Croakies & Scream Read online

  The little hobgoblin swallowed and twined his long fingers tightly around my hand. “Yes, Miss. I don’t feel so good.”

  “I know, Hobs. You’re not going to be able to keep your promise to me and be good over the next couple of days. So we need to put you someplace safe. Do you understand?”

  He looked worried but nodded after only a slight hesitation. “Hobs doesn’t want to be bad, Miss.”

  “I know. Will you let me keep you and Croakies safe?”

  “Yes, Miss.”

  “Good. Wait right there.” I dialed Sebille’s number and waited until she answered.

  “What? I’m busy.”

  “Too busy to save your little buddy?” I turned the phone so she could see Hobs. He had chocolate spread all over his lips and chin, and his teeth were still brown with it when he grinned at her and waved.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Twenty minutes later, Hobs was safely locked away in a shrink-enchanted metal box, which had once held a miniaturized dragon and currently held a miniaturized hobgoblin and a pile of brownies. Sebille had also given Hobs her phone, so he could play games, surf the net, and call her when he ran out of brownies.

  I was feeling pretty good about my solution for one problem, at least.

  Now on to the next one.

  Grym was using the key he’d gotten from the owner to open Mirror World’s front door. “You look ridiculous in that thing.” He pushed the door open and indicated I should enter in front of him.

  I adjusted the gold mask, feeling ridiculous. “I know. But it will keep me safe, no matter what we find in there.”

  He nodded as I stepped through the door. “I have to admit it is ingenious.”

  “Why thank you, kind sir.” I gave him a shallow little bow. As I moved into the store, my shoes crunched over seemingly endless shards of shattered glass.

  I stopped and looked out over the huge space, horrified by the extent of the damage. “Woodpecker knees,” I murmured. “This is horrible.”

  “That’s a lot of rage,” Grym offered.

  I couldn’t disagree. “The thinning veil must have amped the thing up.”

  We stood looking around for a moment before Grym spoke up again. “Where do you want to start?”

  I tried to remember the dream that had inspired me to return to Mirror World. It was hazy and vague, not helpful at all. “I’m not sure. Let’s start in the back room. Maybe they keep some mirrors back there for repair or something. They might have been missed.”

  “Good thought.” He pointed toward a distant gray metal door. “Manager’s office is back there.”

  I followed him back, both of our heads on a swivel. “Did you speak to the manager when you were here before?”

  “No. Just the kid who was working here.”

  I was glad the kid was okay. He was annoying, but he didn’t deserve to die at the hands of a nasty doppelganger spirit.

  I didn’t see a single mirror in the enormous place that hadn’t been shattered. The devastation was complete. Even the bigger, heavier mirrors on the high shelves around the walls were shattered, a few of them had even been knocked over in the assault.

  I settled a sad glance on the frog-shaped mirror and frowned. Maybe I’d ask the manager if he’d sell it to me anyway. I could always get new glass for it.

  The thought made me smile.

  Grym pushed through the door into the stocking and office area, and we looked around. Glass sparkled from the long, plywood-topped table in the center and caught the overhead fluorescent light from the floor. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the devastation on the floor of the store, but all visible mirrors had been broken the same way. There just hadn’t been as many of them.

  “I bet that’s more mirrors.” Grym pointed to several large boxes leaning against the wall across the room. “I’ll start there.”

  “Okay.” I jerked my chin toward a door on the sidewall. “I’ll go check the office while you do that.” I left him to muscle the boxes off the new stock and headed for the open door and the golden light that spilled out onto the bare concrete floor beyond the doorway.

  I was shocked to see the mess inside the office. Papers were strewn about the floor. The room’s only chair was toppled and torn, as if someone had stomped on the seat with cleated shoes. Or ripped it with claws.

  I shuddered. I hadn’t thought a doppelganger could climb out of a mirror unless its target was on the other side. Could the thinning veil have given the thing extra zing?

