone disc. I reached in and pulled it out, putting it on the floor because there was no more room on the coffee table.
    “What’s that?” Felicity asked.
    The stone disc was the size of a Frisbee and had a hole in its center like a faerie stone. But inserted into the hole was a piece of white crystal. The dark surface of the stone had symbols and lines painted onto it in white paint. All the lines radiated from the center circle.
    “It’s called an Apollo Stone,” I said. “Investigators use them to find out what’s happening in a particular area while they’re not around. Like a recording device.”
    She frowned. “Wouldn’t a camera be better?”
    “The Apollo Stone is different than a camera. It doesn’t need a battery because it’s charged by sunlight hitting the crystal. It doesn’t need to be pointed in any specific direction because it records the entire area around it. The range depends on the size of the stone disc. This one would have a range of maybe fifty or sixty feet. And unlike a camera, the Apollo Stone ignores mundane activity and only picks up events that are connected to magic or the supernatural.”
    Felicity nodded. “So why did Wesley Jones have this and where did it come from?”
    I shrugged, tipping out the contents of the box onto the floor. Loose papers, notebooks, and photographs slid across the carpet. Felicity got down onto the floor and examined some of the papers. “If there’s anything here that explains why Wesley had an Apollo Stone, it’ll take ages to find it.”
    “There’s an easier way,” I said, looking up the number for Dearmont Games on my phone. When I found it, I called the store.
    My call was answered immediately. “Dearmont Games, Wesley speaking, how can I help you?”
    “It’s