Page 23 of Haunt Improvement
“Booboo Yoyo?”I shook my head.“You mean the Baba Yaga?”
“Yes, that one.”Hermosa nodded.
Zelda had plenty of colorful nicknames—like the Shifter Wanker—but I somehow doubted she would care for this new one.Hermosa had a knack for accidentally butchering names.At least, Ithoughtit was accidental.Sangria might have disagreed.
“What’sthat?”Daisy asked, pressing in closer to the window despite her initial effort to keep Asher from seeing.“Are those words?”
“Whoa.”Asher’s eyes swelled to the size of pawpaws.“Those arebigsnakes.Hey!Get away from my friends!”he screamed, shaking his fist.
A line of belfry bats skittered past the window with a fat, spotted boa hot on their tails.Wings the size of an eagle’s were mounted to the snake’s backside, attached by thick, dark stitches.
My heart was suddenly in my throat, and I was sure I’d puke it out any second.I knew that handiwork.
“No, no, no,” I moaned.My grip on the changing table faltered, but Dylan noticed and caught my arm, easing me into the rocking chair.“This can’t be happening.Not now.”
“Zelda will fix it,” he assured me.
“There’s a message in the clouds.It looks like smoke,” Daisy said, trying to push Asher’s curious face into the crook of her neck.“Surrender...Margo...”she read slowly.
“It’s Isaac,” I whispered to Dylan.“He’s here.”
Broomzilla made a rude gesture with her bristles and then zipped out of the room.I stood and leaned against the shelf under the window, watching as she appeared outside and smudged out the dark message with the business end of her handle.A flying boa hissed at her, and she jerked in surprise, briefly turning herself into an exclamation point before turning woodgrain over bristles and smacking the abomination under the chin, snapping its fangs shut.
Broomzilla rubbed her bristles in challenge as her opponent recovered, then she tore off, leading it away from the belfry and nursery below.
“Why isn’t Zelda here yet?”Daisy turned an anxious circle.Asher was still clutched in her arms, his muffled cries becoming more annoyed until she remembered and let him up for air.“Sorry, bub.”
“I wish there was something I could do to help,” Papa Ernesto said, frowning at the lot of us.“I’m already dead, and while my ghost is able to depart, it’s still confined to the house as long as I’m on this plane.”
I blinked at the scattering of clouds in the sky, willing them to churn for me.They replied in slow motion, and my body replied in a trembling ache that sent me back to the rocking chair.Of all the days for my moody storm magic to fail me.
“PATHETIC,” a booming voice cut through the glass.“THIS IS THE LEGENDARY SKY CAULDRON?OUR FAMILY’S GIFTS ARE WASTED ON YOU, MARGO WEST.”
“Hernández,” Mama Hermosa corrected, though her courage shriveled as a boa slapped against the nursery window.Another one hit the opposite window, drawing a shrill squeal out of Hermosa.
Issac had found us.
“Where are you, Zee?”I scanned the clouds for my friend, but a different witch loomed on the horizon.“Emmy.”I bit off her name like a curse before noticing Glinda beside her, leather legs wrapped around her broom as they torpedoed in our direction.As soon as they were in range, a flash of green light cut through the sky, and then they appeared in the room.
“Where’s Zelda?”I yelled over the thundering assault of reptiles.
“She’s a little busy with our mother right now, trapped in one of her maze illusions,” Emmy said, her cool gaze unapologetic.Her head cocked at the bloodstained rug, and then tilted the other direction when she noticed my daughter in Hermosa’s arms.
“Zee’s smart and will find her way out, I’m sure,” Glinda said.“It was a diversion.We just realized too late.”She winced, but her attention soon turned to the slithery creatures trying to find a way inside.“Wicked.”She stared in awe a moment before blushing at my obvious disgust.“I mean, if they weren’t here to eat your in-laws, that is.Bad,badIsaac.For shame,” she added, inching back a step as the sky grumbled.
“And what’s your take on this?”I demanded of Emmy as I dragged myself up and off the rocking chair again.This was no time for sitting.Noodle legs be damned.
Emmy shrugged.“I’m tired of being pushed around by our family.Time to set some boundaries, even if that means helping the white sheep escape their clutches.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”I held my hands open, glad I was at least able to stand on my own again.“I just had a baby.I’m not exactly battleworthy right now.”
The mere thought of putting a broom between my legs made me weak in the knees.I steadied myself on the bookshelf and tried not to flinch when another snake bounced off the window.
“We’re going to work smarter, not harder.That’s how.”Emmy hitched one of her perfect brows, and a familiar purple magic bubbled up from her manicured fingertips.My nose itched in response, having grown a wart more often than not whenever my cousin fired up her magic.
“Wings first?”Glinda asked her sister.
Emmy nodded.“I’ll use my dermaplaning blades to cut the stitches.Isaac won’t even see it coming.”
