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

suddenly glad Keziah was part of this mission. Most black dogs just flung themselves straight ahead into any battle, but Keziah was twisty in her head. Even if she was angry and distrustful and a little bit scary, she was also always thinking , always clever.
    Keziah stood up, smooth and elegant like a movement from a dance, and set her hands on her hips. “We must spring this trap,” she said to Alejandro. “How else will we know what teeth it has? You can spring it. Then Amira and I will break all the teeth out of the trap and kill all our enemies.”
    Amira ducked her head and smiled around from behind her sister. Despite the child’s nervousness, it was not a shy smile, but a predatory one. It was the smile of a black dog who is watching her enemy make a mistake. Keziah glanced down and ruffled her sister’ short-cropped hair, a gesture that was almost human-fond. It was gestures like that that made Natividad want to like Keziah.
    Alejandro grinned. “We will do that,” he said. “But I think you are not used to working with a Pure girl.” He glanced over at Natividad. “You tell us,” he said. “What can you make, that will blunt the teeth in this trap?”
    Natividad nodded quickly, knowing they were committed. “Even if we don’t know exactly what the trap is, I think I can make something. I’ll use my maraña mágica as a base and make something that will fold over and around you, something to confuse the eyes of our enemies. But I don’t know if I can make it big enough to work for Keziah and Amira as well as you—”
    “That does not matter,” Keziah said smoothly. “We shall slip the eyes of our enemies without your little magic tricks, Pure girl.” She gave Alejandro a mocking look. “You should go out before us, as I said. Your little sister, she can give you this magic thing. Then you can go out to puzzle our enemies. When all eyes look toward you, Amira and I will come out and kill them all.”
    “That isn’t exactly what I had in mind!” Natividad protested, but Alejandro was smiling a dark, fierce black dog smile. He liked the idea, she could see.
    “Make your mágica,” Alejandro told her. “We do not have so much time before dawn, not so much we can think of many different ideas. But this is clever. This will work.”
    Natividad threw up her hands. “Black dogs!” she said, like a swear word. She pulled her maraña mágica out of her pocket and shook it out, stalking away toward the front of the van to get her little silver knife.
    A maraña mágica was a tangled net of light, looking more than anything like a spiderweb of luminescent silk. It had neither mass nor shape, but, flung across the path of an enemy, it was very effective in confusing his steps. Natividad held her maraña mágica up and studied it.
    Pure magic was defensive. She knew that. Everyone knew that. But, her mother had taught her, some kinds of defense could be aggressively defensive.
    She knew what she wanted. That was important. She didn’t have her mother’s little flute, nor any aparatos, the tools used by the Pure to capture and weave light. But she had her silver knife and she had this maraña , and she knew what she wanted. Biting her lip in concentration, she began to cut one strand here and another there, freeing just a little bit of moonlight, tying the strands back into a different shape. Some of the light would be lost. She couldn’t help that. It was good that the maraña need protect only Alejandro; she didn’t think she could weave its new shape wide enough to cover two black dogs, certainly not three . . . her eyes burned. She hadn’t blinked in some time, she realized. A child’s mistake. She should know better. She blinked hard and rubbed her face, tangles of luminous spidersilk wavering in her mind’s eye.
    “Well?” Keziah said behind her. “The night is passing. How much longer will your magic take, girl?”
    Natividad glanced up, embarrassed, but Alejandro, scowling, was already