by Martha Carr
12
The opalescent bubble burst around them, and they most definitely weren’t in the back yard. With a snort, Speed jumped up onto the bed beside the wall. Laura folded her arms. “So, I would ask who wasn’t thinking about going into the back yard, but seeing as we’re in your room, Em…”
Emily shrugged, grinning. “Sorry.”
“Why were thinking about your room?” Nickie asked.
The youngest Hadstrom sister took two huge steps toward the bedside table, stretched forward to snatch her phone, and returned. “I didn’t even mean to, guys. Just hopin’ I didn’t miss a text or anything.”
Laura scoffed. “Did you?”
“What? Oh, no. I didn’t.”
With a soft chuckle, Nickie shook her head.
“Wow.” Laura sighed. “Okay, Em. Your turn.”
“Huh?”
“Cast the spell. Make us a transport bubble, and this time, we’re going into the back yard.”
“Okay, okay.” Emily stretched out her hand and stared at the copper ring on her thumb. “What’s the spell again?”
“Seriously?”
“Conmeatus,” Nickie whispered.
“Conmeatus.” Emily grinned when another pearly bubble grew from the top of her ring and disconnected. “I really like not having to take out a wand every time I wanna do something.”
“Emily, focus,” Laura muttered.
“Right.” When the bubble was large enough, the Hadstrom sisters stepped inside. Emily turned to look at Speed, who’d curled up on her bed and looked very much asleep. “Speed? Come on, buddy. You wanna go outside?” The immortal bulldog didn’t even twitch. “Oh, I get it.” Emily smirked. “Freeloader.” The bubble disappeared.
When it burst again, they were standing outside their back door off the mudroom. The sun beat down on them hot and bright, the humidity already overwhelming, and they blinked at their open lawn at the top of the hill, surrounded by the black iron fence they’d torn apart a week ago to forge their iron, Gorafrex-vanquishing weapons.
“We have to fix that fence.” Laura nodded at the gaping hole in the elaborate wrought iron that had come with the house when they bought it.
“Probably not that high on the priority list, though, right?” Nickie chuckled.
“No. Not right now.” For the first time that morning, Laura smiled. “That was really good, you guys. I won’t say we mastered a Peabrain spell, but almost.”
“I mean, it is really easy.” Emily shrugged.
“Yeah, as long as you don’t start daydreaming about John again and take us somewhere else.” Nickie folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.
Emily puffed out a breath. “I wasn’t thinking about John…”
“Hmm. Then whose texts were you trying not to miss?”
“I…just any text.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Hey, we’re on a time crunch, remember?” Laura spread her arms. “Yeah, this is a learning process while we figure out how to do this right, but we have to do it right. And then we really have to be quick about destroying those energy cores before the Gorafrex gets to them. So, let’s focus. Please.” Laura’s urgent tone left her sisters speechless for a moment, then they nodded.
“Yeah, okay.”
“You’re right, Laura. Let’s do this. What’s next?”
Laura nodded. “Anybody have any ship-destroying tools tucked away somewhere?”
“Oh.” Emily grinned. “Does this mean I get to use that Excsindo spell again?”
“Woah…” Nickie tossed up her hands.
“Emily,” Laura spat in a harsh whisper, then glanced at the neighboring houses. Her gaze lingered a little longer on the back porch of the house behind them, whose owner had almost caught them in the act of casting that same spell the day they made their iron weapons. “You can’t just go shouting spells for the fun of it. Not with these rings. A wand takes a lot more intention to cast any kind of magic, but these are…”
“They’re trigger-happy, Em.” Nickie nodded at her. “I’m pretty sure you’ve already figured out we have to focus a lot more on not using the rings than using them.”
“Jeeze. I’m sorry.” Emily tried to look apologetic, but she couldn’t help a tiny smile of excitement. “I’m not gonna cast that spell now. Come on.” She folded her arms. “It’s not like I’m twelve and just got my wand. I have a whole decade of practice under my belt.”
“Not with your ring, you don’t.” Laura frowned and glanced at the copper ring on her sister’s thumb.
