Tracking Magic: A Rylee Adamson Short Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

made it to the car and she had this sword and while the snake had you in its loops, Giselle cut its head off.” Milly took a deep breath. “You really meant it, didn’t you. That you’d keep me safe.”
    I closed my eyes, tried not to move anything but my lips. “Yes, I meant it.”
    The sound of cloth rustling made me open my eyes. Giselle crouched down beside Milly, sword in hand. “You did good.”
    “I would have been killed if you hadn’t been here. I don’t think that’s too good,” I said, as I rolled carefully to one side, easing to my hands and knees. Damn, broken ribs, who knew they could be so incapacitating?
    Giselle helped me to my feet, a funny little smile on her face. “Sometimes the fight isn’t about winning. Sometimes it’s simply about getting the job done.”
    I lifted my eyes to the sky. “No more life lessons today. I’ve had about all I can handle.”
    The three of us made our way back to the car with no more surprises. Once we were on the highway heading home, I asked about the snake’s body, what would happen to it?
    Giselle didn’t answer me, not right away. “You don’t touch a supernatural’s body once they die. They all have their ways of being taken back to the beginning.”
    Milly asked the question that hummed through me. “Won’t the humans see it though?”
    Checking her shoulder and merging into the slow lane, Giselle then shook her head. “No. Humans see what they want to, not what truly it. Get used to it girls. This is your life now.”
    We didn’t go to the hospital. Broken ribs sucked, but I couldn’t take pain killers, they made me loopy. So we went straight home.
    Milly crashed almost immediately when we got back home, slumping on the couch in a deep sleep that could only come from exhaustion. Giselle beckoned to me with one hand. I followed her out onto the porch, shuffling along as best I could, one arm around my middle bracing against the pain.
    Closing the door behind us, Giselle put her arm around my shoulders and leaned in so she could whisper in my ear. “Milly still has the demon stone. We must remove it from her.”
    I blinked several times; tired and hurt I wasn’t at my best. “She said she threw it away.”
    Shaking her head Giselle’s eyes were sad. “She’s lying. I can read the darkness on her, like an imprint. I didn’t see it at first I was too busy trying to keep Seps from crushing you.”
    “Seps . . .you mean the snake?”
    Giselle nodded, a frown on her face. “Don’t ask me about Seps. That is for another time. Right now we must deal with Milly. She carries the demon stone still and it is infesting her.”
    Neither of us heard the door open.
    Not until we were both bound by invisible threads and dragged inside the house, did I realize we were in deep shit. Again. Whatever held me pressed into my ribs, constricting the broken bones and jamming them against my lungs. Fuck. I couldn’t breathe.
    Milly stood there in front of us wringing her hands, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry, I can’t let you take the stone from me. It’s the last thing I have of my father’s.”
    “Please,” I whispered. “Can’t breathe.”
    The bands around me loosened up a fraction and I slumped against them, still held in the air, but no longer fighting for breath.
    Beside me, Giselle glared at Milly. Milly shook in front of us, her whole body quaking. “I can’t let you take the stone.”
    “I got that much,” I said. “But why? Why do you need a demon stone?”
    Big, fat, tears leaked out of her eyes and streaked her dirty cheeks. “My father sold me to him. I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry.”
    The bands around me tightened again and I squeaked in protest. “No, don’t squeeze me. Who were you sold to?”
    Milly slid to the floor, her legs buckling under her. “My master’s name is Orion, like the constellation. But he’s not kind or good, and I can’t escape him. If I lose the stone, he’ll kill me.”
    What a big ass mess this