  I saw no mirrors in the office, but a cheap print of a bunch of dogs playing cards was on the floor, the glass inside its frame shattered. That glass had probably broken when the print hit the floor, rather than at the hand of an angry doppelganger.

  Still, I gave the glass and the print a wide berth, skirting the desk with the intention of checking the desk drawers.

  I didn’t quite make it to the drawers.

  I jolted to a stop as I rounded the desk, finding a woman’s shoe on the floor near the overturned chair. It was a pretty pump. Sage green with a two-inch heel. And it had a woman’s foot inside of it.

  6

  Annoying Water Weight

  “Grym!” I screamed, backing away so I didn’t spoil the scene. “I need you in here, stat!”

  Heavy footsteps hurried my way, and the detective suddenly filled most of the doorway. “What’s wrong?” Even as he asked the question, his knowing gaze slipped over the room, cataloging all the signs that violence had invaded.

  I backed toward him, pointing toward the barely visible heel near the desk leg. “I’m guessing that’s the manager.”

  He reached toward the small of his back and pulled out a gun. It surprised me. I hadn’t realized he’d been carrying one and wondered why he pulled it after the fact. Then I realized. If the manager had been recently killed, the killer could still be in the store.

  The thought made me step away from the door, putting the wall at my back.

  Grym crouched down beside the body and felt for a pulse. He gave her a quick, cursory examination and then stood, his gaze dark with concern. “No signs of what killed her. But I smell sulfur.” He slipped the gun back into the holster he must have fitted in the small of his back. Either he didn’t believe she’d been murdered or…

  “This was a magical death.” He lifted his right hand, which had been hidden from view beneath the desk. He was grasping a pink, circular object in a folded sheet of paper so his prints didn’t mar the surface. He held it up and I saw the lid canted out at a little less than a ninety-degree angle.

  I realized with a start what it was. “A compact.” A sour-sweet smell wafted past my nose. A scent like almonds and burnt sugar.

  He nodded. “With a mirror.”

  His statement hung between us, like acid on the air. The small office suddenly felt stuffy and claustrophobic. Fear seared through my belly like a burning lump of coal. “It’s loose,” I said, speaking so softly I was surprised when he nodded.

  “It would appear that it is,” he agreed, frowning.

  “Great globular goblin slobbers.”

  Light sheered off the mirror beneath the paper wrapping, slanting across the space between Grym and me and then dissipating into nothing.

  “Yeah.” He nodded, lifting the compact. “The good news is that the spirit has taken this poor woman’s form. You should be safe.”

  I took a long, shuddering breath. “I wish that was true,” I told him, lifting a hand and sending out a wisp of keeper magic. The chime came quickly since the “artifact” was mere inches away.

  The compact jerked itself from Grym’s grip and floated over to me. It hung in the air between us, waiting for me to snatch it up. “I’m afraid we’re all still very much in danger.” I reached out, my fingers poised around the compact but not making contact.

  “Don’t touch it,” Grym growled. “It’s evidence.”

  A distant chime tinkled against my hearing, and I made a mental note to check it out later.

  The compact disappeared in a puff of black, sulfurous smoke. My fingers closed on nothing. Only a tingle against my skin told me it had been there at all.

  His eyes went wide. “What just happened?”

  I sighed. “It wasn’t the true artifact. Just a representation of one.”

  He canted his head. “You’ve seen this before?”

  “I’ve read about it. I’m afraid this is a product of the thinning veil. The doppelganger magic is skewed. It’s not working the way it should.”

  A soft puff of sound had Grym and me turning toward the body just in time to watch the woman’s clothing flutter to the floor, empty.

  “Instead of taking on a physical form, the spirit is removing the physical form of its victims and turning them into doppelganger spirits.”

  My knees wobbled. I leaned more heavily against the wall. “And the more the magic goes bad, the more the spirit will try to gain the form it seeks.”

  “Meaning?” he asked, his broad shoulders drooping.

  “Meaning, this thing has the potential to take out a lot of innocent victims. If I don’t figure out how to stop it.”

