“I know I can,” I shouted, wishing I could shake a fist at her.
She laughed softly at first, then more and more breathlessly. Soon Officer Dash was wheezing for breath.“You stupid girl. This isn’t some family-friendly film where the princess just needs to believe in herself to defeat her much more qualified opponent. You’re not a princess. You have no power, and you will not win.”
“Yes, I will!” I shouted back at the hologram, but she only laughed harder.
“Fine. Do things the hard way. See if I care. Eventually you’ll figure out it’s hopeless.” And with that, Officer Dash disappeared, leaving me in absolute darkness.
I staggered forward, unwilling to give up. I’d defeated the first two illusions. I could defeat more. I could escape this place.
And though I wandered for ages, no more lights appeared, and soon I grew tired searching for them…
Was this really how it ended?
24
Even time was an illusion within that mental prison of mind. It ticked on and on leading nowhere. I would lose my mind here, if I hadn’t already. I couldn’t do any good for Merlin from in here, either, which meant soon he would find himself overtaken by the sinister Dash.
I didn’t know why the dark witch had focused her attentions on us, but I knew now that we couldn’t win. She was simply too powerful.
Battered but not yet fully defeated, I closed my eyes and tried to create my own series of mental pictures to break the monotony of the void. My mom’s smile as we applied makeup side by side in that old mirror, Grandma Grace teaching me how to waltz in preparation for my first middle school dance, even Merlin speaking to me for the first time and opening my eyes to a beautiful and dangerous new world.
“Show me the truth,” he said in my memory, then opened his mouth and let out a shimmering huff of magic. The darkness folded in on itself, revealing green grass, blue sky, and bright sun.
No, this wasn’t a memory. It was really happening now.
“I knew that truth serum was worth the extra few minutes it took to prepare,” my cat told me as he brushed his soft fur against my wrists, freeing me from the cuffs.
“What’s going on?” Virginia cried as she awoke from her illusion and staggered toward us.
“Not so fast!” Merlin commanded, then kicked his hind legs into the earth and sent a pair of small cyclones spinning toward Virginia. When they reached her, they braided around her torso, trapping her within the high-speed winds.
I’d never seen such a powerful display of magic from my cat before, and now that I had, I felt very glad he was on my side.
“How did you find me?” I asked, bringing my arms in front of me to ease the ache in my shoulders. Now that I’d escaped the illusion, everything hurt again.
“Easy,” Merlin revealed, kicking up another pair of twisters and dispatching them toward Dash. “I followed our familiar bond. That thing is like a beacon.”
I watched as the black cat deftly dodged the windstorm, darting wildly to the side.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment, please,” my cat said, shifting onto his hind legs, then slamming back down and pounding the ground before him.
A flurry of sharp icicles shot down from the sky and formed a cage around Dash, much like the one made of flowers and thorns that Luna had crafted to contain Merlin.
“You’ll never defeat me,” Dash hissed as she rammed her body into the icy prison bars.
“Big words for somebody who’s trapped in a cage,” my cat quipped. “Why have you kidnapped my familiar? And what is this other one doing here?”
Dash’s hackles rose. “I don’t owe you—”
“Speak the truth,” Merlin said, breathing out what was left the shimmering potion fog. Whoa, my cat was a witch and a magic-breathing dragon. I’d have to remember to reflect on just how cool that was later. You know, after we got out of this alive.
The black cat strained in an effort to remain quiet, but one by one the words came out.“The… Only… One… Who… Can… Stop… Me… From… Fulfilling… My… Destiny.” She emphasized this with a long and angry hiss.
Merlin traipsed over to the cage and sat just out of Dash’s reach. “Oh, so this is some funny prophecy business? Strange, I thought those were outlawed.”
“Not prophecy. Lineage.”
As Dash choked and gasped for air, Merlin casually tilted his head to the side.“What does lineage have to do with anything?”
“My… Ancest—” Dash gasped and fell on her side, letting out a long pitchy yowl. “My secret dies with the two of you!” she shouted, no longer under his spell.
“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Merlin said as he stalked the perimeter of the ice cage. “Because we don’t feel like dying today. Do we, Gracie?”
I shook my head and mumbled,“No.”
Dash clicked from inside the cage and shifted into a tiny insect, flying easily between the bars. She transformed back into the black cat mid-flight and fell to the earth with an unsettling thud.
“Neat trick,” Merlin said, raising his back and puffing out his tail like a cat on Halloween. “Wait until you see what I can do with a little bit of static electricity.”
The sky darkened, and somewhere in the distance thunder boomed. I hoped the tree would shelter from me from the terrible storm that would soon be coming. Or that my cat at least had enough control to avoid hitting me with it.
“No! Merlin, stop!” a husky female voice shouted. A blur of white rushed onto the scene and thrust herself between the warring witches.Luna!
Virginia’s missing witch had arrived, and I doubted she’d be on our side. Merlin had put up a good fight against Dash, but there was no way he’d be able to win against two more experienced witches.
I silently whispered a prayer for the both of us as I watched helplessly from the shadows of the large tree branches. I hoped I’d already stored enough magic for Merlin to be useful, because I had nothing else to offer in this fight.
25
“I told you to stay away from my property!” Luna shouted at both me and Merlin, sweeping her searing gaze over each of us. “Now release my familiar at once!”
Merlin stared straight ahead with wide eyes, instantly complying with the garden witch’s command.
“No, Merlin. Don’t!” I shouted, trying to snap him out of whatever spell he was under.
“But I have to listen to Luna,” he told me with a blank expression.
Uh-oh, the spell she’d forced me to give to him the other day! It had now come into effect. I remembered how helpless I’d felt as I struggled against the directive to pour the potion into his water dish, as I attempted to warn him the next morning.
I hadn’t been able to stop myself from doing as it commanded, and now it seemed that Merlin couldn’t, either.
Ugh. We were so dead.
Luna ran to Virginia and did a quick check for injuries.“What’s going on?” she demanded of her familiar.
“I don’t know,” the stylish old woman sobbed.
“Lies!” Dash screamed, appearing completely unhinged as her eyes bulged from her head. She glanced straight up into the sky, then did that clicking thing that signaled a coming spell. A mirage took shape before us.
In the shaky, shimmering image, Virginia sat speaking with Officer Dash as they made the plan to kill off Harold and place the blame on me.
“But what of your witch?” Dash had asked Virginia.
“She can die, too, for all I care,” Virginia seethed in the mirage.
I couldn’t see Luna through the mirage, but I could hear her ask, “You would betray me?”
“She already has,” Dash announced, clicking her tongue to take the image away. Whether she’d shown us an illusion or a memory, I couldn’t say. Either was equally probable—and equally devastating.
Luna swished her tail and let out a keening wail. The massive magnolia tree behind me rose up from the earth.
Virginia tried to run, but the tree used one of its limbs to lift her high into the air and hold her captive.