Pure Magic (Black Dog Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

strength and confidence, and the ironic look that would come into his eyes when he realized Dimilioc’s enemies had laid a trap for him, and . . . she just missed him.
    She wondered if he was missing her, too, tonight. And then made herself stop, because that was just ridiculous. Of course Ezekiel, off on his own assignment, would only be thinking about that. He wouldn’t be thinking about her at all. If he knew how often she thought about him, he would probably . . . well, actually, he would no doubt think that was just fine.
    Not that she would let on. Ever.
    And in the meantime, she had a mission, which she ought to be thinking about. Unless she could get Keziah to agree that they should just slip away without springing any traps that Dimilioc’s enemies had set for them.
    Amira shivered again, and Keziah’s expression softened. She put an arm around her little sister’s shoulders, pulling her gently into a brief, careful embrace before letting her go again with a reassuring pat. “It does not matter,” she promised Amira. “Natividad will work her magic, and you and I, we will turn this trap back on our enemies. They will be sorry they challenged us .”
    Keziah sounded quite unafraid. Amira nodded, happier. Amira never looked really happy, but that was the scar. It ran from the corner of the little girl’s mouth all the way across her cheek toward her ear. It pulled her mouth sideways, so that no smile could look normal on her face. Natividad had no idea how Amira had been scarred like that—well, no; she knew the cut must have been made with a silver knife, and she suspected someone had cut the child deliberately. She didn’t know for sure. It was just something everyone thought, because Amira was so timid and Keziah so fierce. She hated to think of it. She hoped at least that Keziah had killed whoever had done that to her little sister. But she would never dare ask. Keziah was the last person anybody would ask about something like that.
    Keziah and Amira both suddenly turned their heads toward the back of the van, and after a moment Natividad, too, heard the light rattle and click as someone turned a key in the van’s lock. Then Alejandro quietly opened the door and stepped up into the van. Natividad let her breath out with relief.
    Alejandro was much taller than Natividad, which was only fair because he was older. But he was also tall simply because he’d gotten Papá’s height, and Natividad took very much after Mamá’s family.
    But Alejandro did look very Mexican. Not as much as Natividad, but enough that it was hard to see their father’s American blood in him unless you knew it was there. But their father’s blood was important, because he had been a Toland, from one of the most important Dimilioc bloodlines. That was an advantage Keziah would never be able to claim.
    Alejandro soundlessly closed the van door behind him, glanced around at the rest of them, and said without preamble, “This is certainly a trap.”
    Keziah rolled her beautiful dark eyes. Natividad said quickly, before her brother could take issue with Keziah’s attitude, “Yes, of course! But what did you find, ’Jandro? Can we just slip away? Or is there a Pure woman here that we need to rescue?”
    Her brother, who had been staring narrowly at Keziah, allowed himself to be distracted. He crossed the narrow space and crouched down by Natividad’s side, studying her trouvez . But it showed nothing now but a faint glimmer of cool moonlight. “What did your magic show you?” he asked her. “Something different?”
    “It was hard to see,” Natividad said apologetically. “A white dove, in a birdcage made of burning wire. I saw that. The wires break and fly through the dark like arrows. There is dark all around, and in the dark, red eyes burning. Black dogs, watching from the dark. So I know they are watching for us.”
    Alejandro nodded. “There is also a feel to that house. A heaviness to the shadows. No stupid young