Page 7 of Hex You

“I found you!”

THREE

It took Hunter an hour to gather every moon-charged item she could possibly need in order to locate her sister and keep herself safe before she rode back to the doum with a cat-shaped Xena in tow. Within that hour, doubt hadn’t been able to settle in. There had been too much to assemble, too much to plan. Now, as Hunter once again sat at the base of the palm, staring into her copper cauldron filled with crystal-clear moon water, and the battery-operated emergency light she’d taken from their tornado kit casting an eerie glow onto the gently swaying fronds, she wasn’t sure she’d ever see Mercy again.

A small, white orb snagged Hunter’s attention, and she squinted into the darkness that had closed in on her glowing, pale-yellow bubble. The starburst of light bobbed in time with the gentleslap slapof flip-flops and rustle of manicured grass. Xena twitched between Hunter and the approaching footsteps, back arched and lips peeled in a menacing, fang-wielding hiss.

“Achoo!”

The sharp curve in Xena’s spine softened, and Hunter released a stored breath.

Emily clicked off her phone’s flashlight as she and Jax entered Hunter’s illuminated sphere. “We’ve been looking for you for hours,” she said with a sniffle before swiping the back of her hand across her nose.

Jax combed his fingers through his dark hair, the ends curled like he’d been caught in a rainstorm. “It’s been, like, thirty minutes.”

The thin strap of Emily’s maxi dress slid off her brown shoulder as she shrugged. “Either way, you should really turn your phone on.”

Hunter dug her phone out of the bottom of the floral-patterned tote she’d used to haul her supplies. She pressed the power button, but the screen remained black. The day had been filled with too much for her to worry about whether or not her phone was charged.

For a second time, Jax mussed his tangled hair, his dark eyes wide and searching. “We have a problem.”

Xena let out a low, mournfulmeowand climbed into Hunter’s lap.

Not another one.Hunter’s face heated, and her breath hitched.I can’t… I can’t…

“I can’t get her back,” she choked as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Mercy’s gone, and I can’t get her back.”

Jax and Emily rushed over, crouching on either side of her. A hand was on her back, smoothing circles against her spine.

“Mag is gone?” The hand stopped as Emily chewed her lower lip. “She wasn’t at school and didn’t text me back, but I thought…” She wrapped her arms over her chest. “Well, she told me she and Xena got into it and that she had to stay home all weekend.”

Xena let out a pitiful mew.

“Mercy’s in trouble. She used our connection to contact me. She’s trapped in the Egyptian Underworld. She needs me.” Hunter’s voice caught as she lifted the end of her shirt and swiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks. “She needs me, and I have no idea what to do.”

“Looks like you have some sort of idea.” Jax nodded toward thecopper cauldron, the poppet and ball of twine, and the rainbow of crystals Hunter had removed from their pouches and placed in a circle around the basin. “You have a plan. You always do. You just have to trust yourself, H.”

Confirming Jax’s statement, Xena pressed her front paws against Hunter’s shoulder and leveled her amber gaze at Hunter, erupting into a long series of chittering meows before nuzzling her fluffy head against Hunter’s cheek.

“Jax and Xena are right,” Emily began, her eyes watering as she held back a sneeze. “You can do this. You said yourself that Mercy used your connection to contact you. That bond goes both ways. It’s, like, the law of twins.” She scooted closer, their knees touching, and took Hunter’s hand in hers. “Not only are you family, you’re connected through magic.”

“And you’re a badass witch,” Jax said, leaning against Hunter and wrapping his calloused fingers around hers. “Believe in yourself.”

Hunter gripped their hands tight and took a deep breath, drawing strength from her friends and the reminder of the special bond she shared with Mercy. She was Hunter Goode, twin sister to Mercy Goode, fueled by the cosmos, the god of the sky, and the ancestral magic that flowed within her veins.

Her pendant heated against her chest, and she envisioned the core of the opalescent jewel swirling a deep purplish-pink with the power of her magic and the grace of Tyr. Her god was there. Tyr believed in her… along with her friends and the familiar that had been with her for as long as she could remember. She owed it to them—more importantly, she owed it to herself—to believe in and trust her power.

“I’ve got it!” She released Jax’s and Emily’s hands and reached for the two blue crystals to the left of her cauldron. “Celestite.” She lifted the lighter of the two, its prismatic shards glinting like icicles in the low light. “It activates psychic abilities and elevates spirit in order to see and understand messages at a spiritual level.”

Hunter’s fingertips heated as she pressed the crystal to her lips. “Help me to see my sister.”

The pendant thrummed against her chest in time with the rapid beat of her heart as she dropped the crystal into the cauldron of moon water. Sparks shot from the jagged points of the delicate blue and crackled against the surface of the water like fissures in broken glass.

Emily sucked in a breath and pressed her fingers to her lips as the rough outlines of the phases of the moon etched into the cauldron’s side lit up as white as the foaming crests of ocean waves. “There are some things I will never get used to.”

A smile ticked against the corner of Hunter’s mouth as she refocused on the task at hand and scooped up the second crystal. “Blue kyanite encourages communication and breaks down fears and blockages.” The bladed crystalline structures looked like jagged azure glass. “Help me to overcome my insecurities and speak directly to my twin,” she whispered, smoothing her fingers over her pendant, warm against her skin, as she released the crystal into the basin. Another shot of sparks exploded against the water’s surface in a shower of glitter. Once again, bright white light beamed from the etchings, illuminating Jax’s and Emily’s wide-eyed wonder as they stared at the magic unfolding under the doum palm.

The water stilled and the cauldron dimmed, and Hunter, Jax, and Emily waited.