“He did.” Danika’s gaze bounced between Zayne and I. “Black tourmaline, hematite and black onyx.”
“Huh?” I murmured.
“Gemstones.” Zayne’s hands slid off my shoulders. “You’re talking about gemstones?”
“Yeah. I know, sounds like some hocus-pocus crap,” Dez said, looking at me. “But we know hocus-pocus crap is some legit stuff, don’t we?”
Yeah.
Yeah, we did.
Nicolai nudged Danika. “Tell them the rest.”
“Those gemstones can block energy—all kinds—and Gideon theorizes that enough of it could very well disrupt the energy of the ley lines,” she explained. “Not only allowing us to possibly destroy it without blowing up the nation’s capital, but if not, definitely rendering the portal useless to the Harbinger.”
23
“That’s huge,” I whispered, placing my hands on the cool granite. “Like really freaking huge.”
Danika’s smile was big enough for me to see as she lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know if it’s huge or not since it doesn’t completely eradicate the whole Gabriel issue, but it could at least prevent him from carrying through with his plans.”
“Being able to shut down his plans is huge,” I told her, nodding empathetically just in case she needed the extra reinforcement. “You’re brilliant.”
“That’s what I tell her.” Warmth filled Nicolai’s voice. “At least twice a day, and three times on Wednesdays.”
I thought Danika might’ve blushed. “You need to make that four times on Wednesdays.”
“That I can do,” Nicolai murmured.
Energy buzzed through my veins, mingling with my grace. I slid from the stool and started pacing. “How much of it would we need? Those gemstones?” I asked, already forgetting two of the names. “Onyx and what were the other two?”
“Black tourmaline and hematite,” Zayne answered, because of course he remembered.
“A lot.” Danika twisted at the waist. “Like either several tons of tiny pieces or a really large chunk of the stuff.”
Several tons? I folded an arm across my stomach.
“Where would we even find it?” Zayne asked.
“I doubt the answer is going to be Amazon,” I muttered.
“Not if we want to make sure we have the real deal,” Dez answered with a grin. “Black tourmaline is mined in Brazil and some other places in the world, but most of it comes out of Africa. And no, I didn’t know that until yesterday.”
“Africa?” I stopped for a second. “Brazil? How are we supposed to get our hands on that?”
“I’ve reached out to a few of the clans in those regions to see what they can get their hands on and how long it would take to get it to us,” Nicolai said.
“How would they get several tons or a large chunk to us?” I started pacing again. “I doubt that would be something you can put on a plane.”
“I imagine they’d ship it.” Zayne looked over at Nicolai. “Right?” When the clan leader nodded, Zayne sent me a quick grin.
I rolled my eyes. “What about the others? The onyx and...” Crap, I forgot the other one again.
“Hematite.” Zayne reached out, snagging my arm. He pulled my hand and therefore my poor thumbnail away from my mouth.
“Better news on that front. Hematite can be found in the States. Yellowstone, to be exact,” Danika leaned against the island. “We should be able to get our hands on that and black onyx since it can also be found in various states. How much is available is what’s up in the air. Hopefully we hear something shortly.”
“Gideon has been on the phone with anyone and everyone who has access to any of the gemstones in the States while we wait to hear back about the tourmaline,” Nicolai said. “That’s what he’s doing now. The phone is practically attached to his ear.”
“Do you think we can get enough?” Keeping my hand away from my mouth, I got back to wearing a path in the floor.
“Gideon thinks it’s possible.” Dez tipped his head back against the wall. “The question is going to be, can we get what we need in the time we need it.”
“The Transfiguration is in a few weeks. The sixth.” I started to chew on my thumbnail again, but stopped. “A Friday.”
“What’s today’s date?” Zayne asked.
“The twentieth,” Danika answered.
Zayne frowned as his gaze returned to me. “So, we have a little over two weeks. Your idea of a few weeks differs from mine.”
“A few is at least two,” I reasoned. “We have at least two weeks and some change.”
“And that’s going to be cutting it close.” Nicolai crossed his arms. “Doable. But down to the wire kind of doable.”
Doable was better than LOL, yeah, right.
“If we are able to get enough of these gemstones in time, what do we need to do with them?”
“That’s the simple part,” Danika told us. “Since the portal is smack-dab in the middle of the hub of ley lines, we just need to place them around the portal, cutting over the lines.”
“The simple part?” I stopped, facing her. “I’m assuming you mean around the portal and not just the school?”