Croakies & Scream by Sam Cheever

Author:Sam Cheever [Cheever, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cThriller, humorous, amazon
Amazon: B07XVM6MWH
Publisher: Electric Prose Publications
Published: 2019-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

9

Owl in a Bubble

“What are we going to do with that?” Sebille asked, pointing at Margot.

I turned a frown on my assistant. “How did Hobs get out here? I thought we’d agreed he should stay locked safely away.”

Sebille’s gaze skimmed away from me. “We did. But I didn’t want him trapped in that box if the enforcer…” she sent a glower toward the slightly less cocky spirit in the bubble.

I sighed. If I’d been thinking straight, I probably would have come to the same conclusion. If Margot Quilleran had managed to overwhelm us and got control of Croakies, poor Hobs might have been trapped in that box forever. Or worse. I shuddered to think what that nasty witch would do to a creature that had been trained in the fine art of subservience all his life.

“Ribbit!”

I glanced down at Mr. Slimy. It was impossible to miss his not-so-subtle reminder that he’d been in the box too. Turned out the frog didn’t even need words to annoy me. I sighed. “Okay, I forgive you. But it leaves us with a terrible problem. Assuming that she didn’t lie to us about Hobs…”

“A huge assumption,” Rustin said. “In the realm of making an A-S-S, out of you and me.”

I shook my head, refusing to believe Hobs was gone. “He’s alive.”

Rustin and Sebille shared a look I chose to ignore. “We need to put Margot somewhere she can’t hurt anybody.”

“The Book of Pages?” Rustin asked.

“Jacob’s already there,” Sebille said, shaking her head. “Unless you found another abyss where we can stash her, we can’t put her there.”

He shook his head.

“Sebille’s right. Putting them together in one spot is very dangerous,” I added. “No, we need to figure out if we can stuff her back into the mirror and then block her from coming out again.”

“I can talk to mother,” Sebille offered. “Nobody knows more about the mirrors than Sprites.”

I nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

Wicked had been bathing his paws on the table as we talked. But he suddenly jumped up and ran toward the dividing door, smacking his paw against it and hissing.

“What’s wrong with the cat?” Sebille asked.

“I don’t…”

The lights flickered off and came back on, flashing blue as a shrill alarm sounded throughout the shop. Sebille and I covered our ears, surging to our feet.

“Toxic vault breached,” a female voice announced loudly enough to rise above the din. “Toxic vault breached.”

“No!” I ran toward the door and reached for the handle, wrenching it open as Rogers’ words came back to me, slithering through my mind like snakes. Unless you have another crisis. It wasn’t possible. What else could possibly go wrong?

As soon as I cracked the door, I stopped breathing. The room was filled with artifacts, thousands of them, all roiling around in the air or sliding across the ground. When I stepped into the library they all changed direction and headed for me. I couldn’t allow them back into the store. That way lay complete and utter disaster.

Wicked slipped through the crack before I could slam it shut.

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