by Kathy Dexter
Hovering in the air near the ceiling, Clarissa surrounded herself with a glowing sphere. The bullets disintegrated upon impact.
Logan jumped on a table, vaulted, and reached for Clarissa. The magic in his hands pierced her protective shell. He grasped her foot and yanked.
Clarissa screamed in pain. With a flick of her taloned fingers, she smashed Logan into the wall in back of him. His body slid to the floor, the gun knocked from his grasp.
“Logan!” Hunter cried. She ran across the room and flung her body across his. She spun and raised the amulet toward Clarissa.
She hadn’t moved fast enough.
An energy ball hissed, swooped across the room, and hit her full force with some kind of viscous bubble which shrouded both her and Logan.
Air seeped through the porous goo.
The amulet slipped out of Hunter’s hand as she clawed at the sticky prison.
“Fleming!” Clarissa ordered. “Go after Kat and bring her back.”
The doctor picked up the gun and stumbled toward the two trapped in oozing muck. “After I take care of the cop.”
“Do as I say, imbecile. Kat’s fast and could escape. I’ll make sure Logan and Hunter don’t interfere again.”
Fleming growled, but backed off and sprinted toward the secret tunnel.
Hunter scrambled frantically, trying to grasp the dragon. Where was it? Somewhere between her arm and side, out of reach.
Logan’s hand inched along her side until he reached the chain around her neck. He tugged, releasing the amulet from the goo. He pushed against the gelatinous prison and created a small pocket of gooless space.
Together the two of them grasped the sapphire dragon. As before, its magic intensified their powers.
Hunter tightened her grip on Logan’s hand and the amulet. The fierceness of the dragon surged through her. Henry, get us out of here!
Blue clouds billowed from the amulet and squeezed around them. The magic mist squished against the sticky slime. Saturating the bubble, sapphire heat popped, snapped and gurgled. The gooey prison melted.
Potent flames burned inside Hunter. A green blaze ignited in Logan’s eyes. They raised their hands, palms outward, and shot flames toward Clarissa.
Fire slammed against her invisible shield, penetrated, and scalded her arms.
She yowled in pain as she beat the cloth around her shoulders. “Once I have Kat, you’ll do as I say,” she screeched.
Red and black waves undulated around her. Faster and faster, the colors spiraled in rings about her body. With a whoosh, she disappeared.
“Go after her!” Logan shouted as he dashed to the secret tunnel. “I’ll stop Fleming before he can reach Kat.”
He actually thought Hunter could face Clarissa by herself? A nice change in attitude, but could she pull it off? How was she supposed to find the woman who’d dematerialized or “vanished into thin air”?
The dragon smoldered. Use me.
You can track her?
A snort, then a huff of blue mist flowed from the amulet. Of course.
The mist billowed and thickened, then solidified into the sapphire dragon. He spread his wings and pawed the air.
Hunter sprang upward and landed on his back. She rubbed his scaly sides in gratitude and grasped the edges of his wings, ready to fly. Now what?
Transaura migrate.
Hunter had done it with Riley and Kat. But on her own? And on a dragon? How?
Visualize Clarissa. Call upon your magic to take us where she is.
Hunter’s inner core thrummed, and the air heaved and pitched around them. Walls oscillated and ribbons of color streamed past them as they whipped outside, into the sky above Mystic Lake at the back of the museum. The same place where Hunter had confronted the thieves the night of the Halloween Ball.
This time she faced Clarissa.
The woman hovered in the moonlight on the far side of the verandah, near the wall where the museum thieves had exited.
Bricks and stone slid to one side.
Kat emerged.
“Ah, my dear. Nice to see you again.” Clarissa’s teeth glinted in a mirthless grin.
Kat flinched and jumped back. Then she darted for the woods bordering one side of the lake.
Hunter held her breath. Some of the thieves had made their escape that way. Kat might, too.
About two yards from the trees, an energy ball burst at Kat’s feet. She rolled away and raised a palm toward Clarissa, who had glided through the air to a spot above the lake.
Orbs of white, thrumming lights hurtled from Kat’s hands, the first two narrowly missing Clarissa’s head.
