“Mom’s had chicken heart before,” I replied. “She said they’re not as bad as you would think, but she wouldn’t recommend them.”
“They eat beef heart as a delicacy in Peru. I hear it’s tender and juicy.”
“Who told you that?”
“I watched a lot of TV when I was sick, Anna, especially Food Network. I couldn’t eat most of those foods, so I ate vicariously through the hosts.”
“I bet it tastes magical,” I said. “I mean, dragons are like pure magic right?”
“So are trolls. Does that mean a troll heart tastes magical, too? What does magical even mean? Is it like cumin?”
Red and blue police lights flashed behind me. “Crap.”
Katie looked back. “I told you that it was illegal to go too slow! Now what are you going to do?”
My heart pounded in my chest at a thousand beats a minute. I looked back at the police cruiser behind me. What would I tell the officer about the stolen car? What about the lizard heart in my passenger’s seat?
“Come on, move,” I muttered.
And just like that, it did. The police cruiser pulled into the next lane over and sped past us into the night. I had dodged a bullet, and for the first time all day I thought that fate might be on my side.
There were no more incidents before we reached the Coronado Bridge. We parked and walked down to the homeless encampment just as the sun was starting to peek out over the horizon.
“We’re too late,” I said.
“Maybe he waited for us,” Katie replied.
I walked through the encampment but did not see Greta. Fear gripped me as I imagined that she was the one caught by the troll, and we had condemned her to being eaten by the monster. I crawled into the pipe and stood up. Even though I was more worried about Greta than I was about being drenched in disgusting sewer water, it still was none too pleasant walking through the sewer a second time.
“You’re late,” I heard the troll grumble from the darkness. “I was just about to eat dinner.” The troll walked into the last vestiges of the moonlight, which revealed him holding Greta in his massive arms. Her mouth was covered by his huge hands, but her eyes bulged with fear. “Did you bring it?”
I nodded. “We brought what you asked for. Let her go.”
“Not yet, bobbin. First, hand it to me.”
“That wasn’t the deal. A dragon heart for your mucus. We exchange at the same time.”
“And what are you gonna hold it in, ay? Your hands? You hand me the dragon heart in that bag, and I’ll spit into it. Once I have it, I’ll let the woman go, too. After all, you humans taste disgusting, and this one is covered in filth.”
I looked over at Katie and could tell she didn’t like this plan any more than I did, but we were walking a fine line. It was barely possible to get out of the tunnel with our lives, let alone without getting eaten as well.
“Fine,” I said, pulling the heart out of the bag and holding it up.
“Yeah.” The troll took a step forward to look at the heart. “That’s a mighty fine specimen, ain’t it?”
He dropped Greta, who ran past us out of the sewer. Then, he leaned down and hocked a loogie into the bag. It was yellow and nasty. It almost filled the bag when I zipped it shut.
“Thank you.”
“That should be enough, ay?” The troll said, grabbing the heart.
“Yes, this should be plenty, I think.”
The troll took a big bite of the heart. Blood dripped down the sides of his mouth as he chewed loudly. “Ah, this is heavenly. You know, I never had dragon before, but if I had to guess, this would have been what it tasted like. Tender and very juicy. What a delicious treat.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
The troll took another bite. “Tell me, what kind of spell are you trying to bind with my mucus, bobbin?”
“There is a hole in the fabric of the universe between Earth and the Dark Place. Your mucus will help make a glue that will bind the universe back together.”
“Huh. That’s not what I expected. I figured you were trying to dye your hair, or something easy. So, you’ll need some goblin bones, troll mucus, and dragon fire, ay? Well, and the enchantment of course.”
“Enchantment?” Katie asked.
“Duh. The enchantment pulls the universe back together and then the glue binds it together again. This your first time saving the world? Of course it is. You’re just a bobbin.”
“Where do you get this enchantment?” I asked. “Nobody ever told us about any enchantment.”
“Well, you’ll need that, and the Council keeps it locked up, of course. They keep all enchantments at the Central Branch.”
“Where is that?” Katie asked.
“Balboa Park, of course. You never been to the central branch? What kind of witches are you?”
“Not very good ones, it would seem. Thank you.”
“No, thank you, bobbin. You done right by me.” The troll took a final bite of the heart. “Just sublime.”
We turned and walked away, happy that our subterfuge worked, and that we were able to live to see the next part of the tale. Of course, that was only if my mother and Joanne didn’t kill me first.
Chapter 36
Mom’s car was not in the driveaway when I got home, which meant she wasn’t home from work yet. I left the car just how I’d found it in the driveway then snuck back into the house. Joanne was still passed out on the couch as I placed the keys back into her purse and tiptoed upstairs to my room.
“Do you think you can do bad things for good reasons and still be a good person?” I asked Katie as I flopped back on my bed.
“Yes.”
“No hemming or hawing about that?”
She shook her head. “None at all. Basically, every movie ever made is about people doing bad things for good reasons, and we say they
