The Unwilling Witch (11 page)

As I was dragged past my bed, I saw Rory's toy bird. I grabbed it and wound it up, then held it so the wings flapped toward the vines. With the aid of my power, I amplified the breeze, turning it into a blast of wind that pushed against the vines. The force ripped leaves right off the vines. Slowly, their grip on my legs loosened. The wings stopped flapping after a moment, but that didn't matter. Once I'd started the blast, I could keep it going.

The vines, pushed flat against the walls around the closet, were starting to wilt. I'd won, but I'd used up much of my strength.

“What's all that noise?” Mom called from down the hallway.

I inched toward my door and opened it. Sebastian was looking out from his room. “I have to go somewhere,” I told him.

“No problem,” he said. “I'll cover for you.”

“Really?”

He grinned. “Sure. Don't worry. Go do what you have to do. And be careful. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He headed down the hall toward Mom's room. I heard him say, “Sorry about the noise, Mom. I was trying to pick up the mess in my room.”

“At eleven thirty at night?” Mom asked.

“Gee, is it that late? Sorry. I'll try to be more quiet. I wouldn't want to wake Angie.”

I looked back at the vines. They'd all fallen into dust. I had to get to the mall. I didn't want to risk getting caught by going down the hallway. The window was my best chance. The porch roof was right below my room. I put Darling outside, then stepped through to join her. I hung by my hands and dropped to the lawn.

“Come on, jump!” I called to Darling, holding out my hands. She was part of this, and I knew I had to take her with me.

She stood for a moment at the edge, then leaped into my arms. I heard footsteps to my left. Miss Chutney was running out from a car parked up the street.

There were other steps. I looked to my right. Elestra was running toward me from that side. “Wait,” she cried.

“No time,” I called. I ran all the way to the park, right past the bench where it had all started. This had been the old lady's place of power, with the five trees circling the bench. But it wasn't my place of power. That lay at the end of the path.

A huge sign above the entrance blazed ahead of me:
MIDNIGHT MADNESS SALE
.

I ran in through Main Mall past the bank. The clock flashed the time and temperature. It was seventy-three degrees. It was 11:55.

The mall was mobbed. People were dashing all around, going crazy over the sales. There were decorations everywhere. Streamers hung from the walls, and balloons were tied to almost every available place. I pushed through the crowds, cradling Darling to protect her, and wondered whether I had made a mistake. As the sign had said, this seemed more a place of madness than of power. But if this was my place of power, I needed to get near the center. I raced onto the footbridge, then stopped with a sickening jolt. I couldn't cross the running water.

I looked around. Elestra was coming in through the Main Mall entrance. I looked toward North Mall. Miss Chutney was huffing down the corridor toward me, rubbing her hands together. Elestra spotted me. She waved her arms and shouted something.

Then I heard another shout.

“Angie!”

I looked behind me. Jan stood at the entrance to South Mall. A crowd milled around the Hub, but it seemed as if they'd all faded to gray while Jan stood out in color. I sensed that there was even more going on. I looked toward East Mall. Again, one person stood out from the crowd. May Mellon waited there, at the edge of the corridor, staring at me.

And in the West? I knew even before I looked. Katrina walked slowly toward me, but stared down at the ground.

Power seeks its rightful owner.

I checked the clock. 11:58.

At the entrance to North Mall, Miss Chutney shouted and rubbed her hands together.

Something rustled at my feet. It was a sales slip someone had dropped. The small piece of paper started to change shape, growing round and slender and alive. Before my eyes, it became a snake.

I'd spent so much time when I was younger reading about Cleopatra that I instantly recognized the snake. It was an asp. It was deadly. Someone was trying to dispatch me.

 

Twenty-seven

FIGHT

I tried to step away from the asp but was blocked by the flowing water. I started to stumble. My hands fell open. Darling leaped from me and grabbed the snake by the neck. She shook it with a sharp jerk of her head, snapping it like a rope. It turned to dust between her teeth. She didn't seem too happy about the dust part.

I looked at each of the five people surrounding me. Everyone else in the mall faded like ghosts. I stood at the center of this five-armed place of power, knowing it was time to keep my gift or pass it along.

“Your father is in danger,” Elestra said. “Give me the power. I can save him. Look, and you'll see the danger is real. Use your vision.” She pointed toward the ceiling.

As I stared into the dome over my head, the glass filled with the scene of a car—Dad's car—approaching a train crossing. Classical music blared from the stereo. I knew Dad used it to help keep awake when he was tired. It was so loud, he'd never hear the train.

There was a dreadful crash as the train struck the side of the car. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, the image was gone.

“How?” I asked. “How do I give the power to you?”

“Just touch me and let it flow,” she said. She walked toward the edge of the bridge. “Hurry. There isn't much time.”

She was right—there wasn't much time. But there was enough time to wonder about one thing. She was so lovely and so kind, so helpful, so easy to trust. Too easy to trust. “No, not that way,” I said. I pointed toward the other side of the bridge. “Come around.”

She looked at the running water, then glared at me. That's when I knew. “You already have power,” I said. “Admit it.”

Elestra shook her head. “Not enough. Not nearly enough. What good is it? All I can cast are small spells with paper. Nothing lasts. It all turns so easily to dust. I need more. Then the world will be mine.” She stopped.

