always been, furniture upended, piles of family pictures shattered and left in a corner, the chandelier hanging from a single frayed wire and dangling only a foot off the floor.
She turns back to me with a shrug. “Survival of the fittest. Like Lord of the Flies or American Idol, ya know? I think that’s pretty obvious. What I’m more interested in knowing is why you’re here. Again. I heard all about how you were touring the place this morning checking out firsthand all the damage you’d caused. Then when the sightseeing was over, you flipped out and nearly killed your friend Larry in the process of making your escape.”
“He’s why I’m here,” I say shortly. But then I also add, “And for my uncles.”
“W2 and Dylan too,” Smith adds.
“So another search and extract and fuck everyone else. Is that right?” Michaela asks. Her fake bitchy smile is now completely gone. It’s obvious she’s not playing anymore.
“What exactly do you want her to do, Kayla?” Smith asks. He steps forward a bit as if he wants to protect me.
Michaela smirks at me before focusing her attention on Smith.
“Really, Smith? Just ’cause Lennie’s magic or whatever, that doesn’t mean you aren’t still slumming it.” Her attention shifts back to me. “And to answer your question, I expect Lennie to get these fucking people out of my house.”
“Go to hell,” Smith replies, at the exact time that I say, “You’re right. This is all my fault. And I’m really sorry about—”
“Nuh-uh,” Smith interrupts. “She didn’t mean to do it. She’s trying to fix it. So I think we can skip the groveling.”
“It’s okay, Smith.” I give him a little shove, letting him know I can handle a simple apology, even if he can’t. “I am sorry. All right? Way more sorry than anyone can know. Even if I didn’t know what I was doing. I wish I had some idea of how to undo it all . . . but I don’t.”
“So you’re fucking useless as always,” Michaela sums things up, and maybe it’s low self-esteem or an inability to deny the truth, but it takes everything in me not to agree with her. “Have you even tried to undo any wishes?”
“Well . . . no,” I admit.
Michaela rolls her eyes. “Typical. Well, I was talking with Jet, Rod, and Dune—”
“Whoa, what?” I interject. “You were talking to my uncles?”
This earns me another eye roll. “Yes, Lennie. Do you think there’s another trio of people with those names? Try to keep up. Anyway—”
Michaela likes the sound of her own voice, so I know it’s a mistake to keep stepping on her lines, but I can’t help myself from interrupting once more. “What are they even doing here?”
“Lennie . . .” Michaela sighs deeply in this martyred way. “I am getting to that. If you would keep your mouth shut, we could get through this so much faster. It’s not like I don’t have better things to do than stand here explaining basic shit to you.”
“Power freak,” Smith mutters.
Michaela shoots a dagger-laden glare his way and then continues. “Anyway, your uncles showed up here and have—to my surprise—proven quite useful. First, they somehow convinced the police to go away. Then they offered to help me restore order around here, and having realized they weren’t quite the ignorant white trash they appear to be, I was happy to join forces with them. While divvying up tasks, we had a good chat about what might be done to get this whole mess cleared up before my parents return tomorrow evening. Jet floated the idea of some carefully selected wishes being used to undo some of the damage. And I agreed that would be the best course of action.”
I can’t help it. I feel betrayed. While I was nearly kidnapped by Benji and Tinkerbell, my uncles were having a powwow and strategy session with Michaela. “Where are they now?” I demand.
“Upper floors. Working on containing Zinkowski. It’s one of our top priorities,” Michaela replies crisply.
“Zinkowski!” I gasp. “You’re gonna let them get Cheetos’d while you stand by and do nothing?”
“Do nothing?” Michaela snaps back. “I’ve gone up against Zinkowski three times in the last hour alone. I am the reason the walls of this house aren’t made of cheese at this point! So don’t you dare talk to me about doing nothing, especially when you started this whole shit storm and have done fuck-all to fix it.”
Before I can apologize for the second time, Michaela pulls a