Opal's Wish: Book Four of The Crystal Warriors Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

care. Whatever the future held, his most pressing priority was to see Sera safely removed from her influence as soon as humanly possible. He could only thank the gods she was not Sera’s
mother
. That would have been a fine nest of sand-vipers.
    He bent, grasped Ryan’s wrists, and slung the stripling facedown over his shoulder. “After you,” he said to Liza, not trusting her at his back.
    “Wh-where’re you taking him,” she asked, her voice pitched high with strain and worry.
    “Away from here.” He decided it prudent not to inform the girl he intended to locate the front entrance of this abode and toss Ryan out on his arse. She would learn his intentions soon enough. And if Ryan didn’t happen to bounce when he hit the ground, it would be no concern of Danbur’s.
    “Put him in Liza’s car. She can drive him home.” Sera sounded rather delighted by the turn of events. “And I won’t tell my mom about you and Ryan having S-E-X if you promise you’ll never babysit me again. Or anyone else I know, either. Okay, Liza?”
    The older girl stopped dead and swiveled to face them, her face a twisted mask. “You little b—”
    “You are in no position to make threats, Liza,” Danbur interrupted. “You are in the wrong here, not Sera.”
    “But I haven’t been paid,” she whined. “And I need the money!”
    “Perhaps you should have thought about that before you invited this piece of scum into Sera’s home and broke the trust her mother placed in you.”
    She absorbed the expression on his face, swallowed and turned away.
    Scuttling so quickly she was on the brink of running, Liza headed down a flight of stairs at the end of the short corridor. Danbur increased his stride to keep up with her. Beside him, Sera’s glee was so palpable he could almost see it.
    Little fiend. Pride bloomed in his chest and he bit back a grin… which quickly faded as he recalled Sera’s misery when she had told him of Ryan’s cruel taunts. He should have dragged the idiot boy from the room by his hair. After gelding him with a blunt instrument.
    Once downstairs, Liza tugged open a sturdy door and then they were outside. More stairs, leading to a pathway running parallel to a wide expanse of dense black road. Danbur had travelled paved roadways before, but none as smooth and even and perfectly formed as this.
    Multi-story buildings of a similar construction and configuration to Sera’s abode dotted the area. Evenly spaced sturdy poles, strung with black ropes of some sort, stood like sentinels guarding the buildings on the opposite side. Jutting from the poles were oddly constructed lanterns, which threw out such bright, uniform pools of illumination that it took Danbur a moment to realize it was a moonless night. And then he was confronted by another miracle, a… a…
conveyance
the likes he’d never laid eyes upon before. It was so alien that he could barely comprehend what he was seeing.
    This must be the— What had Sera called it again?
    Car
.
    Liza fished something shiny and metallic from her bag, and poked it at the conveyance. She fiddled with a latch of some sort, and then a door swung open. “Put him in the backseat,” she said, and climbed into the front of the conveyance, tossing her bag on a seat next to her.
    Danbur glanced at Sera for assistance.
    In answer, Sera darted forward and opened a rear door, swinging it wide.
    Danbur bent his knees, leaned inside the car, and none-too-gently dumped Ryan’s limp form onto the seat. When he straightened, Sera slammed the door shut and tugged him away. “Liza’s real mad,” she said. “She might do something real stupid, like try’n run you over with the car.”
    “She is welcome to try,” he said, but allowed Sera to lead him back toward the house.
    A roar split the air. Danbur glanced over his shoulder to see bright lights issuing from the conveyance. To his amazement, the car lurched into motion and rolled away at a speed a stable-master would envy. And