Read Online Hexed by Michael Alan Nelson - Free Book Online

thoroughly, but first, she had to deal with a much more pressing problem.
    Lucifer took off the glasses and closed the book. “Did either of you open this book? Look inside?”
    Olivia stepped over toward the bed and sat down next to Kenna. “Just the night we were in the Worcester House. Why?”
    â€œYou too, Kenna?” Lucifer asked.
    Kenna nodded yes. Lucifer put the glasses and the book into her trick bag and pulled out her cell phone. With a couple quick swipes of her finger across the screen, she opened up a simple app and began scrolling through a gallery of symbols, picts, and simple images until she found the one from the cover of the book. She tapped it, and a symbol filled the screen. This one was a series of elegant lines all converging to a single point.
    Lucifer held her phone up for Kenna. “Kenna, what do you see?”
    â€œOh, how pretty. It’s like those old Spirographs my dad used to have. Did you draw that yourself?”
    â€œNo, but I did make the app.” Lucifer held the phone out toward Olivia. “Olivia?”
    Olivia frowned as she folded her arms across her chest. “What?”
    â€œOn my phone. What do you see on the screen?”
    Olivia rolled her eyes before leaning forward to get a good view of the phone’s screen. She squinted her eyes before settling back. “I see your greasy fingerprints smudged everywhere. Seriously, do you ever clean that thing?”
    â€œTake a look again. Do you see anything else? Anything at all?”
    Olivia squinted at the screen again. “No.”
    Kenna pointed to the screen. “It’s right there! You can’t see that? The lines go from here—”
    â€œPlease, don’t trace the symbol, Kenna. That would . . . complicate things.”
    â€œBut how come she can’t see it?”
    â€œBecause there’s nothing there,” Olivia insisted.
    â€œIs it like some color-blind kind of thing?” Kenna asked.
    â€œI’m not color-blind!” Olivia shouted. But then she looked at Lucifer from the corner of her eye. “Am I color-blind?”
    Lucifer quickly put her phone away and turned to squarely face Olivia. “The good news is that no, you’re not color-blind.”
    Olivia turned to Kenna. “I told you I wasn’t color-blind. I’ve had LASIK surgery.”
    â€œThat doesn’t have anything to do with—” Lucifer started to say before Kenna interrupted her.
    â€œWait, you said, ‘Good news.’ That kind of means there’s bad news, doesn’t it?”
    â€œBad news?” Olivia squeaked. “What do you mean bad news ?”
    Lucifer grabbed both of Olivia’s hands. The gesture was meant to calm her, but it seemed to only make Olivia even more anxious. “Okay, you know how sometimes things sound a lot worse than they really are? This is one of those things, so I need you to not panic, okay?”
    â€œPanic? Why would I panic? What things are you talking about? I don’t know any of those things. What sounds worse than it really is?” Olivia was squeezing Lucifer’s hands hard enough that her fingers were going numb. “Why couldn’t I see it?”
    â€œAll right, this? This right here? This is the panicking thing that I didn’t want you to do. You have to calm down,” though as soon as the words left her mouth, Lucifer was fully aware that the horse had already left the barn on that one.
    â€œOh god, it’s eye cancer, isn’t it?” Olivia whimpered. “I have eye cancer!”
    Sometimes it was better to just yank the Band-Aid off as quickly as you could. “No, you don’t have eye cancer, Olivia . . .
    â€œYou’re possessed.”

CHAPTER 7
    Olivia shared a glance with Kenna before looking back at Lucifer. “Possessed? Okaaay . . .” Olivia let the word hang in the air, not even attempting to mask her contempt.