I am still amazed by what she showed me, even now. You just don't forget the first time you see something like that for real. It's...breathtaking, mind-blowing, world shattering and everything else you can think of.
It was a diamond necklace, but that's like saying the Titanic was a little leaky. I've seen shirts being sold in malls that cover less than that necklace would have, and every line of it dripped diamonds. Taken apart--horribly sacriligious thought--the smallest gem would be maybe a carat. And if I weighed that center stone by itself, forget about carats, that thing would weigh at LEAST five pounds. And it pulsated in the dim light of my office as if it were...alive. It glimmered on the black velvet of the box, doubled in half.
Like every other woman alive, I immedately imagined what it would look like around my neck. How the cold silver and stones would feel.
I looked up at Catherine. "How is this your problem?"
She sniffed. "Take it out of the box."
Fine. Whatever. I reached for the necklace, instinctively reaching for that huge stone in the center. I could already feel the cool crystal...
My fingertips froze less than a centimeter from the surface. The air underneith was three digrees away from burning hot, and as I added a little pressure those three digrees melted away, along with five or six others. I snatched my hand away. My long, perfectly manicured nails were burned, glowing like dull embers, the very tips ashy...
Because they were ash.
"What the heck?" I asked...retorically, but Catherine answered me anyway.
"He said that would happen...Harry...that's why no one can steal it." She pointed down at the bottom.
"Read." She said. "Read"
I looked down...yes. There was a little golden plate at the bottom, engraved and embedded in the velvet.
I looked to read it.