Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (39 page)

Glory
closed the door
.

If only
s
he had done a better job helping around the house and the farm. If only
s
he had kept h
er
encounters with the
Wybbils
a secret
,
maybe
Dad
wouldn’t have crumbled under the combined weight of so many stressors
.

Shoulders slumped
;
Glory
climbed the stairs
, gray
storm clouds
rumbling
through her
thoughts
.
Between losing the house and Dad drinking again,
M
iss
Crenshaw would figure it out sooner or later
.
The thought of
George
being at the mercy of people who didn’t love
or understand him
sent waves of p
anic through her chest.

Dad had b
etrayed them
all
for a bottle of hard liquor.
At least this time she could see it coming.
She spent the evening curled up on a ball on her
bedroom
floor crying until the well of tears emptied.

The disappointment
and fear eventually
boiled over into anger
. B
y nightfall
,
the raw emotion simmered into plan
-making mode
.

Binding a
Wybbil
was
more important than ever
.
The Elboni
was
h
er
best and only hope
.

Over the next week
,
Glory did her best
to avoid Mean Dad
. She stayed
outside or upstairs.
Before long
,
Patrice
was
up to her old ways, not coming home at night
.
Dad didn’t
seem to
notice
, but Glory did, especially the diamond
s
shaped like hearts on
her
ear
s
.
Brandon had pretty much taken over
Patrice’s
bed and the entire room
.
When
he
came
in from wherever
it was that he went every night,
smelling like smoke,
she
was forced to put
away
h
er
notebook
.

Glory
pulled the covers up to h
er
chin, praying this would not be the night the
Wybbil
s returned
.
Clash would be home tomorrow. They
needed a few more days to work out a
new plan
.

Later
that night
, as
Brandon snored
away
,
Glory
watched the shadow of the tree on the wall
.
The branches swayed in the breeze
.
The swish of the wind around the eaves sounded like moaning
.
She
flipped the covers over head
.
Sleep seeped in and
s
he drifted into a fitful slumber
.

Dreams of
a
giant serpent made of fire
slithered beneath her eyelids
.
“
Glory
Alley
,”
the serpent whispered.
“A
bandon
yourself to every desire and I’ll make you a god.
”
A
hot tail coiled around
and
up her leg, creeping higher and higher, and b
egan to squeeze
.
“
Can’t breathe
!
”

She
jolted up in bed
,
gasping for breath. A
pair of beady bloodshot eyes star
ed
back at h
er
.
For a second she thought the serpent had slithered out of her dreams.
However,
t
he sagging jowls and
disgusting night
crawler
beard
s
were familiar
by now
.
Two other pairs of eyes hovered slightly behind the first
.
Glory
let out a yelp,
she wasn’t ready for the Wybbils yet,
but White Feather held h
er
fast
by the arm
.

“We searched the
mesa
high
,
and we searched the
mesa
low
,
with no sign of
the
Elboni
.
So by
issued
decree ye must come with us.”

“Let go of me!
”
She
tried to uncurl thick fingers from around h
er
arm
.
Panic rose up at the realization
that
the
Wybbil
s intended to take h
er
with them
.

“Brandon, wake up!
”
H
er
screams fell
on
ears closed by sleeping dust.
“Help!”

She
kicked h
er
feet and fists
hard enough to make
them
think twice about messing with
an angry Tullahn
, or so she hoped
.

“No use fighting us,
Rock Collector
.
Your presence has been requested by the highest order
.
”

Sh
e wriggled
, she
squirmed
,
and
she threw more punches.
Swear words tumbled out
of
her mouth.
“Get off me y
ou dirty
rotten squirrel munchers
!
”
Anything to force them to let go.

The little men erupted into an explosion of elbows and hands
.
A hot palm covered h
er
mouth, wrestled h
er
off the bed, down the hallway
,
and
down the
stairs
,
and through the front door
, over the porch and into the crisp starry night
.
Glory
thr
e
w
a left hook
into Bone’s squishy beard. Yuck! He rubbed his chin, but held her fast with his other hand.
A
girl
didn’t
have a chance against the
Wybbil
s’
combined
strength. They carried h
er
like a hammock into the night, past the barn, over the field
,
and into the woods
, loose hair dusting the ground.

Finally, they dropped h
er
into a pile of leaves
.

Fighting tears
,
Glory sniffled
. "
Are you going to kill me?
”

“There, there, don
’
t cry.
”
Needle said, patting h
er
back
.
He tossed
Glory
’s
shoes and coat at h
er
feet
.

“
See,” Needle assured, “If we wanted to do ye harm, we wouldn
’
t have bothered
.
Now, put on your things and be warm.
”

Glory
took in jagged breaths, shakily tying
her
shoes and zipping
her
coat
.
I’ll be fine,
she t
ried to convince h
er
self
.
Needle’s right
.
Why would they care if I w
ere
warm if they intended to do me harm
?