Magic Lies Croft & Sterling Paranormal PI Agency — Book 2 C.C. Sommerly Contents Also By The Author Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Also By The Author About the Author Copyright Copyright © 2020 C.C. Sommerly All rights reserved. Cover Design by Sylvia Frost at thebookbrander.com Edited by Diane Sittig and Anja Lewis No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Also By The Author The Hybrid Series The Hidden – Book 1 The Betrayed – Book 2 The Controlled – Book 3 The Embattled – Book 4 (available 2020) Croft and Sterling Paranormal PI Agency Series Magic Thief — Book 1 Magic Lies — Book 2 Magic Wants — Book 3 (available 2021) Magic Hungers — Book 4 (available 2021) Magic Kills — Book 5 (available 2021) Dedication To those people who struggle to see the light through the darkness, there is always a way through no matter how difficult it seems. 1 Why isn’t he dead? How hard could it be to kill someone? My last memory of my father was when the flames ate the flesh off his bones. I forced myself to watch the flames greedily consume the man who was more monster than human. Watching him die meant the nightmare was over. No one and nothing could survive that fire. Seeing him just now, at my home no less, forced me into a mindless terror. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Fear raced through me, saturating every fiber of my being, making me shake from the intensity of it. Darkness crept into my vision. My chest tightened with the force of a boulder-sized fist squeezing it. My breath came out in forced and painful pants. Why can’t I breathe? Why can’t I see? Sounds slowly filtered through my fear. “Something’s wrong. She’s not responding,” someone said. Their words were muffled like the speaker was standing across the room or talking through a thin wall. “Marty. Marty!” A slap across my cheek finally brought me fully out of my panic. I blinked, focusing on the man in front of me. My face stung from the hit. I focused on the pain, holding it in my mind with a fierce desperation, as if it could hide the fear and panic. The pain helped ground me and keep me from sinking under the hysteria that lingered just below the surface waiting for me to succumb to it. Callie was standing a little ways off with her hand covering her mouth and frozen in shock. When did I fall on the ground? Sterling was hunched down next to me with my snarling and unwilling devil dog, Muffin, who was struggling to get loose. Muffin strained against Sterling’s hold on his leash. At least he was protecting me. Muffin wanted to go after the monster, but my father was gone – at least for the time being. “Sorry, but I had to do it. You were hyperventilating,” he said, looking sorry, but mainly concerned. And he should be. I’d never lost it like this. “No, I needed that. And we need to talk.” I’m so stupid. I don’t know how long I laid here on the ground freaking out before Sterling and Callie found me. I’d been completely defenseless and a sitting target. My breathing was still jerky and black spots did a merry little dance before me. If Sterling noticed me trembling, he kindly kept it to himself. To Callie, I said “Can you gather everyone?” “Right now?” asked Callie. “You were just about to pass out from fear. Can’t it wait until you’re more settled?” I got it, she wanted to take it easy on me. But this news was too important, so my next words came out harsher than I intended. “Yes, everyone needs to meet me in the living room right now.” “I’d do it without you being nasty,” she said, stomping into the house. Sterling frowned at me. “What happened?” he asked. I reached for Muffin, but Sterling held tight to his leash. “For now, let me hold him. Give yourself a few minutes to calm down.” “I don’t have time for this.” I did need a minute, but I didn’t want anyone else seeing me weak. I couldn’t stand feeling this way. Falling apart wouldn’t fix anything and it would take all of my strength and wits to have even a remote chance of surviving whatever my father had planned for me. “You were having a freak out and still look nauseous,” he said. When I didn’t respond, he continued speaking. “I’m worried about you.” I sighed. He had reason to worry, but I couldn’t tell the story more than once. He’d have to wait until I told him and the others what happened. “I’ll explain once everyone is together.” Now that my nerves had settled down some and I wasn’t at risk of hyperventilating, I tried to wrangle my emotions to something controllable. Currently, they were tumbling around in my mind bringing with them darkness and dread. My father was toying with me. He could have easily killed me, but he hadn’t. That was scarier than anything. That man never did anything without intent. He was the personification of evil. I spent the past few years comforted in knowing that he died in the fire that fateful day. We walked into the house and sat down in the living room. Lochlan came into the living room with Zander on his heels. Jennica and Callie trailed behind. “Can you contain your pet? He’s doing his best to eat through my couch,” said Lochlan. And sure as heck my miserable mutt was happily gnawing at the leg of Lochlan’s couch. I jerked on his leash, the muscles