I could tell from her face that she realized she'd said too much.
Spells with paper
. All the things that had attacked me—they began as paper. The money, the bracelet, the history study sheet, the comic book—all paper. And all Elestra's doing. I'd been fooled by her beauty. I almost smiled as I remembered Rory's words. He'd told me an old lady had given him the comic book. To a really young kid like him, I guess she looked like an old lady.

“Give me your power,” she said, stepping up on the bridge. “Give it and I'll save your father. Make me take it and I'll do nothing for him.”

“Don't trust her!”

I turned toward my left. Miss Chutney was waving her arms for my attention and shouting. “She uses her power for evil!”

I looked at Elestra. She'd done nothing but lie. Maybe she'd lied when she said I couldn't save my father.

“You're wasting time,” Elestra said, taking a step toward me.

I knew I could save him. But how? I was best with air. I grabbed a balloon from the railing of the bridge and squeezed it. At this point, I felt that I had almost nothing left inside me. But I put all my thought and effort into the air in his left front tire. Slowly, I felt the balloon, and the tire, expanding, swelling, bulging.

The balloon burst in my hands. The pressure in my mind vanished. I'd done all I could. I looked at the clock. It was three minutes after twelve. I dropped to one knee, exhausted by the effort of that spell.

“Give me your power now, or I will take it.” Elestra spread her arms. Around me, dozens of slips of paper began to shiver and swell and change. “Do what I say.”

I shook my head. “No way.”

Elestra got an odd look on her face and staggered back a step. I'd done something to her, but I didn't know what. It couldn't have been a spell—I didn't have the energy left for anything powerful.

“It has to be,” Elestra said.

“Stay away from me,” I warned.

Elestra screamed and took another step backwards.

I heard Jan shout from behind me, “It rhymed! Angie, do it again.”

Rhymed? Jan was right. Elestra had said,
It has to be
. Then I'd said,
Stay away from me
. That must be the way I could fight her power. I just had to keep making rhymes. That wouldn't be hard. Even I could find rhymes for
be
and
me
.

Before I could think of anything, Elestra shouted,
“Silver! Orange!”

I stood, my mouth open, not knowing what to say. Nothing rhymed with either of those words. Elestra spoke them over and over as she waved her arms and spun in dizzying circles, pouring all her power into one deadly spell.

At my feet, creatures born of discarded paper crawled, hissing and snarling, toward me. From the water below, lizards with fangs and worms with claws slithered up the sides of the bridge. All around the mall, signs and posters started to transform. To my right, in the bookstore, a hundred thousand creatures descended from the shelves. To my left, greeting cards flapped and flew like bats from the display racks.

Every piece of paper in the mall was coming to kill me.

“Now you'll be destroyed!” Elestra screamed. “And after you, all your friends. Silver, orange! Silver, orange!”

 

Twenty-eight

DECISION

I should have been paralyzed with fear. The Angelina of five days ago might have been. I'd grown up a little since then. My mind, faced with so much hate and greed, grew calm. In that instant, the answer came to me. Backwards. I reversed her words, saying them backwards. There was power in reversal. “Egnaro, revlis!” I shouted. All I needed was a rhyme.
Egnaro
rhymed with
tomorrow
. And
revlis
was easy. I had it.

“Now, not tomorrow, just end this.” I pointed at her and shouted again, “End this!” I gave the shout all my strength and power. Then I fell to my knees.

Wind swept past me, lifting the paper-born creatures, sweeping them off in a flutter of slashing claws and snapping fangs. Their howls and shrieks faded as they turned to dust. The wind grew stronger, forcing me flat on my stomach. Elestra shot backwards as if yanked by a giant rubber band. She flew down the corridor of Main Mall, propelled by the force of her own power turned against her, and disappeared out the door.

I got to my feet, turned slowly, and looked at the others. They still stood apart from the crowds in the mall. It was four minutes after twelve. If I was to give away the power, it had to be now.

I looked at Miss Chutney. “You want the power, don't you?”

She smiled sadly. “I want it too much.” She shook her head and rubbed her hands together. I realized it was a nervous habit, and nothing more. “I would be a bad choice.”

I understood what she meant. She'd chased the power all her life but wasn't meant to have it. But that didn't solve my problem. “I don't know what to do,” I said.

“Keep it,” Miss Chutney said. “Keep the power.”

A fly buzzed past my head and landed on the railing. It took off and buzzed past me again. Annoyed, I waved it away with my hand. It fell dead to the ground.

I looked at the body of the fly and thought about what I had done in the last five days. I'd played pranks. I'd broken pencils. I'd done some good, but no more than I could have done with a bit of hard work. Would I help people, or would I end up hurting them?

I shook my head. “I would be a bad choice, too.”

I turned toward the others. Katrina still stood there, not saying a word. May glared at me, full of anger. “Katrina?” I said.

She looked up at me. I understood what had happened. She'd been following me, hoping to get to know me, but too shy to speak up—so shy, she'd fled to the park when I said hi to her. She wasn't looking for power; she was looking for a friend. I'd probably be a bad choice for that, too. We had nothing in common.