Free Dicing with Death by Beth Chambers Page B

up the elixir. ‘Come any closer and I’ll smash it,’ she warned.
    Ralf laughed unpleasantly. ‘Do that and you won’t have anything left to bargain with.’
    Liah narrowed her green eyes. ‘I’m done with striking bargains.’ She opened her fingers and let go of the glass bottle.
    â€˜No!’ Greg, Larry and Ralf shouted in unison as the glass tumbled through the air and smashed into tiny shards on the floor.

    â€˜You little…’ Whatever bad name Ralf called Liah was drowned by the sound of a gunshot.
    Liah looked down and then back at Max. She frowned slightly as a scarlet stain spread over her chest. ‘I don’t feel very well,’ she said.
    Max got to her just as she hit the floor.
    â€˜What were you thinking! She’s just a kid, Ralf!’ Max’s dad yelled.
    Max heard the sound of running feet, followed by his father’s fist connecting hard with Ralf’s face, but all he could focus on was Liah. Frantically he dipped the corner of his robe into the rapidly evaporating elixir and squeezed out a drop on to Liah’s wound. ‘Come on, come on,’ he muttered. ‘Heal.’
    When nothing happened he shouted again, ‘Heal, will you!’ He felt tears burning his eyes. Liah couldn’t be dead – she’d had never really had a chance to live.
    â€˜Steady,’ Liah muttered without opening her eyes. ‘I’m beginning to think you care.’
    Max hunkered back on his heels and let out his breath. ‘You’re okay.’ He helped her up as another rumble of thunder sounded overhead.
    Ralf staggered past them, his hands cupped over his bloody nose. He stumbled against the wall and slowly slid to the floor.
    Max spun around in time to see his dad wrestle a briefcase away from Larry and swing it at his head. Larry’s eyes rolled up and his knees buckled. Before he’d hit the deck, Max’s dad had sprinted out of the room.
    â€˜Oh no you don’t,’ Max muttered as his father’s footsteps rang out down the spiral staircase. ‘You’re not running out on me for a second time without saying goodbye.’ He pulled the whistle out of his pocket and blew into it.
    Lightning flashed outside the balcony windows, illuminating the outline of a rearing winged horse. Seconds later its hooves thudded down on the balcony doors, the glass shattering from their frames as they burst open. Buttercup trotted into the room and pawed the ground dramatically. ‘How do you always get here so fast?’ Max wondered out loud, before grabbing a handful of mane and pulling himself up.
    â€˜Don’t go without me.’ Liah put her foot on top of Max’s and used it to scramble up behind him.
    Max leaned forward, trying to ignore Liah’s fingers digging into him. ‘There’s a bad man I need you to find, Cuppy,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to hurt him but I don’t mind if you want to play with him a bit.’
    The pegasus pawed the ground again before turning and launching itself off the balcony.
    â€˜Hang on!’ Max shouted to Liah as Buttercup swooped from the tower.
    â€˜What are you going to say to him when we catch him?’ Liah shouted in his ear.
    Max didn’t know. ‘I guess I’ll find out when it happens.’

Chapter Sixteen
    Cuppy circled the house until Max’s dad burst out of the main entrance and ran towards the car, his speed hampered by the heaviness of the case he was carrying.
    Galloping through the air, the great horse’s hooves were noiseless as he bore down on the desperate figure. As soon as Cuppy drew close enough, he dropped out of the sky like a stone. Baring his teeth, he grasped Greg’s jacket, pulled him from the ground and started shaking him from side to side like a rag doll. The briefcase flew from his hands and hit a tree. Bursting open on impact, wads of notes spilled all over the ground. ‘My