“You lied about your magic, didn’t you? But you don’t have the power I do.” Clarissa snapped her fingers and the remaining orbs exploded and splintered apart.
Stop her! Hunter cried to Henry.
The dragon expelled a breath of freezing blue flames and encased Clarissa in ice.
Fleming darted out of the secret tunnel and stopped, slack-jawed, when he saw the dragon soaring above him.
Logan tackled him from behind. Fleming twisted sideways and flung an elbow backwards into Logan’s chest. Logan deflected the intended blow with his left arm and slammed his right fist into the doctor’s chin.
The dragon swooped low. Feline-like, Kat leaped upward and grasped the dragon’s wing. Hunter hauled her onto a space near Henry’s neck.
“Sorry,” Kat panted. “Didn’t put everything I had into the orbs and chickened out on a direct hit.”
Hunter understood. Hard to destroy a grandmother you thought loved you.
The dragon swerved so Hunter and Kat faced Clarissa. Colored flames had almost heated through the fiery cold restraints.
“Quick! The ring and grimoire,” Hunter shouted.
“Here.” Kat pulled both out of a pocket.
Hunter grabbed the grimoire and slipped the ring over Kat’s thumb. “Use it as soon as I finish the spell.”
Hunter opened the book and concentrated. Following her mental commands, pages flipped to a specific passage. She chanted:
We cast a spell from ancient lore,
To wrest the magic from your core,
Into the ring of son it flows,
And brings your evil to a close.
Hunter nodded to Kat, who pointed her thumb toward Clarissa. The sapphire amber in the ring flashed. Like a lasso, a ray of light circled Clarissa, jerking her hands against her side.
“No!” Clarissa shrieked, twisting to break free.
Kat reached into a pocket and withdrew the bottle of liquid Twyla had given her at the séance. She poured the mixture containing her father’s essence onto his ring. The extract traveled along the ropy light until it reached Clarissa, then eddied and swirled around her, a tornado of pulsating phosphorescence.
Energy seeped out of Clarissa and flowed back to the ring. Each particle of her magic flashed and crackled before it sank into the amber.
Clarissa slumped against the glowing shaft that still held her prisoner, her body sinking toward the water.
Hunter touched Kat’s shoulder. “Hoist her up.”
“Let her drown,” Kat snarled.
Hunter couldn’t let Kat kill, no matter how much Clarissa deserved it. She wrapped her arms around her sister and murmured in her ear, “No.”
Blue and green colors eddied in Kat’s eyes. “She should die for what she’s done.”
“You could have killed her with your magic orbs but didn’t. You weren’t ‘chickening out.’ Instead, you pulled away from the same evil which consumed that horrid woman.” Tears momentarily clogged Hunter’s voice. “You kept your heart clean.”
“Haul her in. She’ll be punished,” Logan shouted. He stood on the ground below, gripping a handcuffed Fleming.
Kat held a breath, puffed out her cheeks and blew. She closed her hand over the ringed thumb and tugged, releasing Clarissa.
She didn’t fall into the water. Instead, swirling foam rose from the lake and edged up
Clarissa’s body. She couldn’t move.
Fog drifted from the woods and settled along the shore. A transparent figure rose out of the mist. Mary Hawthorne. “She must face the ones she’s betrayed.”
Clarissa’s head came up, fear skimming across her contorted features. “Stay away from me!”
Mary Hawthorne’s haunting laugh echoed across the water. “The Ancients await.”
The fog enveloped Clarissa, thickened and throbbed. Bubbling foam evanesced into the night air.
Bristling wind and water. Rasping whispers.
Clarissa screamed.
Whomp.
Fog and Clarissa disappeared.
Mary Hawthorne lingered briefly. “Clarissa’s fate is sealed by the Ancients. You are free of her wickedness.”
Mary’s ghostly shape fluctuated, then burst in a shower of sparkling lights.
CHAPTER 47
H UNTER GAZED INTO THE MIRROR on the kitchen wall. She looked the same, yet her life had snarled and tangled in headspinning ways over the previous two weeks. You’d think my red-gold hair would have turned gray––no, white.
