Page 50 of Hex You

But Hunter was already turning to peer into the cornfield, even before Heather lifted a trembling hand to point at Coach Livingston’s body. She was on her back just inside the edge of the field. Her neck was lacerated with a cut so deep that it had caused her head to tilt oddly. Her open, dead eyes stared vacantly at them.

Heather screamed.

Tiffany ran to the field—and her screams joined Heather’s.

At the same moment Mercy and Hunter took a step toward each other. Blindly, they gripped hands.

“Call 911,” Mercy told Heather.

“’K-k-kay.” Heather’s teeth chattered with shock. She started punching numbers into her phone while she and Tiffany backed quickly away from the gruesome sight.

“We’ll check to see if she’s still alive,” said Hunter.

Hand in hand, the twins walked slowly to the fallen coach while Tiffany fell to the ground and sobbed and Heather screamed into her phone at the 911 dispatcher.

“H, she’s dead.” Mercy clasped her sister’s hand like a lifeline.

“I know,” Hunter whispered. “Look for sloughed scales or a snakeskin. Quick! Before anyone else gets here.”

It didn’t take much looking. Just past the coach’s feet was a strip of discarded snakeskin, deflated like an enormous, grotesque party balloon.

“We gotta get rid of it!” said Mercy as she glanced at Heather and Tiffany, who had their arms around each other and were sobbing as they carefully averted their eyes from their dead coach.

“Stand right there and be sure to block their view,” Hunter said. She strode to the skin, whispering, “Gross! Gross! Gross!” as she picked the huge thing up and threw it as far into the center of the mazelike cornfield as possible. She shuddered and wiped her hand on her jeans when she returned to her sister. “That was disgusting.”

“But at least now we know for sure,” said Mercy. “It’s definitely a Nure-Onna.”

Hunter nodded somberly. “Yep. It looks like our demi-god has a snake to kill.”

NINETEEN

Filled with fury, Amphitrite tore through the sky and swooped down to the cherry tree, a typhoon striking land.“You are supposed to be better than the mortals!”she thundered as the Nure-Onna emerged from her cave.“They are simple animals, giving in to each craving. I gave you a command—hunt those allied with Hunter Goode and her sister, Mercy. I did not give you leave to kill anyone else!”

Water droplets hissed in the air around Amphitrite. What good was a weapon if it had no aim?

“Forgive me! For thousands of years, I’ve been ssstarving,” the Nure-Onna hissed, her tongue flicking out to sense the steamy air.

Amphitrite swelled, gathering power from the waters of Sugar Creek.“And I can send you back without your reward!”

The great goddess of the sea paused before striking out and killing this creature who could see her, hear her, feel her as if Amphitrite’s body still caused the ground to quake beneath her tentacles.

The Nure-Onna’s suffering was nothing in comparison to that of Hunter Goode. Laughter like squealing brakes drifted through therotting branches of the old guardian. To destroy all the witch had to live for and watch the fragile mortal crawl back, begging for an end to her waking nightmare, would be a delicious victory.

“I allowed you to feed when you first arrived in this realm, but you now have a purpose greater than carnage.”

The Nure-Onna’s thick body tightened, and her tail shook from side to side, the dry leaves crunching in warning.

So many felt as if they could challenge a goddess. Every time they’d been wrong.

“Resist your simple temptations, my pet, and you will reap a great reward.”Amphitrite gazed upon her own glowing blue figure reflected in the Nure-Onna’s dark eyes and held her hand up to her ear.“Is that a babe I hear? Calling for his mother?”

The Nure-Onna’s eyes widened and blurred with unshed tears that morphed Amphitrite’s image into a swirling azure sea.

The creature’s tongue again shot out as the air thickened with moisture, with Amphitrite’s false promises, with her lies.

“Get to work, pet. The redhead first.”The goddess watched the Nure-Onna slither to the creek and submerge herself in the glistening water.“Or the cat!”she called, her words rippling the creek’s surface.

There wasn’t room in all the oceans of this realm to hold the tears Hunter Goode would shed before Amphitrite finished her revenge.