The Magic Misfits - Neil Patrick Harris Page 0,9
Izzy put their hands on her chair, as if that might comfort her.
“I wasn’t hurt,” said Ridley. “But that shovel was sharp. And if Mrs. Maloney had decided to swing it at me…” She shivered at the thought. “The scariest part was what she said afterward. That she didn’t know what she was doing… It was like… she’d been mesmerized.”
The others grew still.
“And who do we know with that skill?” Ridley went on.
“I don’t want to hear his name anymore,” said Leila. “You think… he mesmerized the librarian to come after you?”
Ridley nodded. “Kalagan or… someone else.”
“Any idea who?” asked Theo.
“My teacher. Ms. Parkly.”
“Miss Sparkly?” Olly asked. “That’s a funny name.”
“Parkly,” Ridley repeated. “No S.”
“I thought you liked her,” said Carter.
“I never said that. And even if I didn’t… you know… dislike her at first, she could still be another one of Kalagan’s goons. She showed up in town right after the explosion at the magic shop, and we know we can’t trust people who randomly appear in Mineral Wells.”
“Not necessarily,” said Theo. “When your dad left for his trip, your mom needed someone to take over his teaching duties. Could it be a coincidence?”
Ridley nodded. “Someone might have wanted it to look like one.”
Leila gasped and then stood.
“What’s wrong?” asked Carter, glancing around the dim space. “Did you hear something?”
“No,” she answered. “It’s just… Remember a couple days ago when we were at the grocery store with Poppa?” A light went on in Carter’s face, and his jaw opened slowly. Leila turned to the others. “We’d filled a couple baskets with ingredients for a new pie that Poppa wanted to make, and when we got to the register, Bradley, the cashier, looked… funny. His eyes were glassy, as if they were seeing something far away. He was whispering something.”
Carter went white as a sheet. “What have I done?”
“That’s what the librarian said just before she attacked me!” said Ridley.
Leila nodded quickly. The buttons on her jacket jingled as she shivered. “Then he dumped every ingredient from our baskets onto the floor!”
“Rude!” said Olly.
Carter huffed. “Afterward, Bradley looked up at the Other Mr. Vernon and smiled. He said, ‘Can I help you?’ as if we’d approached him empty-handed. We had to point out the mess he’d made!”
“Bradley apologized over and over,” said Leila. “And he helped us gather up new ingredients. Do you think someone hypnotized him too?”
Ridley drummed her fingers on the wheels of her chair. “Kalagan said that the night of the explosion. ‘I’m Dante Vernon. What have I done?’ I think… I think he knows we’re still meeting.”
Theo cleared his throat. “Something similar happened last weekend when my parents took me to see a symphony at that converted barn space outside of town. One of the ushers… He was whispering something I could not make out, an odd look on his face. He approached us and then just… fell into me. Nearly knocked me out of my seat. I thought he had simply tripped. But now…”
Izzy reached across Ridley and smacked Olly in the arm. “Ow!” he cried out, but then Izzy shushed him, a look of seriousness knitted in her brow. “We had a heckler during one of our shows in the resort’s lobby this week.”
“Oh yeah,” said Olly, remembering.
“Or we thought he was a heckler. He was sorta acting like what you all experienced. Muttering something weird. It could have been, ‘What have I done?’ Right, Olly?”
“Left,” Olly answered. “I mean… Correct. And then he started singing along with us, but he didn’t know the lyrics. And the ones he made up… Let’s just say, if we sang them, we’d have been fired.”
“Fired and grounded,” Izzy whispered. “Our parents got us out of there pretty quickly. And afterward, when they demanded an apology, Mr. Arnold said that the guest couldn’t remember messing with us and so he refused.”
Ridley nodded. “Kalagan is up to something rotten.”
“What’s with these attacks?” asked Leila, hugging her torso. “What does he want? He’s already taken everything from us. We can’t do magic together. We can barely be together.”
(Oh, Leila. How I wish I could tell her that this is exactly what Kalagan desires—to keep those who work against him apart. To make them feel helpless and alone. And yet, the Misfits still have one another. Just as you have me, dear reader. And I you.)
“He likes making chaos,” said Theo. “He must think it is fun.”
“Ooh, ooh, you know what’s actually fun?” Olly asked. When no one answered, he replied