Page 24 of Haunt Improvement
“If we could get them linked together somehow...”Glinda’s lime green magic crackled eagerly.
“Like in a wind funnel?”I offered, wondering if my magic could handle that much.Maybe just a small one...
“You’d only have to hold it long enough to draw them all in, and thenbam!I’d zap them back to Cuba, just a little crispier than they arrived.”
A snakenado would really test the new hurricane glass in the nursery, but it was our best and only option.
“Okay,” I agreed, drawing a horrified gasp from Dylan.
“You can’t be serious!”He thrust a hand back at the wittle witch and Hermosa.“You should be taking shelter with Mama and bitty bat.Zelda will be here any minute now.”
“But what if she’s not?”I closed my eyes and tried to stand up straighter, letting go of the bookshelf.“Nathan and the batamigas are downstairs, scared for their lives.The belfry bats are outside and fighting for theirs.It’s only a matter of time before Isaac’s feature creatures find a way inside.I have to at leasttryto help.”
Emmy blinked at me.“You’re braver than I gave you credit for.”Was that a compliment?
“Thanks?I think.”I smiled awkwardly at her, my face resisting this strange turn of events.
“Hold still,” Emmy said, sending every hair on my body up in warning.“This will only take a second.”
“What are you—” Before I could finish, the throbbing weakness in my groin and abdomen faded to a dull ache, and the clouds rippled, expressing my gratitude involuntarily.I could most definitely summon a wind funnel now.
“I thought you went to Europe for cosmetic magic?”I said, shooting my cousin a skeptical frown.
“Yes,” she agreed.“Which includes tummy tucks and, shall we say...otherbodily rejuvenation?You didn’t think I’d build a whole career around pimples and warts, did you?”
“Well...”Maybe that wasn’t something I should admit out loud, lest she take offense and dust off her book of wicked ailments.
“Blemishes are fun for revenge, but crafting beauty is where the real money is,” Emmy went on, unscathed by my rotten opinion of her.“Of course, beauty doesn’t carry quite the reputation the West name demands, does it?”
Having something in common with my cousin had not been on my bingo card today.
Another snake smacked the window, triggering Glinda’s crackling magic.The sky cauldron rumbled at my displeasure.Clouds darkened and began to circle overhead, exposing Isaac’s hiding place.His long cloak fluttered in my increasing gale, and though he glared at us, doubt pinched at the corners of his hateful eyes and dragged down the ends of his greasy mustache.
“When didthathappen?”I made a face at Glinda, wondering how she could have skipped over such a glaring detail.
“It wasn’t there when I left Kansas,” she insisted.
“He’s been growing it since winter solstice.”Emmy loosed a heavy sigh.“He thinks it will make Uncle Redrick take him more seriously as an heir to the West fortune, but so far, it’s not had the desired effect on our reputation.”
“Let’s see what they have to say about that West reputation after we blast these slithering atrocities somewhere over the rainbow,” I said, pushing the clouds faster and faster.
Broomzilla darted around the corner of the belfry.She’d noticed the shift in the sky and was taking shelter.Even the flying boas seemed suddenly apprehensive.
Emmy’s work was more covert.One second, the boas’ wings beat against the wind, dragging them away from the funnel reaching out of the clouds.The next, feathers rained like Icarus had ventured too close to the sun, and snakenado was born.A slithering, hissing mass of hysteria.It was horrifying, and—to a degree—beautiful.Even Isaac couldn’t peel his eyes away.
It was enough to strike terror into any heart.Which, if we’re being honest, is what West witches lived for.Aunt Evillene would have been so proud.
That thought alone snapped me out of my trance, and I elbowed Glinda.“You’re up, buttercup.”
“Right.”My cousin blinked and shook her head.She was just as stunned by our creation as I was.She flicked a finger under her eye, wiping away what I hoped was a lash and not a tear.Her electricity sparked at her fingertips and then arched through the glass window and into the funnel.
“No!”Isaac’s hand reached for the snakenado, but his defensive spell wasn’t fast enough.It was three against one—and I was on the right side of the equation for a change.
With Emmy, Glinda, and my magic combined, the spell we wove forged our voices into one.
* * *
Return all ye drafted, foul and reptilian
