side. “Wait! I see a skirt. It’s a woman . . . or a girl.”
“I see her,” Gabriel said. “Unless Devin’s hiding Excalibur in his bloomers, we should be safe.”
“Yeah, but it might be Morgan. Devin’s got the fangs, but she’s got the poison.” Elam shielded his eyes from the rain. “It doesn’t look like her, but Morgan can disguise herself as a toad if she wants to.”
Gabriel smirked. “Would she even need a mask for that?”
“Actually,” Patrick said, lifting a chain necklace over his head, “she bears a striking, even bewitching, beauty.” He dangled the pendant from his fingers. “Gabriel, take the gem and be ready to fly to the portal window, just in case.”
Gabriel hustled back to Patrick and closed his fingers around the pendant. He locked gazes with Patrick for a moment, then tightened his fist. “Let’s do it.”
As the female drew closer, Elam focused on her frilly bonnet, dark sunglasses, and white walking cane. Though her most striking features were covered, he could never mistake her pale skin, her slender, girlish form, and her distinctive, frantic trot. Sapphira was back!
Fighting the slick incline, Sapphira hurried up the long driveway. The hike from the tor’s portal had been long and wet, and asking for directions based on fleeting images and an obscure number from a dream had proved an embarrassing chore. “Why would a blind girl need such information?” one woman had said. “You shouldn’t be out on such a frightful day.” Yet, she finally gained the favor of an old newspaper deliveryman who answered her questions kindly, and now that she had reached the last turn in his rather convoluted directions, she knew she had found the right place. The two idols were exactly where she had seen them in her dream.
She stopped and pulled Yereq’s digital timer from her pocket. Just as she thought it might, the numbers now matched the address she had been looking for, “6913.” She slid it back into her pocket and drummed her fingers on her thigh. So many coincidences! Something big was about to happen.
At the top of the hill, three male figures watched her an adult, a boy with wings, and another young man, a very special young man she had longed to see for many years. Her legs trembled so hard she could barely stand. Elam was there, and he had spotted her. She was sure of it.
She waved, but Elam didn’t wave back. He just spoke to the man standing next to him. She took off her sunglasses and waved again. Maybe now Elam would recognize her.
A rumbling drone sounded from above. Sapphira glanced up at a low-flying airplane approaching the estate, but it caught her attention only for a second. She turned back to Elam, who was now waving frantically. “Hurry!” he called. “Get up here!”
Sapphira dropped her cane and broke into a mad dash, slipping at first before her bare feet caught the driveway’s blacktop. Spreading her arms to keep her balance, she sprinted up the slope. “Elam!” she cried. “You’re alive! Thank God, you’re alive!” She leaped into his embrace. As Elam spun her around, she bent her knees and lifted her feet into the air. When he let her down, she gripped his shoulders. “Elam, I just had to come and find you. Last night I dreamed what would happen today, and it was so real, I knew it had to be true. You’re in great danger.”
“I know.” Elam pointed toward the sky. “We think a dragon slayer’s in that airplane. But don’t worry. Patrick and I have it under control.”
Sapphira put her sunglasses back on and nodded at the winged boy. “Morgan wants him dead. We need to get him out of here.”
Elam squinted at her. “How could you dream about Gabriel? Do you know him?”
“Just from the dream. I also saw Patrick and his wife, and she’s in trouble, too.” Sapphira regripped his shoulders. “You have to get Gabriel away from this place!”
Patrick pointed upward. “A parachute opened. We can expect Devin to arrive in about a minute.”
Elam pulled a lighter from his pocket and set fire to the oil-soaked torch. “Gabriel is our bait. We’re going to get Devin to follow him and me to the portal, and I’ll send him to Hades.”
Sapphira laid a hand on Patrick’s back and pushed him toward Elam and Gabriel. “I’ll take care of the dragon slayer.” She pulled the cross from her waistband. “But you three had better get inside before Morgan