Southern Myths

by Amy Boyles

  Amelia shot me a worried look while I hid a smile.

  She raised her hand. “Oh, oh, I want to be the one who screams. I’ve got a great screaming voice. I know I can make it sound totally real.”

  “You got it. You’re our screamer.”

  Cordelia yawned. “And even though I helped hatch this plan, I want to be the one who looks bored while the rest of y’all are running around looking like chickens with your heads cut off.”

  “Not an option,” Betty said. “You’ve got to play or you don’t get to witness the festivities.”

  “Rats. That’s what I was afraid of.”

  I uncoiled Hugo from my neck and rested him on the floor. “So. It looks like y’all are about ready. What time is this thing going down?”

  “At twenty-one hundred hours,” Betty said.

  “What?” Amelia said.

  “Nine o’clock,” Betty said. “On the nose. I’ve got my magic ready to go. I need y’all ready to run. We want it to look good, but not fake.”

  “Should I have curlers in my hair?” Cordelia said. “Maybe wear my fuzzy slippers?”

  “Yes to the curlers, no to the fuzzy slippers. I need that grass to feel pokey under your feet.”

  “I’m going for the slippers,” Cordelia said.

  “I’m going to wear a giant onesie,” Amelia said. “It’ll be more dramatic that way.”

  “I’m wearing jeans and t-shirt,” I said. “And no one gets to argue with me about it.”

  “I’ll put on a housecoat,” Betty said. “That way at least one of us looks believable.”

  Cordelia rose and stretched. “Great. Until then, I’m going to work out. I’ll be by later for dinner and shenanigans.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Amelia said.

  They left and Betty pulled the elastic waistband of her pants up under her boobs. “All right. You and me, kid, let’s get cracking.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Bond you more with your dragon,” she said.

  “I thought I was working with Barry on that.”

  She sniffed. “You are, but I want a deeper bond.”

  I wrapped a hand around Hugo. “He’s just a baby. He has to grow and mature. The bond will come.”

  Betty cracked her knuckles. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to play Dr. Frankenstein on him. All I want to do is make sure he knows you’re his mother.”

  “Why?”

  “If someone does nab him, then Hugo will fight to find you. He’ll want to get back to you.”

  “So basically he’ll char anyone who steals him?”

  “Exactly.” Betty clapped her hands and pointed at me. “That’s the way we make sure he stays safe.”

  I frowned. “That sounds like a great idea and all, but I don’t want to do that to him. He’s only just hatched. This little guy needs to develop naturally. Let’s just leave Hugo the way he is.”

  “Fine,” Betty grumbled. “But I don’t want you to complain to me when your dragon runs off and forgets all about you.”

  “I won’t.” I gave her a Scout’s salute “Promise.”

  The rest of the afternoon into evening flowed smoothly. I worked with Hugo, trying to get him to come to my call and playing fetch with him.

  It turned out baby dragons loved fetch.

  As the sky darkened and the stars winked overhead, my stomach started churning. We’d made concrete plans for the trap, but I wasn’t feeling good about it. In fact, my intestines were coiling from nerves.

  Everything would be fine. Betty knew what she was doing. After all, she basically ran this town.

  Into its grave.

  Nope. Wait. I took deep breaths and shook out my hands. I brought Hugo in from the backyard and found Cordelia in rollers, Amelia in a giant onesie and Betty wearing a housecoat—all as promised.

  I glanced at Cordelia. “You know Garrick’s probably going to be here, right?”

  Her eyes widened. She snapped her fingers and the rollers disappeared. “Good point.”

  Betty’s gaze narrowed on Cordelia but she didn’t say anything. “All right. Is everyone ready?”

  “No, I’m not,” I said. “Where am I supposed to put Hugo during all of this? If he’s the one who set the fire, doesn’t he need to be around?”

  Betty tapped a hand to her mouth. “We’ll put him on the porch and then when the fire starts, we’ll run him to the back.”

  Cordelia threaded her fingers through her hair. “Why don’t we set the fire in back instead? I mean, what if the blaze gets out of control and hurts Jennie?”

