The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

insisted.
    Penny snorted and nodded. “Thanks, Mom, I’ll see you Monday. Be safe, and have fun with the dragon lady.” She jumped up as Paulina was about to leave. “Oh, and don’t forget your glasses!” She plucked her mother’s glasses from the display counter and handed them to her. Paulina pulled her into a tight hug, pressed the car keys into Penny’s hand, then bustled out the door and was gone.
     

 

     
    P enny spent the rest of her shift at Willow Street Wonders convincing herself that everything was all right.
    The rainstorm banished any hope of customers dropping by. Early afternoon melted into twilight and Penny remained at her post, lost in silent introspection. She sat on the stool behind the counter as figurines of old, forgotten gods and heroes watched her with unseeing eyes. Beside them were curtains of talismans and amulets, and jeweled dragonflies perched among darks rows of incense and dried herbs. Penny tapped at the crystal ball on the counter beside her, amusing herself with the warped vision of the arabesque shop.
    Prickles of worry that Simon Shaw might return nagged at her, but after a few hours of unrelenting rain, Penny started to believe that she was safe.
    It hardly seems real now. Maybe I did imagine it …she thought and tried to whistle, but the sound died on her lips. The cloud-covered sun had long since sunk behind the mountains and shadow had swallowed up the world. The only source of light was a lamp with a stained-glass shade.
    Uncomfortable, Penny shifted and grabbed a magazine from underneath the counter. The cover showed a doctored image of a flying saucer looming above some nameless desert city. Penny flipped the magazine open with reservations. When seven-thirty came around at last, she’d had enough.
    Not even the zealots are going to come around in this weather , she thought as she rose and undid her shop apron. Finishing her closing duties, Penny made sure to triple-check everything before clicking off the light and locking up.
    Moving through Willow Street Wonders in the dark had always been eerie, and the noise from the raging storm did not ease the oppressive sensation that made her skin rise with goose bumps. Penny walked along the walls in the darkness with her hand extended and felt her fingertips graze cold metal. From the weak glow of the streetlamps she could see fragments of silver tinkling against each other. Penny removed one of the pendants from its identical siblings. It was one of the silver rune pendants her mother had mentioned; they’d received a small shipment of them from somewhere in Europe last week. Penny examined the silver disc with runic carvings. With the reassurance of knowing no one could witness her lapse in rationality, she hung the black cord around her neck.
    It is supposed to be a very powerful talisman. I’ll just borrow it for the night .
    Penny drove home with her brain on auto-pilot and sloshed to her front door through the torrents of rain. She scowled as she stepped through the doorway. Her mother hadn’t left the heater on. She tossed her bag in the corner and raced upstairs to shower.
    The night drifted away and Penny found herself curled up in bed with Murder at Woodrow Manor, flipping through the pages and relishing the most dramatic twists of the story. Beside her bed were a stack of novels of the same genre that she had already devoured.
    Seven-and-a-half chapters later Penny was fast asleep, one hand still clinging to the book. Somewhere past midnight, she woke with a start as a tortured wail split the night.
    Penny sat bolt upright in bed, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. The room was plunged in thick darkness and objects that she knew were mere inches away had become invisible. Though she guessed the sound might have been from a waking dream, Penny had never felt more paralyzed with fear in her life.
    It had been a wretched chimera of screams; the voice of a dying animal, the wail of a baby, a