Bunyips and Billabongs Read online

  "It was bat shit, actually." Penny shook her head. "The trickster god might be a pain in the ass, but he's the only reason we made it out of there alive."

  Sam lifted an eyebrow. "I suppose I'll have to go easy on him next time he clogs the toilet."

  "How do you tell the difference between a magically-interfered-with toilet and a normal plumbing issue?" Crenel asked, although his face suggested he didn't really want to know the answer to that.

  "It's a long drop, Agent Crenel. There is no possible way a giant hole in the ground could clog without the assistance of a trickster god." He watched Crenel's face screw up in horror, then laughed. “Yeah, it was that bad.”

  Crenel pulled out a chair next to Penny. “I just kicked Red out of bed. The AFP will have a team here in twenty, and they’ve offered us a ride back. After they slam you with questions, of course.”

  “Great.” Penny glanced at Boots. “I can hardly wait.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Penny reclined on her bed in the Academy dorm room she shared with Amelia. “Results are due back today,” she said.

  Amelia looked up from a half-eaten bar of chocolate. “Yeah, I know. Why do you think I’m stressing so much?”

  “I’m sure you did really well. You studied your ass off for those exams!” Penny felt almost guilty. She herself had snuck off on a date with Cisco the night before instead of cramming like her friend.

  Still, she knew her subjects and felt like she’d aced the tests. She had to question that confidence, however, when Dean March appeared in the doorway with two large white envelopes embossed with the Academy’s seal.

  “Girls? I hope I’m not interrupting.” Regardless of her hope, the dean entered the room and passed each girl one of the envelopes. “I thought I’d hand-deliver your results.”

  “That good, or that bad?” Penny asked. She held hers, anxiety welling.

  The dean smiled. “Look and see, dear. You might just be surprised at how it all worked out in the end.”

  “I don’t like surprises,” Amelia said. She ripped her packet open and scanned the pages inside. “What? I don’t get it. What does all this mean?”

  “Extra credit,” Dean March explained. “For the two field missions you completed this semester.”

  “But they’re applied to next semester,” Penny pointed out. “Twelve. That’s more than…” She stopped, her heart skipping a beat. It couldn’t be! I’m not ready!

  “That’s right, Penny.” Dean March took a step closer and reached out a hand to shake. “You’ve already passed your final semester. There is some paperwork to be done, but the two of you—and Cisco and Red, of course—have completed your course in its entirety. Congratulations, girls. You’re now fully qualified Mythological Event Specialists.”

  “No way.” Penny’s emotions tangled into a ball and tears welled. “We’re done?”

  “As close to it as you can be,” the dean confirmed. “But don't worry. We won’t kick you out and leave you homeless just yet.”

  “What the hell do we do next?” Penny’s met Amelia’s eyes.

  Amelia grinned. “We celebrate, of course!”

  The celebratory dinner was held the following week. Paddy insisted on hosting, closing the entire bar in honor of the occasion. Penny and the friends she had made over the previous year and a half, both human and mythological, feasted and drank until the wee hours of the morning.

  The party was beginning to wind down when Penny collapsed into an empty booth, exhausted from dancing and chatting. Agent Crenel slipped into the seat across from her.

  “So,” he said, his grin a little sloppy from Bacchus’ never-ending supply of wine, “what’s next for the golden girl?”

  Penny shrugged. “Home. Just for a few weeks. I promised Mum and Dad a family holiday when I graduated. Then I guess I’ll come back and fill out the FBI application forms.”

  Crenel’s eyes dropped. “Don’t.”

  “What?” Penny blinked, sure she had misunderstood. “Crenel, that was the whole point, wasn’t it?”

  “How much harder would it have been to save that bunyip if you’d been a full-fledged agent?” he asked. “Bah. The FBI isn’t what it used to be. Too many rules, mountains of paperwork. Things you can avoid if you go out on your own.”

  “On my own?” Penny sipped her drink, considering. “The FBI has resources I don’t,” she pointed out.

