AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Destiny shuddered.
What to do?
The question whirled through her brain, creating a headache that pulsed behind her right eye.
She desperately wished that Brenda Sanguis had never brought that stupid statue to the ranch. They’d all warned the arrogant bitch that it was dangerous to screw around with magic they knew nothing about. But the older woman had assured them that she knew what she was doing.
“I did know.”
Destiny gasped at the sound of the familiar voice. It sounded just like Brenda. But no. It couldn’t be. Could it?
Destiny swallowed the lump in her throat. She wanted to crawl back into the bathtub and pretend she hadn’t heard anything. Or better yet, squeeze through the window and make a run for her van. Instead, she forced herself to step out of the bathroom. She was already fleeing from murderous magic. The last thing she needed was to add in the fear that Brenda Sanguis was haunting her.
She had to prove to herself that the voice she’d heard was a figment of her fevered imagination.
Clutching the dagger in a white-knuckled grip, Destiny scanned the cramped space. She expected to find it empty. Itshouldhave been empty. But like a vision from her worst nightmare, Brenda was standing between the cheap dresser and the steam radiator that had rusted out years ago.
She appeared exactly as she had when Destiny had last seen her, lying dead on the ground, the white robe pooled around her like a shroud.
Her face was gaunt and her skin was a strange shade of ash. Even her hair was stripped of color and floated around her shoulders like a cloud of gray. Only her eyes, which burned with a blue fire, and the black raven tattoo on the side of her neck maintained any color.
“You aren’t real,” Destiny muttered, wishing she’d eaten something so she could throw it up. Anything would be better than the sour acid that churned in her stomach.
“Don’t be stupid, Destiny. I’m very real.”
Destiny shook her head. “You’re dead. I watched you die.”
“I was temporarily incapacitated,” Brenda purred, drifting across the room with a rustle of soft satin. She halted directly in front of Destiny. “An unfortunate side effect of the magic. But now I am fully recovered.”
Destiny blinked, glancing over Brenda’s shoulder as hope surged through her. Was it possible that she hadn’t witnessed a mass killing? That it’d been nothing more than a terrible misunderstanding? “What about the others? Are they with you?”
“No, they are very dead.”
“But—” Destiny frowned, reaching out to grasp the woman’s arm. How could Brenda be alive if the others were dead? It wasn’t fair. Destiny squeezed her fingers, her eyes widening in shock as they passed through Brenda’s arm. The coven wasn’t the only ones who were dead. “You’re a ghost,” she breathed.
“A spirit,” Brenda corrected.
Wondering when she’d turned into Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by unwanted apparitions and threatened by evil magic, Destiny inched away from the ghost.
“Why are you here?”
“You have been chosen.”
“Chosen?” Destiny licked her dry lips. “Chosen for what?”
“Greatness, of course.”
“I don’t want greatness.” Destiny’s back slammed into the wall. She’d gone as far as she could. “Choose someone else.”
A pool of crimson floated across the woman’s eyes. Like blood flowing over water.
“That’s not how this works.”
“Please, I just want to go home.” Destiny fell to her knees, her hands pressed over her heart as she pleaded for mercy. “Please.”
“Soon, Destiny.” Brenda drifted forward, her hair floating around her ashen face. “But first we have something we must do.”
“What?”
