Witch on a Roll
Page 26
Before she got out of the car, Cassandra said, “It could be months before the bridge opens again. Do you think you can teach me how to cross the way you did tonight?”
“I can try.”
“I’m a good student, if you don’t mind playing teacher.” Her grin faded. “We’ll have to be on alert. Even with Rebecca protecting the Pale, the threats we face on this side will be worse than ever. Are you okay to stay in this realm?”
“The only thing I’ve ever wanted was to be was an MBI agent.”
“Then you’re about to get your wish,” Cassandra said. “We need you.” She closed the car door and walked inside Stormbringer Castle.
Her mother, Fiona, stood in a window, looking out. She smiled and waved. I waved back, feeling an odd warmth spread through my chest. Not being hated. Once, that had been what I thought I deserved or was the best I could expect. Maybe it was possible to create a better future for myself—one based on honesty and contribution.
That was a future worth fighting for. I would miss Holden and Uncle Delano and Aunt Phoebe, but unlike most on this side of the Pale, I wouldn’t be completely cut off. I could cross when I wanted to visit, and I would need to go back. Between my uncle’s lack of trust in ODiN and Dylan Maddox and Cassandra’s assessment of the professor, I had a feeling Ashmore’s prosecution for murder wouldn’t be an open and shut case.
I’d beaten him once. He wouldn’t give up easily, and hundreds of potential allies were on the loose. The Pale didn’t protect the entirety of the Nightingale Lands. Somewhere, somehow, it wouldn’t surprise me if a few of the monsters that had escaped from the dungeons of Serenity Point found a way into the Greater World.
There was another fight on the horizon.
Epilogue
The house was dark and quiet when I turned off the engine and got out of the Ford. I walked around the side of the house, unwilling still to break my mother’s seals. There was one thing I wanted to do first.
I’d come to find the neelie I called Phee and maybe, someone else.
The yard was dark and empty. A faint green glow hovered over the recycling bin where I’d deposited Marley. There was no telling what he might become in there. He’d been made from parts intended to become a trap. Then I’d shaped him into a crude likeness of a person. I’d give him a few weeks to cook inside the bin before lifting the lid.
“Hello?” I called.
No one answered. I crossed the grass to the chestnut tree where I kicked at leaves and debris with my toe. “I speak no lie by earth and sky. I offer my thanks, by air and fire, to Ivy Butterbriar.” A poet I would never be; at least the sentiment was honest.
A gust of wind swirled into a tiny tornado at me feet. I held my breath and watched, waiting. My heart thudded. “Ivy? Are you there?”
The leaves on the chestnut rustled. I might have heard the buzz of her wings. It was faint and distant. I could have been imagining it, too. A single leaf detached from a thin branch and fell through the air. I caught it in my hand.
Something soft brushed against my legs. I looked down, seeing nothing but velvety darkness. Light flashed in the corner of my eye. I turned in that direction, drawn toward the house.
I walked up the steps onto the porch where I cast a fireball of light and set it aloft. Against the clean painted wood, I spotted small feline footprints. They padded across the porch as far as the door where they disappeared inside.
“Phee? Are you there?”
Light flashed again, this time in the window next to the back door. On the sill inside sat a white cat. I gasped.
Phee stared at me with her golden eyes and pawed at the glass. I put my hand on the door, twisted the knob, and went inside. A new life was beginning.
The jinx goes on…
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About the Author
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Evelyn Snow lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest where she wishes it weren’t so cloudy much of the time, but still thinks it’s the perfect place to live … until throwback alchemists build a bridge. In the meantime, she’ll settle for creating worlds and hopes you find the journey as much fun as she does.
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Copyright © 2019 by Evelyn Snow
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