Fire Maiden Read Online Free Page B

claws.
    In a single stride, the foreman was outside, shooing with the book he carried, and both animals backed noisily down the steps. But they didn’t leave. They stayed near Darby, instead of running away.
    â€œIf you want that Bart as a pet, I can’t blame you,” Kit told Cade, “but I don’t think you’ll make a lapdog outta the Appy.”
    â€œIt’s not like I invited them in,” Cade protested.
    â€œDon’t mean nothin’ if you did,” Kit told him.
    â€œI’ll go lock up the dogs,” Darby said. “That’s my job, anyway.”
    Staring westward into the starry sky, Kit nodded slowly. Darby wondered what the foreman would say if she told him his long black hair and turquoise necklace made him look like a Shoshone shaman.
    She didn’t have the nerve to find out, but she smiled to herself until Kit said, “I expect we’ll know what’s got ’em all riled up by morning. All I know’s I’m sleeping in a chair tonight. And I’m not takin’ off my boots.”
    Â 
    Darby awoke inside a seashell.
    For a few groggy moments, she thought she was dreaming. She lay on her side, cheek pressed against carpet. The room around her was no bigger than a closet. Bookshelves climbed the walls, spiraling toward an arched skylight.
    It was the light streaming onto her childish pink nightgown that convinced Darby she was awake. The sleeveless garment was decorated with a white horse. That part was fine, but the horse carried a disproportionately huge prince and princess and the script beneath them, which hadn’t completely washed off, read, SLEEPING BEAUTY .
    She might someday outgrow the nightgown, but it was still the lightest thing to wear in warm weather.
    Darby knew where she was now: in Jonah’s library.
    Last night, she’d had a hard time falling asleep. Her mind had darted from her fall off Navigator to Jonah’s disapproving frown, to howling dogs, to the gnawing thought that she’d forgotten to do something important.
    So she’d reread her favorite mystery, hoping she’d fall asleep. Instead, she’d climbed out of bed around midnight and crept into Jonah’s library in search of a book to replace the one she’d finished.
    What a cool place to fall asleep, Darby mused. Her eyelids closed. On the verge of dozing off again, Darby remembered what she’d forgotten last night.
    Oh, no. Darby bounced to her feet, ducked through the library’s rabbit hole entrance, and crawled into the living room. She kicked the door closed behind her and darted to the bench by the front door, where she’d left her backpack. With fumbling fingers, she unzipped the backpack and snatched out the handout for her Ecology class partner project.
    No. No. No, she moaned silently.
    Two sections of the partner project were due today. Ann had agreed to do an experiment that demonstrated something about volcanoes, if Darby would interview Tutu about volcano stories. Ann’s part of the assignment required her to photograph three stages of the experiment and post it on the class website no later than midnight. Without looking, Darby was sure Ann had done her part.
    But Darby had let Ann down.
    Navigator and Jonah and hitting the ground— No. Darby stopped herself from making excuses. Navigator’s odd behavior and her own disgrace were no reason to forget her schoolwork. She was a better student than that.
    But what should she do now? Darby stopped pacing in the living room and forced herself to go look at the kitchen clock.
    It was five thirty. Still early. Very early.
    What if she ran outside, saddled Navigator, and galloped through the rain forest to Tutu’s cottage? She might have time to get there and back, but that wouldn’t leave more than a few minutes to talk to her great-grandmother about the intertwining of stories and science as they applied to volcanoes. And if Darby was late getting back