by Kathy Dexter
Logan helped Hunter carry the dinner debris inside and dump it into the trash. Then he pulled Hunter close. “Three weeks is far too long,” he murmured against her ear.
Hunter’s heart caught. “For me, too. We still have a lot to learn about each other.”
“True. But that’s part of the fun when you find the one who’s your future.” He shifted to gaze into her eyes. “Unless you’re not sure?”
“About the man who’s invaded my every thought? And I can’t dislodge him no matter what I try. Although I haven’t really made much of an effort to do that.”
“You have a touch of the devil in you, woman.” His lips drifted along her ear, across her cheek and to her mouth.
Sizzling heat aroused a deep, intense hunger. Her arms stretched around his neck, fingers tangling in his curly hair. The bond between them had strengthened, deepened, after everything they’d experienced. Their commitment to one another was complete.
Heavy footsteps thumped on the stairs.
Hunter’s lips smiled against Logan’s. “Kat’s coming.”
“She’s moving pretty slow.”
“Giving us time to separate, don’t you think?”
He sighed and released his hold. “You’ll come to my house after you finish your trip to Cryptic River?”
“I promise.” She leaned against his chest for a moment, then stepped away as Kat reached the bottom of the stairs. Hunter put a hand on Logan’s arm. “You brought the bones?”
“They’re in my car.” Logan walked aside. When he returned, he carried an efficiently wrapped, brown paper package and handed the bundle to Hunter.
Kat stared. “Doesn’t seem very big.”
“Unfortunately, we only have the few bones that washed ashore the night Hunter created the storm. We haven’t found any more.” Logan’s voice held regret.
Hunter’s heart stuttered. “Hopefully enough for the ritual.”
“Twyla’s pretty sure you’ll succeed.” He turned to Kat. “Dad asked if you’ll come to the West house for a family dinner Saturday.”
“I’d love to.” Kat took his hand. “You’ve been a good friend.”
“Always.”
Hunter walked with him to the door and gave him a quick kiss goodbye.
She returned to the kitchen and touched Kat’s arm. “Ready?”
“Yep.” Kat opened her black pouch, removed their father’s ring, and placed it on her thumb.
Hunter held out the package of bones. “Can you carry this in your bag?”
Kat nodded, caressed the wrapper, and gently placed the bundle in the seemingly bottomless pouch.
Like Clarissa’s basket? Hunter thought it more than possible. She’d ask Kat later. Right now the mission concerning their parents consumed her attention. Hunter led the way outside and held up the amber amulet. Time to ride, Henry.
The sapphire dragon snorted and burgeoned outward from the amulet in a burst of blue mist. He spread his wings and huffed flames of ice into the night air.
“Follow me, Kat.” Hunter leaped onto the dragon’s back.
With the pouch slung over her shoulder, Kat landed behind Hunter and grabbed her around the waist.
Henry soared into the sky, his broad wings snapping in the wind like a ship’s canvas sails. The dragon’s great tail pumped and twisted as a rudder might in the vast seas.
Hunter leaned forward and whispered into a leathery ear, “Cryptic River.”
Henry’s wings expanded and thrust the air backwards. Trees, lake, stars and moon hurtled by in one vast blur. Strands of red-gold hair whipped across Hunter’s face. She clung tighter, the chill of the night seeping through her clothes. A strange trilling eddied around her. Hunter shook her head. Was Henry singing some kind of dragon song?
With a final swoop, they descended to the cliff above the river. This time the dragon’s taloned feet landed on one of the many ledges hugging the side of the granite escarpment.
Hunter slid down Henry’s scaly side, Kat still clinging to her.
“Whoa! Talk about a trip!” Kat bent over and breathed deeply.
Hunter reached out to touch the rough rocks of the cliff––reds, browns and grays intermingling in the soft luminosity of moonlight. Trees clung to each side of the ledge and created a sanctuary among the lurking shadows. Hunter peered through the greenery at footpaths that wound along the rock face and disappeared among the boulders and bushes. Perhaps she’d explore another day.
Hunter kneeled at the brink of the ledge. The river rushed about a hundred feet below. Water tumbled across boulders, rocks, stones, and cascaded farther west, disturbing the lake’s stillness. Hunter focused on the turbulence beneath her. “A long way down, but we should still be able to follow the directions from the Ancients.”
Kat joined her and removed the package of bones from her black bag. Solemnly, she placed the bundle on the ground.
“Aim the ring’s stone toward the water,” Hunter said.
When Kat did, a blue beam lit the turbulent river. Hunter pressed her amulet, and another laser-like luminescence zoomed downward. The two glowing shafts joined and churned into the river, reaching ever deeper into its depths. The bolts of light pulsated and thrummed, faster and faster. At last, they slowly retreated from the water, extracting. . .
Bones.
Hunter jumped back and held fast to Kat. Mother.
Next, the beams of entwined lights rose to the side of the cliff and hollowed out a hole close to Henry. Meredith’s bones floated along the magical light rays into the recess.
Kat opened the package, and their father’s bones levitated, carried by the sapphire rays of ring and amulet. They came to rest alongside his wife’s bones. Magically, stones and dirt rapidly filled the entrance. Rocks covered the burial site.
“At last, our parents are reunited,” Kat whispered.
“A final resting place together.” Hunter’s breath caught. “Look!”
Vapor seeped from the crevasses around the rocks and coalesced, thickening into murky, but recognizable, forms.
“Mom! Dad!” Kat cried, her hands stretching toward them.
Hunter’s mouth fell open. Her parents, whole again, smiled at each other.
They floated forward, their wispy figures caressing Hunter and Kat.
Fingers trembling, Hunter touched Kat’s hand. Eyes glistening, her sister glanced toward her. Hunter wiped her cheeks.
“You brought us together.” Meredith’s hollow voice glided on a slight breeze. “My brave girls.”
“Your grandmother has taken my place in Miasium,” Connor told them. “For all eternity. A just punishment.”
“You have found each other. Together you will be safe.” Meredith’s ethereal shape dimmed, dissolved around the fringes.
“Can’t you stay?” Kat begged.
“You taught us to be strong, gave us the ability to deal with all the troubles that came our way,” Hunter said. “We don’t want to lose you now.”
“We’ll be near.” Connor brushed translucent lips along Hunter’s cheek and then Kat’s. “For now, we’re called to the Other Side.”
Their parents’ spirits swayed in the shadows, brightened as they merged, then danced in the moonlight before fading among the stars.
Hunter and Kat tightened their hold on one another.
“Goodbye,” they whispered with one voice.