  An explosion ripped through the silence. I ducked instinctively as dust and debris rained down on my head.

  The ceiling opened up and a white, plastic pipe dropped out of it, pouring liquid down to drench the floor beneath our feet.

  I grabbed a binder from the desk and held it over my head, shielding myself from the worst of the water.

  Grym grabbed my arm and we hurried out of the office. Unfortunately, the growing puddle of water followed us out, lapping at my heels as I ran toward the door into the main store. It raced past me, hitting the space in front of the door and rising up until a pale, familiar face wavered on the glassy surf
ace made of water.

  Grym’s gun hand came up, but the figure inside the makeshift mirror smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.

  The detective’s gun would be useless against a spirit.

  “Hello, Keeper,” a voice that sounded almost like mine said. The tone was much harder-edged than I believed mine was.

  I shoved the mask closer to my face, hoping the elastic band holding it there held. “What do you want?”

  My doppelganger spirit laughed cruelly. “Why, I want you, Naida keeper. I want your blood running through my veins. I want your power strumming through my cells.”

  I almost laughed. She was going to be sadly disappointed if it was power she was coveting. Unless she had a thing for making people pee their pants. Looking into her mean-natured face, I figured she probably did.

  “That’s not going to happen, spirit,” Grym said. “So let’s come up with a Plan B, shall we?”

  She cocked her head, the smile sliding away as a cold light filled her blue eyes. I noted the thin band of gold encircling them and wondered if the spirit’s true form was bleeding through the image. The eyes widened, darkening to navy and skimming speculatively over the detective next to me. She licked her lips. “I think I’m going to like this body. Does he come with the package?”

  “Yes.”

  “No!”

  Grym and I answered at the same time. Unfortunately, we didn’t answer the same way, pretty much negating both our responses.

  We shared a quick look, and he shrugged before turning back to the spirit. “Your power will weaken soon, spirit. The veil thickens again after midnight tomorrow. Do you want to work with us to look for a solution? Or risk being locked forever into a form that can’t be fully realized?”

  The girl who looked like me on a crabby day crossed arms over her chest. “I’ll bite, Detective Grym, why can’t it be realized?”

  “Naida’s a KoA. Do you really believe the Powers That Be would allow you to possess a Keeper of the Artifacts?”

  Normally, he wasn’t wrong. I didn’t have much in the way of magic energy, but as keeper, I did have some magical protections from the Universe.

  The figure in the water mirror laughed gaily. “The PTB have no clue what’s going on. And even if they did, they’re surely aware the SDM is set to oust her as Keeper.” My doppelganger shook her head. “No, this creature is mine. It’s only a matter of time before I claim her.”

  My mouth fell open. How could the spirit have known? A prickling sensation skittered over my skin, settling in the base of my spine like a block of ice. I would have argued the point, but my gobsmacked expression probably would have made it impossible to convince anyone.

  Goddess bless him, though, Grym tried. “You’ve been listening to the rumor mills. That’s a mistake, spirit. Rumor isn’t truth.”

  The doppelganger’s arms dropped to her sides. “Maybe not. But it represents the edges of truth.” The water in front of her lifted and she walked forward, her shape wavering in the crystalline form of the water she rode.

  The golden rings around the eyes thickened for a beat and the face elongated, turning beak-like before it returned to looking like my evil twin. A deep and uncomfortable worry niggled in my churning belly. A new concern, though undefined, to squabble with the already overwhelming apprehension of being inhabited by a doppelganger spirit.

  The water rushed my feet, the spirit mere inches from me before I could blink. Instinctively, I knew that if she touched me, even the mask wouldn’t be enough to save me.

  I jumped to the side, ducking away as a burst of water shot in my direction, a disembodied hand enveloped beneath its glossy surface. The liquid dropped to the floor, spreading quickly in search of my feet.

  Barely escaping the spirit’s touch, I bolted for the door. I jumped over the stream of liquid, turning as I made it through the door to make sure Grym was on my heels.

