I walked up to her. “I know, and this is where we’re going to end it.”
She looked over at me. “I’m going to miss you, you know.”
I wanted to tell her that I would miss her, too, but the truth was that I still felt nothing for her. I wanted to feel what Katie felt when she looked at me, but I simply couldn’t.
“I’m sure I would have missed you, too,” I said.
“I wish we hadn’t made that deal,” she whispered.
“Then the world would end,” I said. “You were right. It was our only choice.”
Katie sighed. “I guess that’s true, but selfishly, I don’t care about that as much I care about you.”
I smiled at her. “We made our choices. Now we have to live with them.”
“That’s funny,” Katie said. “Live with them. I know you’re not trying to be funny, but that was still funny.”
“Let’s go,” Samantha said from the door to the main office. “It’s not like we have all day.”
I walked with Katie into the main office. Principal Foster was behind a desk, looking through a drawer full of keys.
“This is not a sanctioned use of school property,” he said, pulling out a set of keys. “However, I don’t think the school board will mind, given the circumstances.”
He handed the keys over to Samantha, who squeezed the keychain in her hand. “The murder crows are going to be on us immediately when we get in that cheeser.”
“If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
She smiled. “Maybe if I was a better witch I could come up with a spell, but I’m not, so I can’t.”
“Then it looks like we go with the first plan.”
“I would tell you to be careful,” Principal Foster said, “but that’s impossible.”
“We’re going to save the world,” I said to him. “It’s dangerous business.”
Samantha grabbed my arm and we headed out to the lot of school buses.
“Which one is ours?”
Samantha looked down at the key. “Five twenty-three.”
Katie chuckled. “That’s funny. That was our bus.”
“I guess that Principal Foster has a sense of humor,” I said
We ran up to Bus 523 and Samantha pushed open the door. Samantha took a seat in the driver’s seat and I sat behind her. I dug my hands into the brown, plastic seat covers as the caws from the murder crows echoed through the bus.
“Do you know how to drive this thing?” I asked.
“It’s a manual, which is what I drove in Germany, so I hope so.” She turned the ignition and popped the clutch, easing into reverse. “I guess so.”
I watched the murder crows turn toward us as we drove across the lot. “They’re coming.”
“Didn’t take long.”
“I’ll try to distract them,” Katie said. “But last time I fought them, they figured out I was just a ghost and could go right through me, so I’m not sure how long it will last.”
Katie flew out the roof of the bus and into the air. I watched her through the glass as she charged heroically at the crows. “She’s fearless.”
Samantha changed gears as she pulled onto the street. “You would be, too, if you were already dead.”
“Maybe,” I said. “but I’ve never been that fearless about anything.”
Katie rushed toward the crows, but they paid her no mind, plowing right through her on their way toward us. They reached the street in another second, and by the time we’d passed the school they were right on our tail.
“They’re here,” I said.
“Well, let’s hope that this bus is strong enough to withstand their attack.”
Katie fell through the roof. “Sorry, guys. I tried.”
“It’s okay.” I stood up. “I think I have an idea.”
There were no good ideas when you were fighting for your life, but I had an idea none the less. There was an emergency exit at the back of the bus which was big enough for me to shoot fire through. If I could get a good shot at the crows, maybe they would leave us alone, or burn up in the sky.
I rushed toward the back of the bus and kicked open the emergency door. The crows squawked at me and I stared at them for a moment. They were larger than I remembered, much bigger than the bus, and there were two of them.
“Fiorini,” I said, closing my eyes and swirling my hands around. A small fireball formed in my hands. I opened my eyes and the ball grew wider. As it did, the crow cawed again and dived, smashing into the back of the bus and sending it swerving around the road.
I fell backwards, and in doing so my fireball exploded out the back of the bus and left a gaping hole where the emergency exit used to be.
“What are you doing?” Samantha asked. “Trying to get us killed?”
“No!” I replied. “I’m trying to save us. Just keep us straight for a second, will you?” I stood up and started to make circles with my hands again. “Fiorini.”
This time I watched for the crow to flap and when it did, I released a fireball into the air. It slammed into the crow’s face and knocked it off balance. It tumbled into the other crow behind it, and into the street.
“I think we got it!” I said.
“Good,” Samantha called from the front of the bus. “Because we’re almost at your house.”
I couldn’t believe it. We were almost to the center of the rift. With just a little more time we would be able to fix this and leave it all behind us. I couldn’t enjoy the moment, though, because the birds had gotten up and were cawing loudly, their faces turned upwards. As they did, they released a magical beam into the sky.
“Oh crap,” Katie said. “I forgot they could do that.”
“Me too.”
The crows turned their heads and directed the beam toward us. I jumped out of the way seconds before the beam slashed through the hood and