Searching for her past had shifted Hunter’s world upside down and sideways. Regaining her memories meant reliving the murder of her parents and the grief of losing them again. Yet Hunter also recognized she had a role in creating the curtain shrouding that horror. Her unwillingness to dig deep into her past, her longing to feel safe, had aided the ulterior motives of those who’d manipulated her. Twelve-year-old Kat had sensed the truth when she believed Hunter could have broken the spell in the hospital if she’d tried hard enough.
The shadow world had fogged her brain far too long. Finally Hunter roused her inner courage and ripped apart the curtain to free herself from the darkness of self-doubt. She’d changed, no longer a victim. She’d sought the truth, tossed a stone into the waters, generated ripples of light that swelled into waves and washed away the shadows.
“Hello?” Kat’s voice at the door broke Hunter’s reverie.
“Come on in,” Hunter called.
An automobile horn sounded in the driveway. Hunter hurried outside and both she and Kat waved to Riley. She returned the gesture, backed out and drove off.
“Is she okay?” Hunter asked. “It wasn’t easy telling her about Clarissa.”
“She seemed more concerned about me, betrayed by a grandmother I’d trusted all these years. You didn’t mention how I wanted to drown that woman, did you?”
“Desire and action are two different things. Your instincts guided you, saved you from going down a dark path.” Hunter put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “I could use a beer. How about you?”
“You bet.” Kat hauled a medium-sized suitcase on wheels across the threshold. “Where’s Ally?”
“She’s meeting Finn for a farewell dinner.” Hunter closed the door and led the way to the kitchen.
Kat patted the suitcase. “Where would you like me to put this?”
“That’s all the clothes you have?”
“Minimal requirements for visits to Mystic Lake.” Kat’s lips twisted. “I don’t think I’ll be traveling to Uncle Gideon’s anytime soon to pick up any possessions I left behind.”
“No.” A trickle of fear ran along Hunter’s spine. “Not without me and an army to protect you.”
“That I’d like to see.” Kat’s eyes glinted with humor. “But not necessary. I have no intention of going anywhere near him.”
Hunter took out a checkbook from a counter drawer and tossed it to Kat. “I set up an account for you this morning at the local bank. Use the money to buy whatever you need in the coming weeks.”
Kat opened the folder. Her cheeks flushed a bright red. “This is way too much.”
“You are entitled to half of what I inherited from the Hawthornes.” Hunter held up a hand when Kat started to protest further. “I refuse to budge.”
“Can’t force me to spend it,” Kat muttered.
Hunter hefted Kat’s suitcase. “How about clothes? As the woman in charge of operations at the museum, you have to look the part.”
“Sounds like a fancy title for making sure others are doing the work,” Kat huffed.
“More like a way to give you access to every part of the building in order to search for the amethyst amulet. Besides, who better to keep an eye on my interests––our interests––than a trusted member of the family?” Hunter deposited the suitcase next to the stairs. “I’ll put this in my bedroom for tonight. You can relocate into Ally’s space when she and I take off in the morning.”
“How long will the book tour last?”
“About three weeks. Then Ally will head to the city to catch up with her clients, and I’ll return here. You and I will have some time together while I work on my next book and you adjust to your job at the museum.” Hunter moved to the kitchen and deposited paper plates and napkins on a tray. “Let’s have that beer. Logan should be here soon with the pizza.”
Kat retrieved two bottles from the fridge, opened them, and handed one to Hunter. “You told Aunt Miranda about your plans to stay in Mystic Lake?”
“She wasn’t overjoyed.” Her aunt had been somewhat overdramatic, but not as bad as Hunter had feared. Almost as though Miranda finally accepted Hunter’s insistence on steering her life in a direction of her own choosing. “I’ve moved on, as you have.”
Kat drifted toward the poster of Syrena, which Hunter had hung on the wall facing the picture window. “Lexa has a real talent.”
