Page 124 of Dream Weaver

But then I thought of magic protecting Claire, and that sat much more comfortably with me.

“If it’s spelled, how did someone sneak in?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It’s only happened once before.” She trailed off, then froze.

“Who? When?” I demanded.

“Harlon Greene. Almost a year ago.”

She’d mentioned the name before. A warlock, from what I remembered.

“Just one more mile…” Abby murmured nervously.

It felt more like a hundred as the storm raged all around us. The road rose in an incline, with visibility so poor, I couldn’t tell what came next. Another turn, or the edge of a cliff?

Thunder boomed, and lightning illuminated thick, swirling clouds. The hood of my truck pointed up, then down as we crested a hill.

Boom!Lightning scorched the ground directly in front of us.

I hit the brakes. The sky blazed with enough lightning to electrify the entire state. And not just sky-to-ground lightning. Bolts speared forward and backward too, zipping parallel to the ground.

The hair on the back of my neck stood. This wasn’t a lightning storm. It was a lightningfight.

Abby braced herself against the dashboard, whispering desperately. “Claire…”

I moved my foot back to the gas. If Claire was in that storm, so were we.

Over the next few seconds, the storm roared to a crescendo, like the grand finale at Fourth of July fireworks. After one last ear-crackingBoom!it petered out gradually.

I drove onward, glancing around warily. Now what?

Thunder rumbled in the distance, no longer over our heads. One last, feeble bolt of lightning blinked behind the clouds. The wind died, and everything went still.

I peered forward, letting the headlights slice through the darkness.

The dust settled, and the clouds slowly parted, allowing a slice of moonlight through. Enough to reveal several small buildings, a corral, and a barn. Abby’s ranch.

“Wait! Stop,” Abby said.

I hit the brakes as a man emerged from the dust by the main house. He held his hands like a gunslinger ready to crack off another few rounds.

“Mike,” Abby breathed.

The stepfather. That was a good sign, right?

Then I spotted another man, closer to us with his back turned. That had to be the other gunslinger — er, lightning slinger? — that Mike had faced off with.

“Harlon,” Abby hissed.

Whoever he was, he looked hunched and defeated.

Other figures appeared from in and around the house, and a burst of fire revealed a dragon over to the right.

I did a double take.

“That’s Nash, over by Erin’s vortex,” Abby explained. “She must be over there, helping fight Harlon.”

Another vortex? Right here on the ranch? I gritted my teeth.

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