“So? Can I use that spell or not?”
The two older ones stared at their reckless sister.
“Probably not, Em,” Nickie muttered.
“We don’t know how much stronger it’d be with your ring instead of your wand,” Laura said. “And Rutilda said a combination of magic and physical…”
Emily cocked her head. “Don’t say smashing.”
“Destruction, okay? The Engineer said both of those together give us the best chance of destroying the energy cores, so we just need some really effective tools for breaking things.”
“Let’s check the basement,” Nickie offered. Emily nodded.
“Okay. Good opportunity to practice again. You take this one, Nick.”
“Me?”
Emily smirked at her sister. “Hey, we started with the back yard. Yours is a step up.”
Nickie chuckled. “Fine.” She flicked her hand out and muttered, “Conmeatus.” The black legacy ring on her thumb flashed with a dark light, and another shimmering transport bubble bloomed on the band. It floated amidst them and grew. The sisters stepped into it, each thinking specifically about the basement.
When the bubble popped, they’d made it. “Woah!” Emily’s arms flailed as her feet slipped over the scattered fishing poles lying where she’d landed. She staggered forward, almost fell, and crouched to catch herself with her hands. She hopped up and spun around, walking backward. “Who the heck left fishing poles in the middle of the basement? Since when do we even have fishing poles?”
Nickie bent to pick them up—three shorter-than-average poles with the bobs tied to the line, dangling against each other. “I think these are the ones Dad gave us.”
“My freshman year of high school?” Laura asked. “I definitely didn’t take mine with me when I moved out.”
“Yeah, I know I left mine.” Emily scowled at the poles in her sister’s hands and shook her head.
“Mom and Dad did help us move in, though.” Nickie headed toward the side wall lined with metal shelves. She couldn’t find a space big enough for the poles in all the haphazardly piled tools, papers, boxes, and knickknacks, so she set them upright between two of the metal shelving units and called it good. “How much you wanna bet Dad brought these and snuck them in?”
Emily snickered. “That’s something Dad would do. Probably forgot all about it, too.”
“I mean, they did split up right after we bought this place.” Nickie wrinkled her nose. “He probably forgot about a lot of stuff.”
“This place is a mess.” Laura stepped over the scattered, half-opened boxes of extra bedding they’d never use. A bicycle lay on its side in front of her. She discerned its back wheel and narrowed her eyes. The wheel was spinning. “Guys, I think someone’s in here,” she said low.
“What?” Nickie whirled.
Laura pointed at the bike.
Emily froze. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, no what, Em?”
The youngest Hadstrom sister shot the others a grimace, then headed toward the gray plastic tote against the wall. At the very bottom of the storage bin, a tiny door about six inches tall was open and spilling a bright golden glow onto the basement floor. “I could’ve sworn I shut this last time.”
“Oh, great.” Laura tossed her hands up, then dropped them against her thighs. “We’re about to go break an energy core to stop the Gorafrex from destroying the entire ship, or at least Austin, and now we have a frigging teezler p
roblem, too?”
“I think you’re blowing this outta proportion.” Nickie scanned the shelving units, looking for anything that might bash loose an energy core. Or at least bash it in… “They’re honestly pretty harmless.”
“Only if you don’t actually care about any of your stuff.” Laura squinted at the basement ceiling, which was so far above them that she could hardly see it.
Emily dropped down on all fours in front of the gray tote and peered through the doorway. “I don’t think there’s a problem. After they weaseled their way out of their pen, I’m pretty sure they got it out of their system. Didn’t you, you crazy little spazzballs?” Through the doorway, a number of tiny, puffy round creatures with shocks of white fur jumped and pranced around in the miniature, magical version of a bright-green, sprawling meadow. They squeaked at each other, rolling and bouncing. Emily lifted a hand to wiggle her fingers at them in a wave.
From the ceiling, a teezler scurried down an electricity cable, hopped down a shelving unit, and rolled in a zig-zag toward Emily. It stopped just behind the unsuspecting witch and pulled a mocking face at its fellows inside the tote.
