Bumps in the Night by Amalie Howard

Author:Amalie Howard [Howard, Amalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2024-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

Piku clicks his jaw and hisses. “They’re getting closer!”

“There’s like a hundred of them!” Fitz squeals.

More like forty, but with their little bodies swarming from every direction, it might as well be way more. I didn’t think they were cute the first time I saw them dancing outside the tree, but this bunch ogles us, ravenous. One of them in front of me actually licks his chops like I’m a big ole slice of chocolate cake. “Um, should we be afraid?”

“They’re usually docile,” Nox says. “Mischievous, not feral.”

I frown. “These guys don’t exactly scream docile.”

Nope, because we’re going to crash and burn in the first trial and get attacked by a bunch of sharp-fanged, hairless hobbits with backward heels and knees. Why couldn’t they have been like Ewoks in Star Wars? Now those were cuddly and adorable, even if they were mischievous.

Nox frowns. “Not if they’re doing Bazil’s dirty work.” He eyes me and then the other Minders. “You know what to do. Rika, don’t take your hand off that wall, whatever you do. We don’t know if the labyrinth will change and try to throw us off course.”

I watch as Nox and the elementals square off against the horde coming from each of the adjacent passages. He sends a blast of wind into their midst as they shriek with rage and converge on the Minders. I focus on keeping my hand lodged on the wall, though my fingers are already shaking from sheer pressure.

You have one job, Rika. Don’t blow it.

Easy to say. Harder to do. Because now my palm is starting to sweat like my forehead after an overtime soccer game on a sweltering summer day.

Heat blasts into my face as Monique throws fireballs into the melee, making a handful of the monsters of mayhem holler as their clothes catch fire. Meanwhile, on the other side, Hazel is using her water magic to form a wave to block any more douens from entering the clearing. A few of them resemble muddy soccer clothes. To my right, Fitz yelps out a curse just as he sends a rope of vines to wind around four of the douens currently attached to his leg.

He howls in pain. “The nasty little turds are biting!”

My first thought is rabies. And then, could you get rabies from a jumbie? Maybe there’s such a thing as magical jumbie rabies?

Besides hyperventilating, there’s nothing I can do to help my protectors, except for watch and leave my hand glued to the wall. I should be helping, not just observing, but what kind of magic can I do? Mind block them to death? The shield magic I’d used with Ushara in the market won’t work, and I don’t have any other skills besides painting. That makes me think of the tiny pot in my pocket that Granny gave me, but I groan in the same breath. I can’t retrieve it and paint with one hand.

Feeling more and more useless, I inch my way forward as my hand remains

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