Free Annie's Song by Cate Dean Page A

anything.”
    “Thank you.” She moved out into the hall, Annie following after her. “Am I being overprotective?”
    “I think you’re entitled, Claire. It’s been, what—less than six months? And you have no idea what new talent is going to pop up. If anything, you’re remarkably well adjusted. And so is Zach.” She draped one arm over Claire’s shoulders and led her to the elevator. “He is loved and he knows it. You’ve got one great kid, honey. Now you have to trust him a little.”
     
    *
     
    P enn frowned when Claire showed up, asking for Zach. “He left more than an hour ago. Chelle?” Michelle stepped out of the back room. “Did you see where Zach headed when he left?”
    “Toward the hotel.” Those clear brown eyes studied Claire. “He wouldn’t have gone much farther. He was exhausted.”
    Claire nodded. “Jet lag. We just arrived today—”
    “He found Michelle’s missing locket.”
    Silence wrapped around them. Claire let out a shaky breath. “You didn’t prevent him from doing so?”
    “Hell, no,” Penn said. “I saw how much he was hurting over it. We both did. And you didn’t know.” She touched Claire’s wrist, fingers brushing the triquetra tattooed there, the scar cutting it in half. “He said it hurts if he can’t find something once he knows where it is. I thought he was going to keel over before he—”
    “Enough, Penn.” Michelle gently pushed her aside, took Claire’s hand when she started to leave. “We will help you. We’ve been here a couple of years now, and the locals will talk to us more readily than a stranger. Zach is a striking boy; he’ll be remembered. We’ll split up, cover more ground.”
    “Thank you.” Claire felt her nerves shredding. Standing here talking, when Zach could be hurt, or worse—
    Don’t head down that path.
    “We’ll find him,” Michelle said. She closed her other hand over Claire’s, started rubbing it. “You’re like ice. Are you okay?”
    “Once we find Zach, I will be fine . . .” Heat flared through her amethyst heart. She closed her hand over it—and her fingers clenched as an image of Zach burst into her mind.
    “Claire?” Penn’s voice filtered through the panic. “Come on now, open your eyes.” She obeyed, flinching at the bright light, met Penn’s worried gaze. “Are you all right? What happened?”
    “Zach,” she whispered. “He’s in trouble.”
     
    *
     
    Z ach felt his amethyst flare, and could do nothing to stop it, or the message he knew it flashed straight to his mom. It was the one solid connection to her he couldn’t control. He just hoped she didn’t understand what it meant.
    Diana pulled him toward the standing stones he’d read about in the guidebook. They shimmered in the late afternoon light, the power from the ley lines like a rainbow around them. Whatever Diana wanted, if it was inside that ring of stone and power, he wouldn’t find it easily. And he was sure she wouldn’t take that news well.
    “It is a simple thing, really.” Her voice grated, jumping higher with her excitement. “I found it quite by accident, and kept it to myself.” Wind lifted the ends of her short brown hair. She shoved at it, her movements almost frantic. And that scared Zach more than the knife she kept waving around. “I may not be the most talented witch in Briarton, but I understand real power. This will give me what I have always wanted. What I deserve.”
    They had just reached the first stone when he heard the shout.
    Mom—no—
    She came straight at them, halting when Diana jerked him in front of her and dug the knife into his jaw.
    Mom clenched her fists, but her voice came out calm. “Let him go.”
    “Get out of here! You don’t belong, you can’t have it—I won’t let you have it!”
    “Whatever it is, I don’t want it.” Mom raised her hands, opened them. Next to this crazy, manic woman, she looked serene, beautiful. Power she didn’t think she had glowed from the amethyst