Relic Read Online Free PDF

lonely for a hard-working miner, and to have a pretty girl like you there to—”
    “How dare you speak to me about such things!” I said. As hot blood rushed to my face, I was reminded just how alone I was in the world. That a man like this could approach me with an offer so degrading. Did I appear as desperate and forsaken as I felt inside? How many more lowlifes would close in to try and scavenge what little dignity I had left?
    “Now now,” Mr. Connelly said, his expression hardening. “Don’t get all high and mighty. I’m offering you work. Didn’t you say you needed it?”
    My back was to the counter. He was so close, I could smell his bad cologne. Humiliation and despair blended with cold rage inside me.
    “Get away!” I cried. “Now!”
    Mr. Connelly’s upper lip curled. “Let me tell you something, missy. This is the only job you’re going to get in this dying town. And believe me when I say that there are plenty of girls who would welcome the opportunity. But go ahead, turn me down. You’ll end up like them, sellin’ your body in the shadows of the train depot, makin’ one-tenth of what you’d earn at The Desert Ro—”
    I slapped him. Hard.
    He blinked, and his shock turned to fury. “Why, you little brat!” He grabbed my wrist, his grip frighteningly strong.
    “Take your hands off me,” I demanded, pulling back.
    “I’ll teach you to—”
    “Stop!”
    With a surge of energy, I tore my arm free. The tension of his grip broke, sending me stumbling backward.
    Right into the aging relic expert and the elegant Haciendo exiting the consultation room.
    My body collided with the black relic case in the Haciendo’s arms. As I crashed to the ground, the case hurtled into the glass display on the wall behind us. A shattering sound filled the air.
    Inside the broken display, the relic case’s contents lay bare among the glittering shards of glass—the most incredible piece I had ever even dreamed of seeing. A shimmering unicorn relic. A full horn, all bright and polished and pure white. It glittered in the softly lit room like a beacon. Or a spear of sunlight.
    For a moment, I could only stare at the relic in breathless awe. But then the Haciendo’s gasp broke my trance. He dropped to his knees for his unicorn relic, frantic. My gaze shifted focus to the razor-sharp blades of glass on the broken display case, like jagged teeth. Mr. Connelly, the relic expert, and I all cried out in alarm.
    But our warnings had come too late. The Haciendo grabbed for his relic with blind desperation, scraping his hands on the serrated glass as he pulled it out of the shattered display case. Red marred the pure white of the unicorn horn. The Haciendo’s fingers clawed with sudden pain, his gloves ribboned in blood. With a strained cry, he released his grip on the relic.
    Gasping, I lunged to catch the piece before it crashed to the ground. I only wanted to prevent something so precious from being damaged, but the Haciendo’s eyes flashed to me, bright with rage. In a daze, I looked down at my hands, tightly wrapped around his unicorn relic. I was about to release it when the air in the room shifted. Heaviness pulled at my very core, as if the whole earth were spreading within my chest.
    And then the whisper returned to my ears, soft like a sigh. The distant whinny of a unicorn rushing through my mind on an ancient wind. Power surged down my arms, into my fingers. The iridescent shaft of the horn began to glow, shimmering white and gold and lavender.
    I snapped my hand back, stunned. But the anger in the Haciendo’s face had melted away. For a moment, no one moved. No one spoke. Then, slowly, he pulled his blood-stained gloves off and revealed perfectly unscathed hands.
    His eyes flicked to me with an unreadable expression. Then he looked up at the expert.
    The ancient Chinese man could pass for a laborer in his simple black pants and tunic. He had a thin white beard as long as I’d ever seen, and an equally