Broken Dragon (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

the bed and retrieved the robe.
    “You look hangovered ,” Hannah said, handing Mara the robe.
    “I feel hangovered .” Mara slipped on the robe and pointed toward the door. “Lead the way. Do you know how to get to the kitchen?”
    She giggled and skipped out of the room. “This way!”
    Mara shuffled after her, while running her fingers through her hair, failing to get it to look less like a nest. When she got to the stairs, Hannah yelled down toward the kitchen, “Nana, she’s awake!”
    Diana walked out of the kitchen to the foot of the stairs with a disapproving look. She held a bundle of cloth from which she pulled a needle and thread, midstitch. “Hannah, I told you not to wake her up.”
    “I didn’t. She had a bad dream and woke up. Huh, Mar-ree?” She pranced down the last two steps, hugged Diana’s leg and turned to look back up the stairs.
    “Something like that.” Mara stepped down and rubbed Hannah’s head. “I was sort of hoping you were just a dream. Where’s your dad?” It struck her funny to refer to Sam that way, and she chuckled.
    “He’s running errands on your bike, and Nana said I couldn’t go ’cause I don’t have a helmet,” Hannah said.
    Mara sagged her head in the direction of the kitchen and said, “Tell me there is coffee in there.” Diana nodded, and they went into the kitchen.
    Mara shuffled to the coffeepot on the counter. Her thigh grazed the oven door, and it felt warm. “What are you baking?”
    Diana sat at the small round dinette table off to the side of the kitchen near the back door, continuing her sewing. “It’s preheating for the turkey.”
    Mara shook her head, trying to drive away the lingering tiredness. “I can’t believe I’ve been asleep since yesterday afternoon. It’s Thursday already.”
    Crawling into the neighboring chair, Hannah stood on her knees, so she could see over the table at what her grandmother was doing. Mara put her cup on the table across from her mother and joined them. She took a moment to inhale the aroma of the coffee before taking a sip, then turned to Hannah.
    “So, what’s your damage, little girl?”
    Hannah raised an eyebrow at her. “Huh?”
    “Something about trick-or-treating?”
    “You told me that I could go trick-or-treating, but Nana says its Thanksgiving not Halloween, and it’s your fault.”
    “Maybe I need more coffee, but you don’t seem to be making any more sense to me now than you did upstairs.”
    Diana broke the thread with her teeth, tied a knot, then interjected, “As best as I can tell from talking to Hannah, it appears that, when you sent her back in time, she left the day before Halloween, but she showed up here the day before Thanksgiving. Therefore, she has been deprived of the traditional costume, trick-or-treating and resultant sugar high.”
    Hannah nodded vigorously. “Yeah, deprived .”
    “Sorry to harsh your Halloween buzz. What do you expect me to do about it?” Mara asked.
    “I want a costume and trick-or-treating!”
    “I get that, but I’m not as smart as the aunt Mara you’re used to. I don’t have a clue about how to send people back in time. Apparently, come to think of it, I’m not that great at it in the future, considering I, or she, missed the target by almost a month.”
    Diana rolled her eyes and glanced up with a look of disapproval.
    Mara picked up on the expression. “What?”
    “What were you thinking, sending this little girl into the past all by herself? What in the world were you hoping to accomplish?”
    “How am I supposed to know? I haven’t even done it yet. Haven’t I committed enough past infractions for you to harp on without looking for trouble in the future?”
    “No, not when the future is sitting at the table calling me Nana .” Diana looked up from her sewing and winked at Hannah. Turning to Mara, she said, “But speaking of infractions, let’s talk about lying and sneaking out in the middle of the night.”
    “I’m sorry about