Witch and Wizard - James Patterson [58]
As Margo and I headed back to the prison, I thought about that and wondered, Has Wisty suddenly changed back into herself also? Has the spell simply worn out?
I had no idea where she was, what she was doing, or what form she’d be in when I found her. Flat as a pancake, maybe? Or with one or two limbs, the rest left behind in a spring-action mousetrap?
“You look worried, Whit,” Margo said with a concerned glance my way.
“Well, yeah,” I said, in more of a “no duh” kind of voice than I’d intended. “Aren’t you?”
“Yes and no,” Margo said, surprising me. “I mean, sure, anything could happen. But… I mean, this is my life now. It’s what I do. No parents, no brothers or sisters left. I have nothing to lose, really. And I have everything to gain by helping these kids and your mom and dad.”
I sat in stunned silence. Then I said, “I’m sorry.” I actually couldn’t remember the last time I’d uttered those words with any real meaning. And I wasn’t exactly sure why I said them now. But it felt right.
“Don’t be sorry, Whit! I’m no big hero.” Margo scoffed. “It’s heroic to face your own pain, and you’re the one who’s facing that right now. I get it. You have a sister you love in there. You have parents who were wanted, dead or alive, in there. The love of your life is dead but still haunting you. Oh yeah, and I hear you’re due to be executed on your birthday.”
“Well, actually,” I said with a weak smile, “they revised the order to execute me immediately.”
“So when is your birthday, anyway?” she asked.
Wow. I really wasn’t sure. Time had felt warped. And with all the portals we’d traveled through, time actually was warped.
I looked at Margo in surprise.
“I think it already happened.”
“Well, how about that?” Margo said with a rare smile. “And you didn’t even get to celebrate.”
She continued to grin, her brown eyes shining brightly, and sucked in a deep breath. I knew a windup to a song when I saw one.
“Don’t you dare—,” I protested, but she went on gleefully.
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Whit…”
She trailed off as her gaze shifted past me, and then she frowned. “What’s that? There, in the top windows of the main building?”
I jerked the van to a sudden stop. “It’s flames. The prison is on fire.”
Oh, Wisty, what have you done?
Chapter 94
Wisty
“GET OUT!” I shouted. “Get out of here now! Fire!”
The kids pattered barefoot down the metal stairs, most of them unable to take their eyes off me. One of them finally squeaked, “But the guards—”
“Forget the guards!” I screamed with a new level of hysteria I didn’t know I had in me. “The guards are afraid of you. They’re afraid of me. They’re afraid of everything!”
A new burst of energy surged through the kids. As soon as the first one reached the ground floor, I pointed toward the main doors, careful not to get too close to any of them.
More New Order guards began arriving now, billy clubs out, but I rushed straight at them, arms open. They drew back as if I were the plague. “Stay where you are!” I warned them. “You come near me, and I won’t give you a choice between regular and extracrispy!”
By now waves of kid prisoners were pushing through the main exit, escaping right underneath a huge portrait of The One Who Is The One. It occurred to me that I didn’t even know if Whit and the others were waiting outside.
“Out, out!” I shouted, my voice hoarse now. I was starting to feel a little hot and crackly, and I hoped I wasn’t cooked extracrispy myself.
Flames started to lick around the office doorway, and then the whole room was ablaze. I’d left a stream of several fires in my wake. With any luck, after the kids got out, this hideous prison would burn to the ground.
It seemed to take forever for the last kids to get through the hallway and out the doors as the guards avoided the flames in terror or tried to extinguish their own personal infernos. Meanwhile, I was getting so hot that it didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that I might explode like a piece of popcorn