“Did you guys figure out how to escape all on your own?” Emily asked in a cooing voice.
The teezlers jumped and squeaked, keeping the witch’s attention as their rogue comrade scurried up her shoe, the back of her thigh, and over the waistline of her jeans. Two of the teezlers inside the pen started wrestling.
“And you all decided to come right back home after you had your fun?” Emily squinted at them, but she couldn’t help smiling when the furry troublemakers all nodded and blinked wide, falsely innocent eyes. “That was incredibly mature of you.” She reached up to scratch an itch on her back, almost swiping the escaped teezler without knowing it. The little creature leapt aside and clung to the back of her shirt. “Okay, you guys. I’m shutting the door, and I’m gonna block you in. No more escaping.”
The tiny creatures squeaked and chattered at her, nodding and hugging each other. One of them let out a huge yawn and shivered, bristling its fur as it nestled down in front of the door for a much-needed nap. Emily stood, chuckling, and the teezler clinging to her shirt managed a vigorous wave at the others before the witch closed the door with the toe of her shoe. The golden light winked out, and the door almost disappeared into the plastic siding of the tote.
“You know, until we had to start taking care of teezlers, I really didn’t understand how anyone could get away with whatever they wanted just by being cute.” Emily tugged a crate of netting toward the gray tote and nestled it right up against the door. “You guys have any idea what all these nets are for?”
Nickie shrugged.
“I’m pretty sure that was the point Nanna was making when she gave them to us,” Laura said.
“The nets?”
“The teezlers, Em.”
“Oh. Yeah, probably.” Emily stood and clapped the dust off her hands.
“Hey, did you guys even know we had this?” With both hands, Nickie tugged on the hilt of a sword wedged into a huge pile of old shoes on one of the shelves. It came free with a loud, metallic ring, and she pointed the broadsword at the ceiling. The weight of it caught her off guard, though, and the point clanged down on the cement floor.
“Nickie!” Laura hurried toward her with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”
“I mean, it’s not quite Sword in the Stone or anything, but that was really hard to get out of there.”
Emily barked out a laugh.
“You think this would work for bashing up some energy cores?” Nickie lifted the sword again, but she could only get it up to a ninety-degree angle before it clanged to the floor.
“That’s not funny. I’m pretty sure it’s one of our family heirlooms.”
“Witches used swords?” Emily asked, joining them.
“And wizards, yeah.” Laura glanced at Nickie trying to lift the sword yet again. “Just because we have magic doesn’t mean we don’t use what everybody else uses. I mean, we have cell phones. And a microwave.”
Emily wrinkled her nose. “Which we shouldn’t even have. Do you know how much those things ruin your food?”
“Okay, this is ridiculous. Recursus.” Laura pointed at the sword, and the minute her silver ring flashed, the weapon jerked out of Nickie’s hands and sailed across the basement to settle upright against the wall beside the fishing rods.
“Not cool.” Nickie frowned.
“Well, we’ve got some heavy destruction tools to find, and you’re over here playing King Arthur.”
Nickie and Emily sniggered, then Emily’s eyes widened, and she pointed at a shelf on the other side of the basement. “What about that?”
Her sisters turned to see the bowling bag on the second-to-top shelf. The letters printed on the side had faded over the years, but they were still clear from where the witches stood—Magic 14.
“Oh, my god.” Laura’s hands went to her face as she stared at the bag.
Nickie cracked up laughing.
“Dad’s sense of humor was epic when we were kids,” Emily said, grinning. “And we had no idea.”
“Honestly, Em, that might be a really good choice.”
“I can use it?” Emily shot her oldest sister a wide-eyed, hopeful glance. “For real?”
Laura shrugged. “Uh…go for it.” She chuckled. “You look like you’re about to run away screaming.”
“Yeah, for your bowling ball. To use as a wrecking ball.” Emily darted toward the shelf. She couldn’t quite reach the handle of the bag, so she pointed at it. “Venio.”
