The Dragon's Fate - Roxie Ray Page 0,61

send a nice Christmas gift or something as thanks.

Hayden and I stepped out the front door as I slipped my phone back into my purse. Hayden stopped short and looked at me in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

She shrugged, but I noticed the slightest light coming from under her shirt. I reached down and threaded my finger under the chain and pulled it from under her shirt.

The gems on the eyes of the dragon were glowing. Shit. Jace said it was protection. I looked around. I hadn’t been in a hurry today and by the time I got everything together and walked down to get Hayden, most of the students and quite a few of the teachers were gone. We’d walked down the hallways slowly after leaving her classroom, and now the parking lot of the school was nearly bare.

But Hayden still couldn’t seem to move. “Mommy, this is weird,” she whispered. The eyes on the dragon glowed a little brighter.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Why can’t I move?”

What in the hell was I supposed to tell her? “It’s just the wind,” I said.

She looked at me like I was crazy. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“I agree, cupcake.” I considered going back inside, but my instincts screamed for me to get to Jace. “We’re parked close.” I could see my car, and there was nobody in the parking lot at all. No cars parked near mine. “I’m going to pick you up and run for the car before this wind gets any worse, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay, Mommy.”

I balanced my bags in one hand and got my keys out, unlocking the car before we even left the school steps. Grabbing Hay up, I walked swiftly for the car. “We better hurry,” I said. Her chest was pressed to mine, and the dragon necklace trapped between us. It was warm, nearly hot. That didn’t make me feel more comforted. I broke into a jog as I crossed the small patch of grass separating the drop-off lane from the parking lot in front of the school. “Might start raining.”

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but I prayed she went along with it.

I opened the back door and plunked her into her seat, then launched myself into the driver’s seat and slammed my door. I had barely gotten my finger on the lock button when two hands slammed into my driver’s side window.

Damon—and he looked like absolute shit. His clothes were disheveled and his hair all over the place. “Mommy, Daddy looks scary and my necklace is hot.”

Damn it. How was I going to explain that away? “It’s body heat, and we’re not going to talk to Daddy today.”

I put the car in reverse, but Damon ran around and glared at me in the rearview mirror. I couldn’t back up without running him over, and I couldn’t go forward without going over the curb. I’d do that if I had to, but it wasn’t ideal. My car was pretty low to the ground.

For the moment, I was trapped. I cracked the window and put my mouth close to it. “Damon, move! I’ll run you over!”

He slammed his hands down on the trunk of the car, making Hayden jump and start to cry. “I’m not going anywhere!” he screamed.

I watched him in the rearview mirror, and then nearly jumped out of my skin when someone tapped on my window. A tiny woman stood at my door. She shouted through the crack in the window. “I’m Sammy.” She craned her head toward Damon, who was yelling something or another but oddly it was nearly impossible to hear him now. “He can’t see me. The necklace called me.”

I gaped at her until my brain connected the dots. It was the witch that gave Hayden the necklace. “Jace is on the way, and hoo, let me tell you, he is hot.” She laughed and winked at me. Ah, double entendre. I hadn’t gotten it at first. Too much going on.

“Mommy,” Hayden whispered. “She’s a witch.”

“Don’t be silly. Witches aren’t real.” My gaze flew between Sammy standing as if at her leisure beside my door and Damon beating on the back of the car, which was muted somehow. I guessed by Sammy.

“They are and I know it.”

I wasn’t about to argue with a seven-year-old about witches, especially not right now. I could just hear Damon. He was going on about taking Hayden from me. “You’ll never see her again!” he screamed, but to me, it sounded like a whisper.

Hayden did hear