Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige Page B

he’d see us, and there was no way we could explain what we were doing going through a stack of old boxes next to a busted closet door. Dustin jumped up and headed for the door. Instinctively, I threw the old graduation banner over myself and the pile of boxes. My arm brushed up against the last box I’d found. It didn’t sting me this time; it
burned
. Like the feeling of metal cold enough to freeze to your skin and peel away the outer layer. And then the awful burning faded and a strange sensation crawled across my skin, like the chill you feel when you’ve been out in the snow too long.
    Everything around me dimmed until the edges of the room were lost in dense, thickening shadow. Tendrils of darkness crept across the floor toward me. A slender, silvery form stepped out of the shadows and looked down at me. It was mostly hiddenby the darkness, but I could make out swirling black robes and a pale, bald skull topped with a twisted iron crown.
    So
, it hissed. I heard its voice inside my head rather than out loud and clapped my hands over my ears in a futile attempt to shut it out.
You have found what I have hidden, little witch. My congratulations.
    I struggled to say something, but the creature’s magic had glued my mouth shut.
Who are you?
I thought desperately.
    I could
feel
its smile cutting into my thoughts.
    You’ll find out soon enough, little witch. You are strong and clever to have uncovered so easily what I had concealed so carefully. Your witches could not see what I had put away here so many years ago. Even your Dorothy could not find what once had been hers. But you found it without magic, as if it was calling to you. You are very strong indeed—perhaps even stronger than my other little friend.
    What other little friend? Did it mean Dorothy?
    We will see each other again, my dear. I am beginning to think you shall be quite useful to me. But now is not the time for explanations. Give my regards to your . . . friends.
    A knife-sharp flash of pain stabbed into my skull and I cried out in agony. I could
see
Mombi, Gert, and Glamora, darkness swirling around them, looking up in fear and alarm. Nox, out on the prairie somewhere, staring upward as if he knew I was looking down at him, opening his mouth to say something. The creature laughed and flicked its fingers, and a roiling cloud of darkness descended on the four of them, erasing their faces from my mind.
    Until next time, little witch. Watch your back. Not all your friends are trustworthy.
And then it stepped back into the shadows and disappeared. I felt its magic loosen its grip on me and I slumped to the floor, tears of pain leaking from my eyes.
    â€œ. . . Amy? She’s in the bathroom,” Dustin was saying. “Everything’s cool here, Mr. Stone.”
    The shop teacher grumbled something I didn’t catch and the library door swung closed again. “Phew,” Dustin sighed, his footsteps coming toward me. “That was, like, really clo—Amy? Where are you?”
    â€œI’m right here,” I said thickly. My mouth tasted like ashes and dirt. With effort, I pushed away the graduation banner and sat up. Dustin was staring at me with his mouth open.
    â€œHow did you do that?” he breathed.
    â€œDo what?”
    â€œYou just . . . you weren’t there,” he said. “Amy, you weren’t
there
. And then you were. You just, like, appeared. Are you okay?”
    â€œI’m fine,” I said, faking a sneeze. “I didn’t go anywhere, I hid under this dumb banner.” I was still stunned from the effects of the creature’s magic, but I had to convince Dustin he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. “It’s so dark back here, you just missed me. I totally thought I could
hide
under this thing, can you believe that?” I babbled. “Like a little kid playing hide-and-seek, ha-ha. So silly. Um, anyway, there’s another box in there.”
    Dustin