Page 9 of Hex You

Mercy wiped at her eyes. “I wish I could, but Khenti and I are stuck in the hell part of the Egyptian Underworld. I’ve tried to get out.We’vetried. The demons are closing in, the mark of Hathor that protected me is gone, and I don’t have enough power to get us out.”

“What if you use this portal thing?” Eyeing Hunter, Jax motioned toward the cauldron. “Or that doll? Can’t you just, I don’t know, combine the magic forces and pull them out?”

Hunter rubbed her knuckles against her aching chest. She’d asked for a way to locate and communicate with her sister, not pull her from a different realm. “Transporting people to and from different worlds is god-level energy. Plus, the doll isn’t any doll. It’s a poppet.” She ran her fingers along the silky fabric she’d cut from an old blue nightshirt. “It’s made for someone specific.”

Someone, she knew, who would eventually come back.

He shrugged. “But the portal is worth a try.”

Jax was right. And Hunter wouldn’t be able to live with herself if Mercy never made it home because she’d refused to attempt the easiest solution.

Mercy tucked her hair behind her ears and smoothed down her dress. “Ready?”

Hunter nodded. “On three.”

The twins counted in unison, “One, two, three!”

Hunter’s fingers slammed into the water, and she bit back a shout. “It’s like glass.”

“Or concrete,” Mercy whimpered, shaking out her hand.

Jax’s cheeks pinkened. “Guess we can strike that one from the list.”

Hunter sucked in a breath as pain shot through the protective pentagram she’d carved into her stomach. She clapped her hands over the scar that rested in bumpy cords beneath her shirt.

Jax stiffened and his gaze swung out over the darkness that surrounded them. “Do you hear that? Waves crashing. I’ve heard it before…”

“Before?What do you mean—” Hunter’s question was halted by a shriek of laughter that splintered against her ears.

“Hunter, what was that?” Mercy shouted, her watery voice nearly swept up in the thrum of crashing waves. “What’s happening?”

Emily held out her hand, her trembling finger pointing to the glowing figure fast approaching.

“She’s here.” Hunter grabbed the poppet and twine and shot to her feet, flanked by Jax and Emily. “Amphitrite’s here, and I’m ready.”

The sea goddess’s azure skin was alight with a bioluminescent glow that smoothed her features into the liquid softness of a jellyfish.“They’re coming for you, Witch. Don’t only take my word for it. The mortal can tell you.”Amphitrite’s hair lapped against her shoulders as she nodded toward Jax.“He was there.”

Hunter stepped in front of her best friend. Last time she’d seen Amphitrite, she’d used blood magic and the power of the ley lines to temporarily expel the goddess of the sea so she could finish healing the cherry tree and the gate to the Japanese Underworld without the oppression of lies and threats. But Hunter had known Amphitrite would return, and the goddess always knew how to get down to business.

Jax didn’t falter, didn’t call a personal time-out to deal with the fact that a glowing sea goddess had washed up in the middle of Goodeville. Instead, he and Emily exchanged a glance as if to saywherever Hunter and Mercy go, we goand then stepped closer to Hunter. “The town, they—” He swallowed. “Well, a bunch of people think you and Mag are evil witches who have cursed Goodeville.”

The air grew humid, tinged with the briny scent of the sea.“I can help you,”Amphitrite purred.

Hunter snorted. Amphitrite didn’t give without taking. “I can help myself.”

The sea goddess narrowed her eyes and craned her long neck as she twirled her hands in the flowing lengths of the skirts that hid the writhing tentacles of a sea monster.

Hunter wailed, her knees buckling, as pain seared her scar. Tears flooded her eyes, and her jagged nails dug into the clover-dotted field. “I banished you,” she howled. “You can’t get in my head or touch my body.”

Amphitrite shrugged her thin, glowing shoulders.“Can’t blame a goddess for trying.”

Jax and Emily were at Hunter’s side, hooking their arms under hers and helping her to her feet.

“So nice that you have such good friends.”Amphitrite’s grin revealed aset of pearlescent teeth as pointed as a shark’s.“It would be a shame to see anything happen to them.”

Hunter clutched the poppet and twine in one hand while she brushed the grass from her legs with the other. “Jealous much?”

Amphitrite’s grin remained fixed, her teeth sharp, the tips of a trident.“Oh, dear Witch, I don’t get jealous. I get revenge.”