to have some fun, and I didn’t feel bad for the coven, not one bit.
Eric touched his throat as if his bowtie were still there. “What can I do?”
“I’m calling up Skeletor,” I said as I showed them the tiny map of the amusement park on the edge of the water. A lagoon sat in the center of it, and it had overflowed, flooding a number of the rides. I pointed them to the Jocos Mardi Gras. “I can ride him across town without being seen, which will help me get close to the coven. Robert and Jinx will come with me—”
Suzy put a hand on my arm, stopping me. “Jinx is here?”
I opened my bag and scooped out the tiny spider. “See?”
Jinx waved. “What are we doing?”
“Rescue mission,” I said. “You in?”
She shrugged. “Sure, why not. It’ll take my mind off my broken heart.”
“Sarge is gay, Jinx, and a werewolf,” I said. “It never would have worked.”
“Bah, let me have my fantasy,” she grumbled. “You have yours, thinking Crash is into you.”
I stuffed her back into my bag with a little more force than necessary. “I don’t know if Skeletor can take all three of us.” I looked at Eric and Suzy.
Suzy grinned. “I can get us there through the lagoon. They won’t even think to look there.”
I gave her a quick nod and put a hand on her arm. “Wait on the outskirts. We need to be as subtle as we can—the coven warned Penny to come alone, and she said they’re very strong, if not very good with their magic. My plan is to slip in through the back of the ride and grab Charlotte . . .”
Eric touched his throat. “They won’t be able to see me. Perhaps I should go for Charlotte? Suzy can be my back up. You and Robert take the front door.”
He was right, and I agreed. “Good idea. And Charlotte knows you.”
“She’ll be asking for cookies in no time,” Suzy said. “Don’t worry. This will work, Bree.”
Did she see my fear? My worry that it wouldn’t work and we’d get Charlotte hurt or bound up in the Coven of Darkness?
I gave her a thumbs up. “Of course, it will. It has to.” But even as I said it, my guts knotted up. This was the biggest job I’d tackled yet, not because of what we were doing, per se, but because of what was at stake. Charlotte. Gran. The friends I’d gathered along the way.
I swallowed hard on the bile that tried to claw its way up my throat.
Eric clapped a big hand on my shoulder. “We will get them out, Bree. We’re a team.”
My eyes watered, but before I could say anything else, he and Suzy jogged out of the house. I took a single cleansing breath and followed closely on their heels. Once outside, I held out a hand. “Robert? You around?”
He sidled up on my left as if he’d been waiting for me, swaying from side to side. “Friend.”
“We need Skeletor. Can we call him up here?” Shit, I should have made sure of this before I hinged my entire plan on our ability to call up an undead horse with a home base in Savannah.
But my concern was unfounded. We were in a city of the dead, and all Robert had to do was point a finger at the ground, and the horse pulled himself up out of the lawn one hoof at a time. Once he’d fully emerged, he stood next to me, shaking dirt from his mane and coat.
He was still missing chunks of hair and flesh here and there, but he was becoming more solid with each ride we took together.
Alan float-walked out of the house. “Where are you going?”
“To save a little girl,” I pulled myself onto Skeletor’s back and held out a hand for Robert so I could help him up. He was surprisingly heavy for a bony guy, and it took a little bit of grunting to get him up behind me, his bony fingers clutching my waist.
Alan frowned. “Can I help? With the kid, I mean.”
For a man with serious narcissistic behaviors, it was a big deal he’d even offered. “If you can listen to me and not get in the way, yes, I think you could.”
Who knew how many people we’d be up against? Without Kinkly to do recon, maybe Alan really could help. Very few people could see him, and even if they could, they wouldn’t know he