Pet Psychic Mysteries Boxset Books 5-8 (Magic Market Mysteries Book 2) by Erin Johnson (reading diary .TXT) 📗

All my concern drained, and I shot her a flat look. Seriously?

She sneezed again and again. Then shook her head, wet ears flapping. She let out a pitiful whine. That witch hit me. I couldn’t move. Her back legs twitched and then she scrambled toward me, her nails scratching my bare belly and arms.

“Ow! Hey!”

She threw her giant paws over my shoulders and I hugged her around her middle, now face-to-face with the dog, like we were slow dancing. I huffed and growled. Stop thrashing! You’re scratching me up!

She cocked her head to the side as her big, dark eyes blinked at my face. She groaned. You look like a wet rat.

“Okay.” I released her, and she splashed back into the water, front legs pumping as she swam in a little circle. I called over my shoulder back to Peter. “Yeah, she’s fine.”

Daisy barked and barked. Ooh! That witch! I want to bite her face off.

I barked back. You and me both, Days. I chugged through the water toward the gray outline of thatched buildings up ahead—the human mainland. I called back to Peter. “Cover us!”

“You got it!” Spells flew overhead, and the shaky light from Peter’s wand found Pearl again.

My socked feet scrambled over the loose pebbles and sharp grasses on the ground, the water low enough now to make walking faster than swimming. Daisy soon outdistanced me, but she zigged and zagged to avoid Pearl’s spells. Meanwhile, Peter kept firing on the woman from behind us. Between trying to fend off Peter and Daisy, Pearl slowed, and I soon caught up with her.

I dipped my head under the surface of the water, pushed off the bottom, and held my breath as I zipped toward Pearl. The flashes of the spells lit the water enough for me to spot her legs. Daisy’s paws kicked up sand and silt as she circled the witch, and once Pearl turned away from me, I wrapped my arms around her legs and pulled her under.

31

Caught

Inspector Bon glared at Pearl with his beady little eyes. “Thought you were going to get away with it, didn’t you?”

She stood, dripping wet and shivering, with a brown wool blanket draped around her shoulders. A pool of water gathered under her bare feet on the docks, and a pair of magical, glowing handcuffs bound her wrists in front of her. She glared at him, black smears of mascara staining her cheeks. “It was a good plan.”

Bon scoffed. “It would’ve been! If you hadn’t gotten greedy and killed your sister.”

She scowled and bared her teeth. “I was just being smart.”

I curled my lip. Not a word I’d ever use to describe that woman, but okay.

“My sister was always jealous of me. I had to look out for numero uno! It was just a matter of time before she did the same to me—I just acted first!”

Wow. Almost made me glad I didn’t have any siblings. Of course, I’d grown up with a couple dozen other kids in the orphanage, so they sort of counted. And say what you would about a bunch of shifter kids from the Darkmoon District, but none of them had ever tried to kill me.

Peter and I stood nearby, similar police blankets wrapped around our shoulders. Luckily, he continued to cast the warming spell on us, so despite being half naked, wet, and shoeless, I felt pretty comfortable.

Chief McCray strolled up and handed us each a steaming cup of coffee. “Least I could do for you two.” She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a bone-shaped dog treat. Daisy, who sat with her damp fur sticking up at all angles beside Peter, pricked her ears.

“And who’s a good girl, hm? Yes. Good girl!” She held out the treat, and Daisy’s black nose twitched as she sniffed it. She delicately took it in her front teeth, rose, and trotted down the dock with it to eat in private.

I rolled my eyes and glanced after her, whining quietly. Since when do you need privacy? The world is your toilet—you’re practically an exhibitionist.

She glanced back and glared at me, growling around the treat. Says the woman in her underwear.

I clicked my tongue. She had me there.

Bon jerked his head. “Get her out of here.”

Two cops escorted the drenched Pearl away, and Chief McCray winked at us. “Nice work, you two. Well, three with Daisy.” She clapped Peter hard on the shoulder. “Keep it up, Flint.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You doing something different with that?” She stroked her own chin.

Peter’s cheeks reddened under his scruff.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess some women find that attractive.” She shrugged and strutted over to Bon, leaving Peter and me alone, a little aside from the other officers who bustled about the dock and examined the contents of the sack Pearl had been dragging behind her. A lady officer drew out a handful of gleaming gold merkles. Guess they found the missing life insurance payout.

I hugged the blanket tight around me, water trickling down my back and pooling under my bare feet. We stood in silence for a few moments, watching Daisy chomp on her treat, a gray dawn gradually lightening around us. With the tide out, only puddles of water remained in the marshy stretch of land between the human village and Bijou Mer.

I took a sip of the still too hot coffee and burned my tongue. Peter glanced over. Without a word, the tip of his wand emerged from his blanket, and a chilly breeze blew over the top of my coffee.

He looked back ahead. “Should be cool enough to drink now.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Thanks.”

He kept his eyes on the distant land ahead of us. “You should have told me, you know.” His throat bobbed. “You lied to me. That’s what I’m most upset about.”

I glanced back and found all the cops