  “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to Jennie, either,” Amelia said. “She’s like family, even if she is a guard-vine.”

  “The back isn’t as convenient,” Betty said. “It’s not front and center for everyone to see.”

  “How about you set it so that it blazes straight up like an emergency flare?” I suggested.

  Betty clapped her hands. “Great idea. It’s no wonder you girls are related to me. You’re brilliant.”

  “Or insane,” Cordelia said.

  “I know I’m at least a little sane,” Amelia said.

  Cordelia frowned. “That remains to be seen.”

  Amelia punched her in the arm.

  “Ouch.”

  “Okay, let’s get this going,” I said. “I’m a bundle of nerves here.”

  Betty glanced at me. “Place the dragon in the backyard and let me know if anyone’s out there.”

  I did as she said. Stars sprinkled the sky and lights burned on the back porches of the neighbors butting up behind us.

  I set Hugo on the lawn. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  I paused. “Okay?”

  “Okay, Mama.”

  “Wow. You’ve learned to talk fast.”

  I gave him a pat and returned to my family. “He’s in the back and it’s all clear.”

  Betty pulled her pipe from the pocket of her housecoat, slid it between her teeth and lit the bowl with the end of her fingertip. She smiled widely.

  “It’s go time.”

  NINETEEN

  Betty covered one nostril with her finger. A line of sparks from the corncob pipe shot straight up through the ceiling.

  “That better not burn anything in my room,” Cordelia said.

  “Your room’s going to be fine,” Betty replied. “In three…two…one.”

  A loud crack shook the house. I wobbled to the side as what felt like an earthquake fissured through the living room.

  “What was that?” Amelia said.

  “Everyone outside,” Betty yelled.

  We stumbled through the house, nearly falling over one another. We scrambled through the kitchen and out the back door.

  The sky lit like a fireworks display. Fire blazed on top of the roof, cracking and hissing. Sparks rained down.

  I snatched up Hugo, hugging him to me.

  “Fire! Fire!” Betty yelled.

  The “earthquake” Betty had unleashed on the neighborhood had folks dashing from their homes out onto the street.

  “It’s that dragon’s fault,” Betty yelled. “Get him out of here.”

  I decided to play this huge. I mean, I had a captive audience what with a third of the town in their pajamas staring at the house.

  “Hugo didn’t do anything. He’s a baby!”

  “Baby my toad-stooled butt,” Betty said, throwing her weight from one hip to another. “That creature’s dangerous. He needs to be locked up with the key thrown away. Lock him up, throw away the key and throw away the beast with it.”

  I clutched Hugo to me. “You monster. You’ve never liked him. From the first moment he hatched, all you saw was the evil, not the good. Maybe he was trying to save our lives from something and the house accidentally caught fire. Did you ever stop to think of that?”

  “Yeah,” Amelia yelled. “Little Hugo may’ve been trying to help us and you want to hang the little guy for doing u
s good.”

  Betty threw up her hands. “Will someone call the police? Only they can decide this.”

  Cordelia pointed to the house, which was smoking something fierce. “How about someone put out that fire first.”

  Betty shoved up her sleeves. “I have to do everything around here. I’m sick and tired of being the only person capable of fixing all the problems.”

  She clapped her hands. A thundercloud appeared over the roof and doused the flames. The fire hissed and sizzled as its life snuffed out.

  “I’m going to put Hugo somewhere you can’t hurt him,” I said loudly.

  “Oh yeah?” Betty said. “Where’s that?”

  “The front porch,” I shouted, feeling stupid. This plan made no sense, but what the heck ever? I was going along with it all the way to the end. We were halfway to the finish line.

  I strode into the house and out the front door. I tucked Hugo onto one of the rockers. “Stay right here, little guy, and try to look as innocent as you possibly can. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but do your best.”

  I left and returned to the backyard, where the neighbors were helping Betty repair the roof. While everyone was talking and working magic, I sneaked inside.