“She’s captured the spirit of my heroine. It’s a reminder of the importance of fighting against the darkness.” Hunter nodded to Syrena, acknowledging what she’d learned and the change within herself. “Lexa’s going to do the cover for my next book.”
“She’s still going to work at the museum. She and her uncle can’t be happy about me being in charge.”
Hunter shrugged. “They’ve always known that I inherited the place from Mary Hawthorne. According to Max, he’s never liked being in charge. They’ll both work with you to make the museum a success.”
“Playing nice with others? Not my style.”
Hunter laughed. “So I noticed. But now we’re both free of those who betrayed us. Time to connect with those we can trust.”
“Humpf. Maybe you, but I’m not too sure about anyone else.”
“We’ll work on that together.”
Kat fidgeted. “Could get tricky. Particularly living in the same house.”
“I’m up for the challenge if you are.”
“And the fights.” Kat grinned.
“Ah, yes. I remember some of those battles when we were younger.” Hunter giggled. “But we’re all grown up now.”
Kat twitched her nose. “Maybe. Although I’d like to try winning a pillow fight for once.”
“You’re on.” Hunter clinked her bottle against Kat’s and took a long swig. “After our trip tonight.”
A knock was followed by the front door swinging open. “Pizza delivery.”
“Logan!” Hunter headed his way. “We’re starving.”
“I’ll get him a beer,” Kat said.
The three of them grabbed food and drink and moved to the porch where Hunter had set up small tables by chairs.
“You gonna tell us about Dr. Fleming while we eat?” Kat asked.
“Sure thing,” Logan mumbled around a mouthful of food.
The thought of Fleming and his vile actions spoiled Hunter’s appetite. She pushed away her plate and swallowed more beer. “He can’t escape, can he?”
“Chief Stoner’s made sure that won’t happen.” Logan plopped another slice on his plate. “And Fleming’s blabbing everything he knows about Clarissa’s plotting.”
“Stoner’s doing the interrogation instead of you?”
“I wasn’t about to stand in his way. Cracking his knuckles and baring his teeth, the chief towered over the doctor. Told him what he’d like to do to the man who’d almost killed Reenie. Fleming caved. He couldn’t answer our quest
ions fast enough. Better to confess to murdering Jones than face what Stoner could do to him.”
Kat tilted her head. “Hurting Fleming. Wouldn’t that undermine the case against him?”
“Nothing physically happened to the doctor, besides the damage I did to him in the fight.” Logan eyed them both. “And you never heard any of this.”
“Then why tell us?” Hunter asked.
“Because you deserve to know the truth, to put Clarissa’s wickedness behind you and move on with your lives.”
Kat swiped at her eyes. “Can we?”
Hunter sprang from her chair, knelt next to Kat, and hugged her. “We won’t let that woman defeat us. We’re fighters.”
“Well, you’ve certainly changed since you first arrived.” Kat rested her head against Hunter’s. “If you feel that way, after all Gran put you through, so can I.”
“Good.” Kat would be all right. With a deep sense of relief, Hunter reclaimed her chair and her pizza. After several mouthfuls, she asked Logan, “How did Fleming connect with Clarissa?”
“She knew he was one of the teenagers who’d broken into the Museum of Magic with her twin sons. And he’d developed a gambling habit. It wasn’t difficult to maneuver him into working for her. Fleming also spoke of Clarissa and Gideon’s plans to siphon other people’s magic once they accessed the knowledge of the Ancients.”
“Her magic was drained instead. Poetic justice.” Hunter rubbed Kat’s shoulder. Would Gideon back off, aware the same thing might happen to him if he tried to attack Mystic Lake?
Kat’s eyes flamed. “Gideon won’t give up.”
“Scary thought.” Hunter believed her sister. After so many years with her uncle, Kat understood his nature better than anyone.
“He’ll have to regroup, figure another way to get what he wants. But we’ll stop him.”
Hunter smiled, glad Kat had recaptured her usual feisty spirit. “I’m sure the Gyld is looking into it. Tonight you and I have something else to do. Are you ready?”
“Let me wash up.” Kat leaped to her feet and gave Hunter a wink before heading inside. “You and Logan can keep each other company.”