Page 3 of Hex You

Burn them.

The words roared against his ears with a crash of ocean waves.

ONE

The plastic beads attached to the spokes of Hunter’s bike wheels were a constant applause as she raced to the park and the Gatekeeper of the Egyptian Underworld that stood at its center. She ignored the screech of tires and honk of horns as she blew through the parking lot like a rocket. Her bike creaked and rattled when she hopped the curb and furiously pedaled through the grass to the doum palm. The sun had begun its descent beneath the horizon, and the lights of the tennis courts and baseball fields bit through the twilight and drew in townspeople like moths.

Hunter wasn’t worried about onlookers. They could think what they wanted. They could capture her under cover of dark and tie her to a stake in the middle of Main Street for all she cared. As long as it wasaftershe rescued her sister from the Egyptian Underworld.

Hunter had felt lonely, but she could never truly be alone while Mercy was alive. No matter what they went through, they were in this life together. They had been from the very start and no unearthly dimension would change that.

Hunter hopped off her bike and let it crash to the ground as she ran the rest of the way to the clump of doum palms that had protected the town from the ancient monsters of the Egyptian Underworld for generations. Xena was a blur of black, brown, and white fur as she raced toward Hunter and the tree. The cat mewed and circled Hunter’s ankles as she caught up to her. The witch didn’t need to hear the Maine coon’s words to know what she said.

How many times and in how many ways had Mercy asked for Hunter’s help? How many times had Hunter pushed her sister away?

Hunter pressed her hands against one of the palm’s fragile shoots and called to the warrior she knew stood watch on the other side of the gate. “Khenti Amenti, Gate Guardian of the Realm of Osiris, answer my call.”

The fabric between realms rippled and pulsed like a still lake around the rock of Hunter’s call. She took a step back and clamped her hands into fists at her side. Khenti would give her answers even if she had to drag him into Goodeville to get them.

Xena arched her back and yowled as the gate came into focus. Hunter’s fists unclenched and she stumbled backward as six warriors marched toward the gate. Their muscular bodies shimmered with each deliberate step forward and their sharp-tipped spears glinted in the Underworld’s light. Hunter’s heart clicked against her ribs as she focused from one snarling jackal mask to the next. Their painted fangs gleamed, and their red fur blazed like fire through the veil.

“Where is Mercy Anne Goode, the Green Witch from this realm?” Hunter screamed at the Gatekeepers. “What did you do to my sister?”

The jackal warriors stood at attention. Their masks had come to life and each of their pointed ears twitched.

Xena yowled and screeched a hiss as she stalked between Hunter and the warriors. They moved as one and each tightened their gripon their weapon, their snarling lips parted with a low growl of their own.

“Bring me Khenti Amenti!” Hunter shouted. “I demand to speak to the protector of this gate.”

“We are the protectors now.”They spoke with one voice, a low rumble that buzzed through Hunter’s ears.

Hunter fisted her hands by her sides. “What did you do to my sister?”

“We do not answer to you, young witch.”

The fabric that separated the realms rippled once more, washing the redheaded jackal warriors from view.

Xena howled as Hunter charged the vanishing creatures.

“Mercy!” she screamed and reached for the shimmering divide, but it was too late. The warriors were gone, and the realm’s entrance was once more shielded by the doum.

Hunter wrapped her arms around the center shoot and pressed her forehead against the rough bark. “Mercy, if you can hear me, I’m sorry… for everything.” Tears streamed down her nose and splattered the ground. “And I’m coming for you.”

She wiped her eyes and stared through the palm to the warriors she knew lurked behind the gate. “I am a Cosmic Witch. Yes, I am young, but I have generations of power in my blood and the strength of the moon and the vastness of the universe wrapped inside my magic. I’ll tear apart your world and this one to find my sister.”

The pendant Tyr’s magic had given back to her heated against her chest and a jolt of energy crackled beneath her skin. “I am Hunter Jayne Goode, and no one fucks with my twin, except me.”

She let the message hang in the air between worlds for a moment before she bent down and scooped up the giant ball of hissing fluff. Hunter ignored the crowd, phones out and slack-jawed, that had gathered to witness the otherworldly event as she picked up her bike and set Xena in the basket next to her purse. She walked her bike tothe parking lot as she spun her crescent ring around her finger and stared up at the brightening moon.

“We’ll find Mercy,” she whispered, hopping onto her bike and stroking Xena’s hackles as she pedaled them to the Goode house to gather her arsenal. “And then we’ll bring her home.”

TWO

“Try not to worry. Khenti is a mighty warrior. He will defeat the In-tep demons. They are terrible creatures, but they cannot stand against my son,” Meryt said.

Mercy watched Khenti’s mom pace back and forth in front of the cave-like room’s fireplace and decided her words would be more reassuring if Meryt didn’t look so pale and worried. Although, to be fair, Khenti’s mom was dead and spent most of her afterlife hiding inside from the demons outside in Duat, the Egyptian Land of the Dead, so maybe pale and worried was her norm. Mercy forced herself to smile. “Well, he did handle that In-tep that attacked us earlier pretty easily. You’re right. He is an excellent warrior. I’m sure he’s—”

Mercy’s words were cut off by a gust of hot air that pushed Khenti, as well as a bunch of sand, inside her mother’s Underworld sanctuary.