the auditorium once more. “What I want, Dante, is to get what’s coming to me. What I deserve. And I want the members of your Magic Circle to see you for what you are. A weak-minded, treacherous, sniveling villain, who lied, cheated, and manipulated his way to where he is today.”
“Have you looked in the mirror lately, Kilroy?” Mr. Vernon answered. “Because it sounds to me like you’re talking about yourself.”
“Your Magic Circle will join me,” Kalagan spat out. “I have ways of making people do what I want them to do.”
“Obviously,” Mr. Vernon said, rolling his eyes. He sounded a bit like Leila when she was being cheeky. Ridley understood what he was doing. Mr. Vernon was trying to distract Kalagan, to keep his attention off the Misfits and his children.
(I’ll say it again: Classic misdirection!)
A large man wearing a tight suit and a thin woman dressed in a red dress and strings of pearls stood before the Misfits, blocking their way. Ridley wondered if her chair would survive a tumble off the edge of the stage and down to the orchestra pit. No chance, she thought grimly.
“We’ve wasted enough time!” Kalagan called out. “You will have your Circle give me their names, Dante. And as a thank-you for running me around these past few months, I will allow you to perform the last act of this grand finale, as you were so desperate to do back when we were kids, on the night you set this very building on fire.”
A murmuring rose up from the people in the audience, and more scuffling broke out as the townspeople held back members of Vernon’s Magic Circle. Ridley heard a shriek and an oof!, then more silence. Kalagan waved forward several of his people standing at the back of the stage. They wheeled in a large object from just outside. The wheels squealed as the townspeople moved the object into the spotlight. Ridley’s ears began to ring when she realized what it was: the wreckage of her invention.
Her magic box.
She heard her friends gasp as they saw it too. Mr. Vernon kept his face blank as he watched the townspeople stand the box on end. It was not the first time that Ridley realized it looked like a coffin.
It was banged up, covered in scratches, but Kalagan or his people had done some quick work since retrieving it from the lake a couple of hours earlier. Someone had replaced the lid that Ridley had dropped at the mouth of the cave, as well as the side panels that Olly and Izzy had used as oars to steer them to shore. There were also several metal loops attached to the sides of the box—something Ridley had not added herself.
Kalagan crossed to the magic box and swung the lid open. The squeak of the hinges made Ridley think of Dean and about what they had done to him.
Locking him in there.
Her skin itched with guilt.
Where was Dean now? Ridley wondered, glancing around the room. But the old man was nowhere to be seen. Was it possible that the bellhop was hiding in the shadows, waiting to save the day? Maybe he’d decided that whatever Kalagan was holding over him was not worth all this hurt.
Ridley felt another shift in her head, as a new thought occurred to her. She gripped the microphone tightly.
“Get in,” Kalagan said, grabbing Mr. Vernon’s arm, but Mr. Vernon shook him off. More sounds of fighting came from the dark auditorium. Ridley was cheered to think that the members of the Circle were still trying to get to them, even if they were horribly outnumbered.
“Don’t touch him!” the Other Mr. Vernon yelled from the darkness upstage.
“I’m fine, darling,” Mr. Vernon called back. “He has no power over me.”
“That’s what you think,” said Kalagan, flicking his gaze to the man in the suit and the woman in the pearls who were corralling the Misfits at the edge of the stage. “But I know your weakness, Dante. I’ve watched for years now. I know what matters to you.” He nodded at Leila and at Carter. “Your family. You’d do anything for them.”
“Leave the kids alone,” Mr. Vernon said, his voice quiet, simmering intensely.
“I intend to,” Kalagan answered. “If you follow my instructions.” He opened the lid of the magic box even wider. “Get in,” he repeated. “I won’t ask a third time.”
“Don’t listen to him, Dad!” Leila shouted.
Mr. Vernon hesitated. “Don’t worry,” Kalagan said, almost jovially. “I’ll give you time to