Dead Is Just a Dream - [Dead Is - 08] Read Online Free

I said again.
    After we left, Andy said, “Do you think Mrs. Lincoln’s death has something to do with the horse on the beach?”
    “Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” I said. “But my tattoo did tingle when we saw it. And then someone was murdered right after we saw that ghostly horse.”
    Raven held up the stack of books she’d checked out. “I’m about to find out what that was all about.” She read aloud while Andy drove.
    “Here it is,” she said finally. “A supernatural horse called a night mare is also known as a Mara. A Mara gallops into someone’s dreams. Even a glimpse of the deadly Mara is enough to scare some people to death.”
    “How can we stop it?” I asked.
    “It doesn’t say,” she said.
    “That’s not good,” Andy grumbled. Understatement of the year.

Chapter Four
    My little sisters Katie and Kellie had their first riding lesson after school on Wednesday. Mom had roped me into going too, but since I didn’t have my driver’s license yet, she was paying our next-door neighbor Poppy Giordano, Daisy’s sister, to take us. In fact, Poppy was running the ultimate kids’ chauffeur service in between her classes at UC Nightshade. She picked my sisters up from school and then drove them all over town for their various activities when Dad and Mom couldn’t make it.
    When Poppy arrived, Kellie was eating a snack in the kitchen, but there was no sign of Katie.
    “Katie, Poppy’s here,” I called, but she didn’t answer. I was pretty sure she was upstairs playing with her dollhouse. Normally, playing with a dollhouse wouldn’t be worrisome, but Katie’s was enchanted. We’d discovered it in the old Mason house, and Natalie had given it to my sister. The dollhouse was amazing, a miniature medieval castle, like something straight out of a fairy tale.
    Princess Antonia, the main occupant of the dollhouse, was a royal pain in the butt.
    I walked up the stairs to Katie’s room. She was having a conversation with Princess Antonia. “I don’t think Jessica will like it,” Katie said.
    The princess, who had a very loud voice for a little doll that had come to life, said something I couldn’t catch.
    “All right,” Katie reluctantly agreed. “I’ll do it.”
    “You’ll do what?” I asked.
    Katie and the princess both jumped about a foot.
    I leaned in and gave Princess Antonia a stern glare. “Do not get my sister into trouble,” I said, “or you will regret it.”
    She shrugged and turned back to her gilt-framed mirror. “I have no idea what you are speaking of.”
    “Yeah, right,” I said. “I mean it, or I’m going to have to have a talk with the prince.”
    “The prince,” she sniffed.
    Sounded like trouble in miniature paradise, but I didn’t have time to worry about the royal relationship right then.
    “Katie, are you ready?” I asked. “Poppy’s here. Make sure you wear the boots Mom bought you.”
    She put out a leg and admired her new riding boots. “I’m ready.”
    We found Kellie downstairs, tugging on her boots. We piled into the car.
    “Jessica, not that I mind the extra cash, but isn’t it almost time for you to be driving by now?” Poppy asked.
    I nodded. “I just got my learner’s permit,” I explained. “I still have six months before I turn sixteen.”
    “What made your mom decide on riding lessons, anyway?”
    I shrugged. “She was the Realtor who sold Phantasm Farms to the new owner,” I said. “Have you ever been out there?”
    “We went a few times when I was little,” Poppy said. “The place is huge. There’s the stables, of course, but there’s also a couple of barns, pastures for all the horses, and the original house, which was deserted. The last owners built a huge new house but left the old one alone.”
    “Why would they do that?”
    Poppy shrugged. “Everyone said it was haunted.”
    I glanced back at my sisters, but they were busy staring out the window at all the horses in the pasture.
    “We’re here,” I