Free literal leigh 05.7 - mission impawsible by Melanie James Page B

say no to adding a real wow factor to this year’s Halloween?”
    “There’s no doubt trick-or-treating in the ‘burbs has been dead on its ass the last few years. I’ll agree to only looking through the spell book. That’s all I can promise, for now.”
    So, that’s how everything started. That one conversation, with my visiting brother, was the catalyst for one very interesting Halloween experience. It makes for a pretty good Halloween story, too.
     

Chapter Two
     
    R andy followed me as I made my way to the bedroom. My cat, Gemma, meowed when I warily approached the antique cedar chest at the foot of my bed. It seemed to be a very cautionary meow.
    “What? Is it booby-trapped?” Randy took a step back.
    “No. I’m always afraid I’m going to open it and see something totally frightening.” Once I had the chest opened, I was relieved to see the black wand Ezzy gave me and my mini-broom resting harmlessly on the ancient spell book. It was safe and sound.
    The other items in my cedar chest, the things I didn’t think he would notice, caught Randy’s attention. “Geez, Kel, are you trying to scar me for life? I don’t need to know that my sister is solely responsible for keeping the Energizer Bunny employed!”
    “Seriously? You’re standing in my bedroom, complaining about the items I keep hidden in a chest? Besides, your toy collection is probably ten times bigger than mine, so don’t you dare act like Gertie. I may believe her innocence, but not yours. I don’t think you’ve ever been innocent.”
    I plucked the magic items gingerly from the chest, like they were fragile antiques of rare blown glass, and set them on the bed. My fingers danced across the cover of the grimoire before I slowly opened the cover. Each turn of the stiff parchment pages made a crinkling sound. It seemed so old and delicate. Beautiful artwork and script adorned the pages. Unfortunately, most of it was in Latin. Still, there were enough in French and Old English to keep us busy.
    “Kelly, we should take a look at some of these Latin spells. I bet we can figure them out.”
    “Hold on there, Eager McBeaver. I might know a little Latin, but not enough to translate ancient spells.”
    “Do like Gertie does. If she doesn’t know all of it, she just takes her best guess.”
    “Are you nuts? That’s hardly the technique I was going for. No wonder Gertie’s had so many accidents.”
    “All right, nix the Latin spells. What about the French ones?”
    “Sure. I know enough French to read it.” I stopped when I came to the first French spell. “We really should have Esmeralda here with us. She knows what she’s doing. You should see her with a spell book and a wand. She can tap the page like this.” I touched the page with the tip of the wand. “Then she does something so when she twirls her wand, it looks like there’s a swarm of fireflies circling around the tip. It’s weird. It almost looks like she is lifting them from the page. Then she flicks her wrist. The glowing dots scatter, sort of flickering away. That’s how she casts a spell from a book.”
    “Holy Shit! You mean like that?” The color ran from Randy’s face. He pointed a shaky finger at my wand, like he was pointing out the fact that a king cobra was about to strike my hand.
    If my eyes could’ve opened any wider, my eyebrows would’ve been on top of my head. “Oh no. No! No, no, no. Oh shit. Please tell me those little fireflies aren’t real. We’re imagining this, right?”
    My stomach cramped up at the sight. At the tip of my wand, tiny glowing lights circled around, forming a swirling ball. It was just like the kind Ezzy created. “I didn’t mean to! I just tapped a random page. I don’t even know what kind of spell it is!”
    “Exactly, it could be anything. You’ve got to put it back! Hit the page again. Just put it back.”
    I reacted by giving the parchment a smack with the wand. The dazzling ball of firefly-like particles smashed