Page 60 of Last Call at the Doghouse

“But…”

“No time to argue. Your aunt and her friends aren’t fast, but if you wait too long, they will reach the light before you do.”

Sure enough, Helen, Ramona, and Ginger were scurrying toward the light. Fortunately, they didn’t walk very fast.

In answer to Silas’s call, Judge lumbered away from the defeated couple on the street. They were both powerless, at least for now.

“Come on, then.” It wasn’t as if she wanted to do this alone. Much as she wanted to know that Mitch would live on, she didn’t understand what this ascent might mean. Would she cease to exist? Live on in another world? Watch over Mystic Springs forever? If there was anything other than obliteration waiting for her, she wouldn’t mind having company…

They’d reach the circle of light before the old women, she could tell, though the older ladies looked her way and attempted to increase their pace. Tobias and Vince were right behind them; they obviously had the same idea Mitch did. If they couldn’t save their women, they’d go with them.

When she was no more than three feet away from the circle of light, something, someone, bumped into Armi hard. Her initial thought was Sonny, still trying to stop her, but then long blond hair brushed past her face.

Was Mary trying to do what Sonny could not and take Armi out before the deed was done? Maybe the spell wasn’t entirely gone…

Mary no longer carried the knife Sonny had given her. Her hands were free. Maybe her heart was free, too. She leapt into the circle of light, turned to Armi, smiled, and said, “This is my burden now, my price to pay. Love you, my friend.”

“No!” Armi instinctively reached out; her fingers came within inches of the light. Mitch’s hand clamped over her wrist and pulled her back.

The woman in the circle of light disintegrated before Armi’s eyes. She broke apart, became a part of the light before being drawn up and up and up. And then she was gone.

The piercing scream that filled the air was Sonny’s. Not because Mary was gone but because he’d lost.

He’d lost spectacularly.

Sonny had managed to work his way to his knees and grab the knife Mary had discarded. He was no longer handsome or fit. His clothes were grimy and misshapen on his suddenly small body. He faded. He shrank, and it had nothing to do with the wound in his leg. One side of his face sagged; he looked older, almost frail. He looked like a snake that had been run over by a truck and left on the road to wither and die.

“This is what you’ve done to me,” he said, looking at Armi. “Why couldn’t you just let me win?”

Not a word for Mary, not a single regret…

The man on his knees had all but murdered Mary. Armi wanted to kill him with her bare hands, but warrior or not, shield or not, that wasn’t her way. She’d see him in the Mystic Springs jail before the night was out, though. After that he wouldn’t be her problem anymore. Springers had a way of dispensing their own justice.

Before Travis could reach Sonny to set that justice into motion, the birds that had been working at the wizard’s direction for who knows how long swarmed down. They surrounded the broken man, pecking and tearing at his clothes and flesh. Sonny screamed again and again… and then he was silent.

The birds lifted up and broke away as one entity, then a heartbeat later they flew into the night sky, scattering in all directions. There wasn’t much left of Sonny, once they were done with him. Just as there hadn’t been much left of Carlton…

The entire street was silent for several long seconds until Silas said, “The birds really didn’t like being ordered around. They hated being directed to kill.”

That statement broke the spell, and people started moving away. Travis declared this year’s autumnal equinox over. There would be no more celebration tonight. No more music. Armi wanted to take the time to thank every woman who’d come here tonight, every man who’d stood beside their woman, their shield, but no one hung around waiting for thanks. They were going home.

Armi looked up, studying the darkening sky. She couldn’t see anything, but she knew the barrier that protected the magic of Mystic Springs was now in place. Maybe Mary was gone. Maybe she was watching.

“I was ready to die,” Armi said.

Mitch wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Let’s get out of here, now. We can go to The Doghouse or my cabin, or anywhere else you want to go, but I don’t want to stay here.”

“Neither do I.” She kissed him then, and it was the sweetest kiss she’d ever known. She was alive. He was alive.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” he said.

“Me, too. She lost her way.” Sonny had helped that along, but something in Mary had been broken for the spell to take so well and last so long. Grief had made her vulnerable.

“She found her way at the end.”

Armi nodded. She was going to miss Mary, the woman who’d followed her to Angel Lake and found obsession, absolution, and death. She would grieve for Mary for a long while.

She would not grieve for Sonny Camden.