  I didn’t see him.

  Where had he gone?

  Panic welled inside me, tightening my chest until it felt as if my heart was dying beneath my ribs. I retreated back into the work area, my gaze searching for Grym.

  The water dropped to the floor and rose again as the spirit adjusted to my movement. The doppelganger’s murderous gaze locked on me as it rose again. “You’re just wasting time, Keeper. Let’s get this over with. I have so much I want to do, and I’m tired of cooling my heels waiting to do it.”

  I shook my head, glancing surreptitiously around for a sign of Grym.

  Had the spirit done something to him? I wish I knew what they were capable of. In my ignorance, I was helpless against it. I took a step toward the oval-shaped water mirror, holding the spirit’s gaze but letting my peripheral vision search for the detective.

  I finally saw him. Movement beyond the watery reflection. Grym’s form was wavery and shifting behind the water, but it was definitely him.

  He held something long and slender, curved on one end, in his hand. His other hand was outstretched, a pink circular object sitting on top of his big palm.

  The pink compact? How could that be?

  Grym’s gaze lifted and found mine. He held what I recognized as a crowbar above his head and snapped the compact closed with his thumb, lifting it and nodding.

  I caught his meaning, moving closer. The spirit watched me come, speculation thick in her gaze. “I’m not going to set you free,” I said, to distract her from what was happening behind her. I only hoped cold iron worked on doppelganger spirits like it worked on ghostly spirits. Hopefully Grym knew more about it than I did.

  Which wasn’t really saying much.

  “It’s not really up to you, is it, Keeper?”

  The voice changed, turning more petulant, almost whiny.

  I danced sideways as the water on the floor shifted and then jumped, using my piddly keeper magics to give me a boost as I leaped onto the large, wooden table.

  “Now!” I screamed as the spirit adjusted direction, the water plunging to the concrete and then surging upward to face me again.

  Grym threw the compact in my direction. I lifted my hands as the doppelganger started to turn, the water beginning to drop to the floor, and prayed to the goddess I wouldn’t fumble-finger the thing into the concrete and break it.

  The spirit flashed back, facing Grym, as the compact hit the tips of my fingers and bobbled into the air, its trajectory adjusted toward the water-riding doppelganger.

  “No!” I threw out my keeper magic, a silvery ribbon spitting from my fingers, and the compact jerked to a stop mere inches from the floor. I tugged it toward me as Grym swung the iron bar toward the spirit, a channel of deadly moisture sheering toward me with an unexpected burst of speed.

  With a panicked cry, I bent backward at the waist, the glistening droplets of death barely missing me. I wrapped my fingers around the compact just as the droplets hit the plywood tabletop and sizzled there, jerking in my direction like a marionette on a string.

  The crowbar hit the glossy tower of water and severed it horizontally through the middle, water spraying everywhere as the spirit’s form folded inward and then exploded out into the room in a million glistening droplets that fell over both Grym and me.

  I tensed as it hit me, but fumbled with the clasp of the compact until it opened, and spread the two halves wide as I held it in front of me.

  The column of water spun like a typhoon on the ocean’s surface, the energy it created flinging paper and dust and small boxes filled with Styrofoam peanuts everywhere. I braced as the shape inside the water began to pull free, the edges of the spirit inside seeping from the water as the cyclonic energy built to an impossible intensity.

  “Hold on to it!” Grym shouted. “It’s going to hit with a lot of force.”

  The spirit shot free of its watery cocoon and crashed into the mirror, hitting me with the force of a bullet that slammed the small, pink compact closed and sent me flying backward off the table.

  I screamed as I fell, expecting pain when I landed. Instead, I touched down with a loud crunch and a spray of foam peanuts into the air. I just lay there, my knuckles white on the closed compact and peanuts filtering down to ping off my face.

  I was butt down in a large box filled with packing materials, my legs dangling over one side and my arms jammed up around my ears with the compact clutched in one hand. I shifted in an attempt to unjam myself, but I was stuck fast.