Broken Illusions: A Midnight Dragonfly Novel Read Free Page A

over the word HELLO . Its triangular shape reminded me of a misshapen heart.
    “You okay?”
    I looked from our pale fingers to the glow of her eyes. “I’m good.”
    She moved first. Or at least I thought it was her. Beneath our fingers, the pointer started sliding in a methodic, clockwise circle.
    Victoria closed her eyes and bowed her head.
    I was supposed to do the same.
    I didn’t.
    The pointer kept moving, one deliberate circle after another, each faster than the one before.
    “Hear me now,” she chanted. “I invite only those spirits who are for our highest good.”
    The pointer slowed.
    “Any spirits who come through who are not, are to be absorbed into the light of protection.”
    Swallowing, I focused on the bright yellow flame of the lone sage candle.
    “Harming none,” she concluded.
    The pointer stopped.
    Darkness throbbed. The flame fought it, but my heart quickened anyway. Something told me to pull away. A voice deep inside, maybe. A … knowing. It screamed for me to pull away.
    But I could no more have moved, than I could have understood the low voltage buzz beneath my skin. It was the same draw I’d felt that night with Jim Fourcade’s son, in his small kitchen, when a dangerous curiosity had drowned out everything else. Even Chase.
    I was so not proud of that.
    “Is there anyone in the room with us?” Victoria asked.
    The candle flickered, and the pointer shifted toward its first answer.
    YES
    My throat tightened. I’d been in the small back room almost daily since before Christmas. I’d been there when the sun had shone and long after it had set. I’d been there with my aunt and by myself. With friends, and with strangers. I’d never been scared. I’d never even been nervous.
    But now …
    “Thank you,” Victoria whispered. “Are you … good?” she asked.
    The triangle glided without hesitation, shifting in a slow circle before returning to the upper left.
    YES
    I glanced up at Victoria. Our eyes met.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to ask anything?” she said.
    I shook my head as the pointer again started to slide.
    YOU
    Her eyes went really, really dark, but her smile was pure brightness. “I meant Trinity,” she started to explain, but abruptly shifted gears. “So, like … are you here for a reason?”
    Nothing.
    At first.
    From the front of the shop, over the assault of the rain, the sound of each second reverberated—until once again the pointer slid to the right, hesitating before landing on two dark letters.
    NO
    “Then, like … are you here because … you lived here, or something?”
    The pointer shot left.
    YES
    Everything inside me stilled.
    “Can you tell me your name?” Victoria asked through the stringy blond hair hiding her face.
    In my mind, I ran through the history Aunt Sara had compiled while the pointer slid right, then left. Right, then left.
    “Marie,” Victoria whispered, shooting me a quick, questioning glance.
    I shook my head. The name meant nothing to me.
    “Do you know why we’re here?” she tried.
    YES
    “I like, need some help,” she said, and the ridiculousness of it all eased the tension from my shoulders. Here she sat in the cold shadows of my aunt’s back room with a storm raging outside, chatting away as if she were hanging with an old friend. “There’s this guy I really—”
    The pointer shot to the top row of letters, stalling on the E.
    “No, his name is…”
    The triangle kept going, lower—to the V.
    Then the I.
    I yanked back, but Victoria’s finger clamped down over mine, and through the silence came a broken rasp. “Victoria—”
    The distorted heart veered back to the top row.
    I jerked hard, freeing my hand and curling my fingers into a fist—but beneath Victoria’s, the pointer kept moving, sliding to the L … en route to the E.
    EVIE
    She sagged. “I-I thought your name was Marie?”
    The pointer didn’t move.
    “Is someone else with you? Are there two of you?”
    I’d heard that was