Return to the Shadows Read Online Free PDF

from the street in front
of me in wisps that curled into the warm night. The stores, the
library, the streets of Grandview were all familiar to me. Light
glowed in the distance and I ran in that direction to investigate,
only to stop short halfway across the square. The fences were on
fire.
    “Claire, wake up.” Mike was shaking me, and
it was a wonder I didn’t leap from the bed in shock.
    “I’m up. I’m up. You can stop that now!” I
shoved him away from me and tucked my hair behind my ears.
    “That must have been some dream. Care to
share?”
    “Mhhh.” I yawned. “What time is it?”
    “Six-thirty. Your alarm hasn’t even gone off
yet.”
    “Thank God I’m not late.”
    “No, you’re getting an early start to the
day, if not a pleasant one. What were you dreaming of?”
    “Grandview…I dreamt there was a terrible fire
in Bob and Marta’s old place. Next thing I knew, I was in Bell
Ridge by the town square and the fences were on fire.”
    “The protected fences?”
    “Yes.” I nodded. “Do you think a fire would
destroy them?”
    “Hard to say. I doubt it though. The
protection spells that were cast on those fences were supposed to
be very powerful.”
    “True,” I agreed as I unfolded myself from my
bed and crossed to my closet. “The fences that enclosed the
protected zones had a shimmer, both on the actual wood and around
it, remember?”
    “Yes, and if I recall correctly, none of
Kahn’s beasts could even get through that barrier to the wood of
the fence beneath.”
    “So the fences wouldn’t ever catch fire,
would they?”
    “In theory, no, they should not be able to
catch fire. Unless the protection spells were to somehow wear off
or be removed.”
    “Do spells wear off?”
    “You’re asking me? Now how would I know a
crazy thing like that? Really, Claire.” He sauntered from the room,
laughing at me as he went.
    “Oh, sure— that’s crazy!” I yelled after his
retreating form.
    I took my time dressing for the day in casual
clothing and low heels. After I dropped Ashley off at school, I had
to go to Plant and Herb’s downtown headquarters to do a
formal meet and greet with the staff and get my first assignment.
The day was a polar opposite from what I had been doing for the
past several years, and I found myself welcoming the change of
pace. Despite the previous night, my spirits were high as I pulled
up in front of Ashley’s elementary school an hour later.
    “Who’s picking me up from school?”
    “I am. I will be here at two-thirty to get
you.”
    “What about your job?” Ashley questioned with
wide eyes.
    “I got a new job, remember? Now I can pick
you up from school every day.”
    “Yay!” She bounced in her seat and graced me
with a gap-toothed smile. “Can we go out for ice cream after
school?”
    “We’ll see,” I grinned. “Now go on before
you’re late. Your teacher wouldn’t like that, would she?”
    “Nope. Bye, Mama!” The car door clicked
loudly as she slammed it and practically flew up the walkway and
through the elementary school’s wide double doors. I couldn’t help
but be proud. She was such a different child from the one I had
found wandering the streets of Haelport over a year ago. She was a
happier child. More secure, and thus, more outgoing and sure of
herself.
    Even though Ashley’s transformation hadn’t
come overnight, but gradually by hard won degrees, it still amazed
me. She had been so quiet, scared, and depressed at first. Could a
six-year-old be depressed? At any rate, she barely said two words
to anyone during the first three months she had lived among the
Roberts clan. She’d wet her bed frequently and had nightmares
several times a month. Normal bad dreams, near as I could tell.
Monsters and chasing and dogs with giant teeth. Although, I
reasoned as I swung into Plant and Herb’s parking garage,
there might have been something more to the “dogs with giant teeth”
that used to run through her dreams. It made me