  At this point in the plan, if Betty’s insane hypothesis was correct, someone would try to nab Hugo. If anyone watched the house to see if little Hugo had a moment to himself, this was the perfect chance to make a move.

  I kept to the inside walls, creeping as stealthily as possible. I figured for this mission, Stealth was my middle name and not Clumsy-kins, which was probably more suitable since I’d never done a stakeout in my life.

  I waited, listening for someone to hop on the porch and take Hugo. After several minutes of nothing happening, doubt crept in.

  Really, this was a stupid plan. We were supposed to have a huge distraction in back, leave Hugo unattended and hope that if there was a dragon dealer around that they would snatch him up.

  How stupid.

  I’d done some cuckoo things since I’d been in Magnolia Cove. I’d hunted down a drunk naked mayor every morning, babysat a werewolf, even started talking to animals, but this pretty much took the cake.

  Setting up a baby dragon to be stolen was about as stupid is as stupid does.

  And y’all, there wasn’t even a box of chocolates involved.

  I rose from my knees and decided that I’d grab Hugo and come inside.

  Just then, a crash rattled the front porch.

  I opened the front door and gasped.

  Jennie the guard-vine lay broken on the floorboards. Her buds hung limply from the green winding stem. She’d been sheared right in half as if someone had walked up and cut her with a chainsaw.

  Trust me, that’s about what you’d have to use against her. That plant was practically made of steel.

  But that wasn’t the worst of it. Hugo stood in front of Jennie, his back arched, a growl rolling in his throat. He shot a stream of fire straight out front, toward the man who had a brown rope lassoed around the body of the little dragon.

  “Axel,” I said. “What are you doing?”

  Axel’s panicked gaze lifted to mine. There weren’t any words he could say to explain what had happened.

  Because I already understood.

  His jailbird brother had tried to be a bad influence on Axel. Not long after mentioning that, Axel had broken up with me and had then asked if he could take Hugo—just for a while, he had said.

  But he hadn’t wanted him for a while, had he?

  Axel had wanted him all along.

  “Release him,” I yelled. “Let Hugo go!”

  Axel raised his palm. “Pepper, you don’t understand.”

  Hugo shot out a stream of fire. A shield of magic flared from Axel’s hand, stopping the flames from hurting him.

  “Let him go, Axel.”

  “I’m trying to save him.”

  “That’s not what it looks like.”

  “Someone else was here a moment ago. I stopped them. Pepper, you have to believe me.”

  “Then why’s he attacking you?”

  Axel’s mouth pursed into a thin line but no words came.

  “Release him,” I demanded.

  The rope around Hugo dissolved. The dragon didn’t waste any time. It lunged for Axel.

  Axel flared out his arms, stopping the beast mid-attack.

  The way Hugo leaped toward Axel made my heart twist. No matter what, animal instincts were usually correct—even in a baby dragon that was only a few days old.

  I hated to do it. I hated to believe Axel would try to take Hugo, but all the evidence pointed in that direction.

  “You wanted him all along,” I whispered.

  Axel’s face contorted in pain. “No, Pepper. Let me explain.”

  That’s when anger fueled me. “What is there to explain? Axel, I want you gone. Don’t ever show yourself here again.”

  Axel stared at me for a moment longer. His gaze flitted to the right as if he’d heard something. His eyes narrowed, then he flung out his arms and in a flash of light, vanished.

  TWENTY

  I carried Hugo into the house. Betty and my cousins rumbled in through the back door. Titters of laughter came from them, but when they saw me, everything stopped.

  “What happened?” Cordelia said.

  Amelia rushed over. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “You look like the whole world just collapsed beneath your feet.”

  My lips trembled as I set Hugo on the floor. I walked with wobbly knees over to the couch and sank onto it. I rubbed my temples.

  “You’re right. My whole world did just collapse.”

  “Did you catch ‘em? Did we get the killer?”

  “Worse than that,” I said.

  Betty pulled her corncob pipe from her pocket as if she was about to declare war. “What in tarnation could be worse than that?”