The bag jerked off the shelf and dropped to the ground with a thump, followed by a few loose screws and a box of nickel Jacks, the silver game pieces scattering across the floor. “Woah.” Emily pressed against the edge of the metal shelving unit as it wobbled, threatening to fall over on her. It finally settled.
Laura shook her head. “You’re almost as bad as the teezlers.”
Emily picked up the bowling bag. “Yeah, but I don’t do it on purpose.” Grinning, she lugged the bag toward Laura. “Seriously, I’m just surprised you’re letting me touch this thing. It was, like, your prized possession when we were kids.”
Laura smirked. “Just one. And that’s because you and Nickie hated bowling. Whenever we went, it was just him and me.”
“You should start going again. Maybe join a league or something, right?”
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s good to have hobbies that aren’t related to work, Laura.” Nickie crossed the basement from the other side, the long handle of a sledgehammer clenched in her hands.
“It’s true.” Emily grunted and slung the bowling bag’s straps over her shoulder.
“Oh, come on.” Laura folded her arms and glanced between them. “Both of you work with your boyfriends.”
“John is not my boyfriend.” Emily wrinkled her nose. “I just met him.”
Nickie stepped behind the sledgehammer head resting on the ground and paused, her mouth open. “Yeah, I got nothing.” She swung the hammer up and settled the handle over her shoulder. “But at least I read for fun. And none of those books have anything to do with music. Or Chuck.”
“Okay, let’s drop talking about my hobbies, huh?” Laura glanced at the pseudo-tools her sisters carried and cocked her head. “Maybe you guys should put those somewhere safe until we find the energy core. ‘Cause Em, honestly, I have an image of you dropping that thing in the worst place possible and really getting us into trouble.”
“Hey, I would not. What about Nickie?”
“Nickie isn’t nearly as excited about destroying an ancient piece of machinery.”
Nickie sighed. “This thing is really heavy.” She dropped the sledgehammer from her shoulder with a dull thud. “What’re you gonna use?”
Laura grinned. “Mine’s in the Clubhouse. There is no way I could carry it and climb out of that manhole to the Engineer’s cavern.”
“Hey, that’s a great
idea.” Emily blinked. “My keys are in my room.”
“Yeah, mine too.” Nickie shared a sly glance with her sister before they both muttered, “Claves.” Their rings flashed, and Emily laughed.
“Seriously?” Laura pursed her lips.
Her sisters shrugged at the same time. A short, muffled banging came up upstairs, following by a few more dull thumps and the jingling of keys. Both sisters glanced up at the high basement ceiling above
Laura rolled her eyes. “Oh, fine. Claves.” Then her ring flashed, too, and the jingling of keys grew louder. Something thumped on the floor above them, and they heard Speed let out a few sharp yips.
Emily smirked. “You think he likes that?”
“I think he’s pissed a bunch of flying keys woke him up.” Laura folded her arms, but she smiled. A series of thuds came from the basement door, and Laura muttered, “Patentibus.” The door flew open with a bang, and three jingling silver streaks shot across the room toward them.
Each witch raised her hand to catch her own set of keys. Nickie set her thumb onto the thumbprint in the coin and disappeared. Grinning, Emily pressed the silver coin on her keyring and vanished too. Laura grumbled and fiddled with her keys. “Jeeze, why do I have so many?” Then she pressed her thumb into the perfect indentation of her print on the coin and vanished after her sisters.
13
Laura appeared in the center of the one-room Clubhouse just as Emily tossed the bowling bag into the ratty, frayed armchair across from the cherry-red futon. “You know, now that I think about it, this place is like one giant purse.”
“Please don’t say that, Em.” Laura turned and walked around the futon to the coffee table set against the wall beside the bookshelf. “Because then you’re gonna try to use it like a purse, and I don’t wanna have to go through your mess every time we come here.” An origami dragon leapt from the bookshelf and soared toward her, paper claws reaching for her hair. She ducked the playful attack and grabbed the massive, incredibly heavy socket wrench Rutilda the Engineer gave her two nights ago. With a grunt, she hefted it over her shoulder and returned to her sisters. “Which seems to be a lot more, lately.”