Magical Misfire Read Online Free PDF Page A

at them.
    “Put them in the bag!” Sally shouted, bouncing up and down.
    Bryn raised the water-filled plastic bag and I shook my arm. They held tight like little leeches. I grabbed one by his slimy-haired head, giving it a firm squeeze until he opened his mouth to screech. I dropped him in the bag and did the same with his companion.
    “One more. There’s just one more. In you go,” Sally said, her phantom hand trying to give my arm a push.
    Dots of blood welled on my hand. Dang it! At least they’d probably heal clean. The tail scales of full-sized merrows have healing properties, so bites from small merrows probably wouldn’t be a problem. I hoped.
    “If you want the spell to undo your little dollies, you’ll get me the last of those merrows,” she said with a tight-lipped expression.
    I sucked in a bracing breath and ducked my hand back under the water. Bryn held the bag in one hand and swirled his other hand in the water, whispering magic. A sharp pinch made my breath catch. I whipped my arm up and grabbed the silver-haired lady merrow’s head. I pinched her. She dug her needle teeth in deeper. I cursed and gave my hand a hard shake, causing her body to whip back and forth. Her glimmering tail dropped tiny crystalline scales into the water.
    I grasped her small face and pinched until she opened her mouth. A quick maneuver freed her splintery teeth from my hand and I dropped her into the bag.
    “Is that all of them?” Bryn asked.
    “Yes! Finally! Let’s go,” Sally said.
    “Not so fast,” a throaty voice said. The house’s back door stood open, and a voluptuous bleach-blond woman in a white terry-cloth robe stalked toward us with a pistol pointed in our direction. “Drop that bag back in the fountain. Careful now,” she said, brandishing the gun. “I’ve got a twitchy trigger finger. I don’t want to have to explain to the police why I’ve shot an intruder in my yard for the third time in twelve years.”
    Bryn drew in a slow breath. “No one has the right to keep supernatural creatures prisoner.”
    “The fish come with the fountain. My mother willed it to me when she died sixty years ago.” Sixty years ago? The woman only looked about forty-five. “Sal’s been trying to steal them for years.”
    “They’re not fish and they don’t belong to your mam and never did,” Sal snapped. “I brought them from the sea and your mam stole them from a bowl in my room on the night of the great storm.”
    “Drop that bag in the fountain,” the woman ordered.
    Bryn stared her down. “How did they get to be this size?” he asked Sally. “There are sea nymphs and other small water creatures, but merrows are human-sized.”
    Sally plucked at one of her overteased curls. “So they are. Unless they’re the victims of a spell.”
    “If you cast the spell that shrank them, your magic should’ve dissipated when you died. Why didn’t they return to their normal size?”
    “I said drop that bag!” the blonde screeched. Bryn murmured a phrase in Gaelic and thrust out a hand. The gun popped free of her grasp, fell to the ground, and skidded a few feet. “I’ll kill you!” she screamed, darting for the weapon.
    I barreled forward and dove on top of her. We rolled over and over. She had at least fifty pounds on me, but I’m scrappy. A punch square to her nose made a crunching sound that was followed by a spray of blood and a wail of curses.
    I grabbed the gun and struggled to my feet with my costume tangled around my legs. “Quiet down!” I snapped as she shouted. The area directly around us was industrial, but the streets full of tourists were only a few blocks away. You never knew when someone might wander by.
    The woman pinched her nose and then scooped up a handful of fountain water and splashed it on her face. Her swollen nose stopped bleeding, and over the next few moments, its swelling went down.
    “You’re not taking them. They’re mine! I need them,” she said.
    “They’re not pets!