  Crenel nodded. “And Mack and Jessica have resources the government would die to get their hands on, not to mention the shitty pay scale when you work for the man. As a freelancer, you could charge what you want.”

  She snorted. “I’m not in this to get rich.”

  Crenel winked. “But you are in it to help people, and not just the people that you’re told to help, the ones who need it. Go solo, and you can pick and choose. Charge the assholes through the nose and work pro-bono for the ones who can’t find help anywhere else.”

  Penny snorted again. “That sounds highly unethical.” Her brain ticked over his words, though. Having the freedom to get involved where she was needed, without having to rely on reams of paperwork to justify it?

  Crenel nodded and stood. “Just think about it, okay?”

  He left her alone, but the booth didn’t stay that way for long. Cisco slid in next to her a few moments later, Red and Amelia taking the bench seat across from them.

  “So, what about it?” Amelia asked, folding her hands on the table and leaning forward eagerly.

  “What about what?” Penny asked, bewildered.

  “We saw Crenel over here and guessed he gave you the same talk he gave all of us,” Cisco explained. “FBI bad, freelancing good, Mack will fund our little startup.”

  “Our what?” Penny laughed. “You guys have a whole business model planned already?”

  “It’s not like it was hard,” Amelia protested. “You and Cisco are our field agents, I’ll get the clients, and Red is our information guy. We’ve got all the skills we need. Trevor will come on in a few weeks as the tech guy. Dean March said he was supposed to graduate with us, but he accidentally fried the computer his extra credit assignments were on. It won’t take him long to redo it, though.”

  Penny leaned back, dazed. She looked out into the thinning crowd that loitered at the bar and spotted Boots. She waved to the serpent, who hurried over. “Boots, these jobbers think we should start our own mythological investigative agency. What do you think?”

  Boots looked at the faces peering down at her, then did a happy twirl. She nodded eagerly, then shoved her entire head into Cisco's whiskey.

  Penny laughed. “I guess that's a yes, but we might have to remind her in the morning. She’s gonna be a little hungover, I bet.”

  THE END

  A New Dawn Omnibus

  Have you read the A New Dawn series from Amy Hopkins and Michael Anderle? The entire series is available as a boxed set through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

  When the greatest horrors exist in the mind, how do you deal with a man who puts them there?

  Julianne is the strongest mystic of her generation. Her mental magic might even be getting stronger... it's hard to tell when her practice time is eaten up by paperwork and leading her people.

  That is, until a rogue mystic cult shows up, trying to drag Julianne into their plot for world domination.

  This Boxed Set includes books the complete New Dawn Series.

  Available now at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.

  Author Notes - Amy Hopkins

  November, 2019

  I’m writing these notes on April 6. Yeah, Steve is gonna kill me.

  This was my favourite book to write. It’s home for me — albeit home with a magical twist — but between opening my new file to begin the story and right now, ‘home’ has changed. The whole world has.

  I’m in quarantine with my family and oh my god there is not enough wine on the planet to make this work. I’m an introvert. There are FOUR PEOPLE in my house. And a dog. And they WO
N’T GO AWAY!* My only solace is the occasional outing with my friends. By ‘friends’ I mean my dog and my shiraz, and by ‘outing’ I mean my driveway.

  How are you all doing? I know many of you are facing challenges so much bigger than mine. I hope you’re all ok and that this book, and all the other authors are working so hard to get out, bring a sliver of brightness into a world that can be a little dark sometimes. I mean, look at Mike — he lives in Vegas and he can’t even go out for ribs!

  I’d like to thank you all (and Michael, as much as I give him shit all the time) for helping my little series come to fruition. From ‘write what you know… write YOU’ so many months ago, to a rollicking adventure that has culminated in my very own backyard, I feel so blessed to have had this time with my new friend and her sassy snake.

  It’s the end of the series, but maybe not the end of Penny and Boots. We’ll see. I’ve got other projects in the wings and they deserve their time to fly, too.

  Love you all,

  Amy.

  (PS: Really, send wine. Lots of it. Help.)

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