Page 7 of Whispers and Wildfire
I certainly wasn’t going to wish for another bad guy to mess up our lives, but I still felt restless, even after racing the other night.
We hung out for a few more minutes while the kids finished their popsicles, then Annika ushered them inside to clean up and dry off. I went in after them, and she put me to work chopping tomatoes and cucumbers while she helped the kids get dressed and set them up in the living room with a show.
“Thanks again,” she said when she came back in the kitchen. “I probably should have invited you to stay for dinner before I gave you a job.”
“No worries. Levi must be on duty?” Her husband was a firefighter with the Tilikum Fire Department.
She nodded. “Until tomorrow morning.”
The sound of the TV carried in from the other room, and a female voice caught my attention. It was sultry, almost raspy, but feminine. My heart rate picked up, and I felt a hint of adrenaline. Not the high of a race, but a familiar buzz flowed through my body.
That was weird.
“What are they watching?”
“It’s a cartoon calledEnchanted Hollow. They’re obsessed. I thought the girls were past their watch-the-same-thing-eight-hundred-times-in-a-row phase, but apparently not.”
The voice came again. I couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, but the laugh made it clear she was the villain. I found myself cracking a smile.
Annika was busy prepping the rest of the meal, so I didn’t resist the strange magnetism of the voice. I wandered into the living room where Juliet and Emma sat on the couch with Will wedged between them. Thomas sat in an armchair.
“What are you watching?” I asked, nodding toward the TV.
Juliet’s eyes were glued to the screen. She didn’t even blink. Will was similarly mesmerized.
Emma tore her gaze away. “Enchanted Hollow.”
“Yeah? Is it good?”
She smiled. “It’s my favorite. There’s princesses, and they’re twins like me and Juliet.”
“And the bad lady,” Will said, pointing at the screen.
I glanced at the TV. The bad lady, as Will called her, was the character with the voice that had caught my attention. She wasdrawn with an otherworldly but severe beauty, full of contrast. Dark hair that was long and flowing, alongside sharp cheekbones and a prominent jawline. Big blue eyes, dark red lips, and she wore a black gown that seemed to float around her.
“Soon, they’ll see their mistake,” she said. Her mesmerizing voice wrapped around me like smoke. “They’ll pay for their disrespect.”
“She’s so scary,” Juliet whispered.
Emma’s eyes were wide as she nodded in agreement.
The character gestured with her hands, casting a spell, and mist swirled around her until she disappeared.
It was oddly disappointing.
I glanced at Thomas. “You like the show too, or do you just put up with it?”
“No, it’s good. Queen Ione turns into a dragon in one of the episodes. It’s cool.”
“Shh,” Emma said, putting a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell. Uncle Luke hasn’t seen it before.”
“That’s okay, kiddo,” I said. “I don’t mind spoilers.”
Suddenly, Thomas jumped up from his seat. “I almost forgot! Wait here.”
I sat down next to Juliet while Thomas hurried down the hall to his room. A moment later, he came out with his hands behind his back.
“We got you something,” he said. “It was supposed to be for Christmas last year, but Will was playing with them and lost them.”
