Golden Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

counter at Schwab’s drugstore.
    “Who did that?” shrieked the crocodile creature that used to be Sparkling Woman. “Show yourself!”
    I had no plan to do any such thing, but then I saw Ivy still huddled in a heap on the ground.
    I cussed. It was Ruth’s wish I’d used, so it was Ruth I’d magicked. I hadn’t gotten the spell big enough to cover Ivy. She was out good and cold, so she couldn’t wish anything. And here came Jack running across the bridge with Rougarou behind him.
    I fumbled in the nearest toolbox, came up with a hammer, and staggered out the door. I was shaking like a leaf in a high wind, but if Jack could lead a charge, so could I.
    The crocodile woman screamed something, and Rougarou spun around again, but I pushed myself into a tottery run. I had the hammer out in front of me like a bayonet, and I plowed straight into Rougarou’s stomach with all the strength I had left.
    Something went
crunch
!
    Rougarou flailed around, bellowing. I staggered back. His hair left slime trails all across my skin. The hairy man dove into the lake and vanished beneath a huge cloud of steam and bubbles that came complete with the stink of burning hair and rotten leaves. I got him good, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it. The crocodile woman was still there, and she was standing right beside Ivy.
    “Now who might you two be?” she said. Her voice hadn’t changed a bit. It was still all silky and sophisticated, the kind that should belong to a lady at a cocktail party. Her eyes hadn’t changed either. They stayed big, beautiful, and way too close to human in her crocodile face.
    At her feet, Ivy rolled over. I bit my lip and forced my hands to stop trembling. If I could keep this woman’s attention on me, maybe Ivy would wake up enough to make a new wish. I could already feel Jack wishing she was gone, but I was awfully shaky and he wasn’t concentrating. Not his fault. Rougarou was crawling back out of the lake, his silver eyes shining and his mouth open to show all his sharp white teeth. It was kind of distracting.
    “Come, come, tell me. Who are you?” The fairy woman turned all the power of that beautiful voice toward me. Even looking at her lumpy crocodile face and twisty gray hair, I felt how pretty she was and how much I wanted to do what she said.
    “Who wants to know?” Jack dodged close to me, digging his hand into his pocket. He blanched and I knewthe nails were all gone. I’d dropped my hammer back in the grass somewhere. We were facing down the crocodile woman empty-handed.
    “Oh, where are my manners? You can call me Amerda.”
    “Pleased to meet you, Amerda,” I said with what Mama would have called my Sunday manners. I wasn’t about to tell her either of our names. Not only was I kind of famous in fairy circles, but names have power, so you don’t want to go giving yours out to just anybody. “Now you can take yourself out of here.”
    Amerda laughed. “Why would I leave my home?”
    “This ain’t your home.”
    “That’s where you’re wrong, little girl. This is my home, and
you’re
trespassing.”
    “You want to make something of it?” I snapped.
    “Why, yes, I think I do.” Amerda raised her hand.
    Jack was wishing again. He was wishing Rougarou and Amerda were gone, gone for good, shriveled up dead for preference. Now
there
was a wish I could take a solid hold of. But Ivy picked that moment to push herself upright.
    “Who’re you?” The little movie star blinked up at me. “What’re they doing here?” She blinked again, and this time she got a good look at what “they” were.
    Ivy Bright wailed at the top of her lungs. She grabbed my arm to yank herself to her feet, and almost pulled both of us over in the process. Amerda opened her crocodile mouth and laughed. Ivy clutched my neck and bawled.
    “What is she? What’s she want? Help! Somebody, help!
Help!
” She was screaming right in my ear now, and my hold on Jack’s wish slipped away.
    One glance at Jack