A Tale of 3 Witches by Barbra Annino, Christiana Miller Read Free Book Online

fling the shimmery gossamer web at her aunt's chest.
    Fiona stirred, color and warmth rushing into her skin.
    Great. One down, two to go, Stacy thought, looking over at Mara's and Gus's bodies. They were starting to turn blue.
    Stacy was so dizzy the room was spinning. But she had to concentrate for one last astral trip. She had to go back for Mara and Gus. She swallowed and closed her eyes to keep from throwing up. Then she concentrated on Henderson's room.
    *   *   *
    Henderson's room fizzled into focus, but just barely. Stacy could see Mara struggling. Punching, biting and kicking Henderson as he throttled her. He seemed to be enjoying their physical challenge, but when Stacy made it all the way back through, back into his room, he growled and lifted Mara high over the gaping, bubbling black vortex again.
    " No !" Stacy screamed.
    Mr. Henderson let go, laughing.
    Stacy leapt over the vortex. The force of her charge knocked Mara from the center of the vortex and sent her flying across the room.
     As Stacy landed on the other side of the vortex, she twisted and plunged her dagger into Mr. Henderson's stomach.
    The ephemeral blade shimmered, then flashed like a lightning bolt as it entered him.
    He stumbled, then laughed maniacally as Stacy pulled the blade out and the wound instantly healed. "You can't hurt me, Seeker. I am immortal."
    "You have to sever the connection!" Mara yelled.
    "What?!" As Stacy evaded the Soul Stealer, she was able to kick the sword to Gus's outstretched hand.
    As soon as his fingers closed around the sword's hilt, Gus was able to throw off the enchantment that the Soul Stealer had laid on him.
    Mara yelled, "Cut the head off the snake!"
    Gus let out a warrior yell as he roared up off the floor. Then, in one sweep, he leapt up in a twisting motion, sliced the sword right through Henderson's spinal column at the base of his neck, and landed on his feet.
    Stacy halfway expected blood and tissue and body fluids to spurt from Henderson, but that's not at all what the three of them saw.
    What they saw was a white light, like a fourth of July sparkler, popping out from every cell of Henderson's body. Then the body slumped to the floor, unconscious, and the vortex immediately sucked into itself and disappeared.
    Stacy, Mara and Gus looked at each other.
    "We did it! Holy shit, we actually did it!" Gus grinned. And then they were forcibly yanked out of the room and back to the basement.
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    The three of them spluttered back to consciousness, to see Birdie dumping out pitchers of ice water on them.
    "Knock it off," Stacy snapped. "That's freezing cold."
    Lolly grinned. "Good to have you back, toots. You had us worried. You three certainly took long enough."
    Birdie interrupted. "Did you finish it?"
    Stacy nodded, shivering.
    Gus sat up and grabbed discarded blankets from the floor. He tossed one each to Mara and Stacy, and wrapped the third around himself.
    Mara looked at Fiona. "She's looking a lot better."
    Just then, Fiona yawned and sat up. "I'm starving. Where's my coffee and pumpkin pie? And I want extra whipped cream."
    Lolly giggled and hugged her sister. Birdie clasped her hands together in relief. And the rest of the coven broke out in spontaneous applause.
    *   *   *
    While the rest of the coven was grounding out on cookies, pumpkin pie and brandy, Birdie, Lolly, Stacy, Mara and Gus went to check on their conquest. Stacy noticed that the hallway was back to it's original state. And the room number on the door read two instead of owt. And this time, when Birdie touched the doorknob, the door swung open, revealing Mr. Henderson, laying on the floor, sound asleep. So they all backed out of the room and quietly closed the door.
    *   *   *
    Mr. Henderson came down early the next morning, disconcerted and unsure of where he was and how he had arrived there. He had a wicked migraine, his neck was incredibly stiff and the only thing he wanted to do was to go