Seriously Hexed by Tina Connolly

Author:Tina Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

11

I Am Not a Fan of Poppy’s Four A.M. Ideas

I had thought we already found the rock bottom of things I wanted to do this week. Join a coven. Teleport onto a witch’s mountain. Study for one of Saganey’s American history quizzes.

But it turned out there was a new depth I hadn’t found.

“You want to summon an evil elemental, who is lurking in an ancient gravy boat except when he’s busy hexing us one by one, and sit him down for a pleasant chat?”

“Yes, and we’ll go right now,” said Poppy, springing out of bed. “It’s four o’clock. Good time for sneaking out. No time like the present.”

“Couldn’t we sleep until, like, four thirty?” I said. “Dawn light and all that?”

“Come on.”

We crept downstairs as quietly as possible. Poppy disarmed the wards on the back door and we slipped through. The chill of predawn spring made the hairs on my arms stand on end. I have experienced a lot of four a.m.’s doing chores for Sarmine Scarabouche and have never learned to like them. There is something positively hateful about four a.m.

Poppy unlocked the garage and we slipped inside. “Now, I’ve never actually summoned a demon,” she explained blithely, “but I think he’s in the lamp, not in N-space, so theoretically it will be easier. Summoning a demon from N-space involves making complicated passes with your hands in and out of the other dimension.”

“But you know the theory,” I said dryly.

“Exactly,” she agreed.

The station wagon was no longer an option, but we had our bikes. Which was good, because there wasn’t time to walk there and back without Lily waking up and catching us. My bike was leaning against the wall and Poppy’s was hanging from a hook in the ceiling. “Probably has two flat tires,” she said as she lifted it down and checked them. “It’s been ages since I rode anywhere.” But no, they were fully aired up.

“Right about now I’d usually be dusting the enchanted obelisks or something,” I said with a yawn. “What?”

“The tires,” Poppy said suspiciously. “I don’t buy it.”

“Nice of your mom to do it?” I hazarded.

“And what else did she do?” said Poppy. She ran her phone over the bike.

The avatar yawned—she must have programmed that in—and announced, “Ye Ancient Bike-Tyre Fixing Spell. Bethylyn’s Impressive Mud-Removeth Spell.…”

“Maybe she can do mine next,” I said.

“And Poppy’s Super-Cool GPS Tracking App,” he finished, and shut his eyes again.

“Um, what?” I said.

Poppy was livid. “I freaking made her that GPS app.” She gave the bike an angry shove and it fell against the wall. “We can’t take my bike to your house. She’ll know.”

* * *

It was a quiet morning in the old bungalow. Lily told Poppy she had fixed her tires, and I saw from her searching expression that she was hoping it would mend things between them. Poppy just glowered. Rice puffs were never eaten more tensely.

We biked to school and locked them up. Yet again, I missed Jenah at our locker. I looked for her in Algebra, but she wasn’t there, either.

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