  I grimaced. “Hugo was attacked. Jennie’s been ripped in half. But the worst of it is that Axel attacked Hugo. At least, that’s what it looked like.”

  Betty grabbed her face with her hands. “Jennie’s been attacked!”

  Right. Out of all this, that was the most important thing. Not the fact that my heart was crushed and lying bleeding on the floor. It had been bad enough that Axel wanted to cool things off for a while. I figured we’d get back together. There’s undeniable chemistry between us. Enough to make me want to sit in his lap and purr.

  But obviously, now all that was over.

  Betty rushed through the living room and threw open the door. We followed her out onto the porch where she pulled Jennie into her palms. The buds sagged limply.

  “I’m not sure if I can save her, but I’ll try. This flower has been in my family since the turn of the century. If anyone could survive a meteor falling to earth or the zombie apocalypse you kids think is going to happen one day, it would be Jennie.”

  Betty cracked her knuckles and rubbed her hands together as if warming them. A flicker of magic ignited on her fingertips. A golden thread coiled and rotated from Betty’s trimmed nails.

  The yarn wound around Jennie. A halo of light pulsed from the thread as Jennie the guard-vine wove together. The string coiled around and around, stitching every bud and every leaf to each stem.

  “Girls, help me get her into place.”

  We each gathered part of the vine and hooked her above the porch. The golden halo hummed on my fingers. I wondered if the healing energy throbbing in the vine could ease the pain that was slowly shredding my heart in two.

  Betty clapped her hands and the magic snapped off. The golden thread dissolved, raining on the floor like the ends of a lit sparkler a child holds on the fourth of July.

  Jennie’s color deepened, her buds swelled and the green vine returned to its lush color.

  “I think she’ll be just fine,” Betty said.

  “Yes, she looks like she’ll do great. It’s a good thing we came along when we did,” Amelia said. “But I worry th
at our Pepper is not going to be okay."

  I forced a feeble smile to my lips. “I’ll be fine, y’all. Really.”

  Betty huffed. “You will not be fine. You will tell us everything that happened and then we will decide as a family who’s going to be fine and who isn’t.”

  Um. Okay.

  I rubbed my forehead. “Can I have some sweet tea?”

  Betty glanced up and down the street. “That sounds like good idea. Let’s get inside.”

  I staggered in and sat by the hearth. Betty pointed a finger and the fire crackled and spat to life. She clapped her hands and a service of sweet tea appeared. She poured a glass and slid it through the air to me.

  I caught it and drank deeply. Sweet sugary nectar slipped down my throat. I grabbed a handful of jellybeans from my pocket and dropped them in. I let them dissolve for a moment and then sipped again.

  Better.

  Betty stirred the fire. “Now. Tell us what happened.”

  “I heard a racket and ran to the porch. When I got there, I found Axel with a rope tied around Hugo, and the Hugo attacking Axel.”

  “What?” Amelia said. “I don’t understand.”

  I rubbed a line of sweat from the glass. “I didn’t tell y’all this, but a couple of days ago Axel admitted that his brother recently escaped from prison.”

  “No,” Amelia said.

  “Right. He also said his brother was involved with some sort of illegal dealings, obviously, which is what sent him to prison. But Adam had also tried to get Axel to turn to the dark side, so to speak. Then Axel broke up with me.”

  “What? He broke up with you?” Amelia said.

  “Would you stop saying ‘what’ and just listen,” Cordelia said.

  “Okay,” Amelia whimpered.

  “Yeah, but that’s not the worst of it. The other day I saw Axel and he suggested that he take Hugo off my hands.”

  Betty and my cousins exchanged raised eyebrows.

  I rubbed my temples. “I know. It looks bad. And then I catch him roping Hugo. When I asked why, he said someone else had just been there, but y’all, then Hugo shot fire at Axel. The dragon clearly attacked him.”

  I exhaled. “And I hate to say it, but why would Hugo have spat fire at Axel if Axel wasn’t trying to do something bad?”