“Did you find out who lives there?” Ridley asked Binx as they took a shortcut through one of the construction sites on Lilac Street.
“I think it’s a rental, but I didn’t have time to find out who’s renting it,” Binx replied.
Iris hurried her steps to catch up to the other two girls. “Guys? Isn’t this close to that street with the red pickup truck… you know, where we found…”
Ridley looked around as she ran. “You’re right! I think that construction site is, like, half a block over.”
“So if Penelope was, um… and then they moved her body to… it wouldn’t have been very far,” Iris noted.
“There it is!” Binx yelled.
The sign for Spring Street was just up ahead, half-hidden behind a stand of pine trees. Iris reached into her shoulder bag for her wand; she didn’t care who saw it, she wanted to be ready. Binx and Ridley seemed to be on the same wavelength; Binx pulled her wand out of her backpack, and Ridley did the same with hers.
They raced around the corner and onto Spring Street…
… and stopped in their tracks. At the far end of the street, the windows of a house glowed bright orange. A small gray house. Plumes of smoke seeped out of its sides.
“Is that One Hundred Fifty-Eight?” Ridley cried out.
“It’s on fire!” Iris shouted.
“I have a 911 spell,” Binx said, pushing a button on her phone.
Iris quickly cast accelerando to increase her speed. And then just like that, she was standing in front of 158 Spring Street. Binx and Ridley were still a hundred or so feet behind her.
Fire was blazing inside the gray house, spreading across the walls, licking at the curtains. Iris could make out the outlines of two people inside. One was moving around, the other was sitting in a chair. Tied to a chair. Was that Greta?
Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, Iris told herself.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember the spell from Callixta’s book that extinguished fire.
“Restinguere!” she yelled, raising her wand in the air.
Nothing.
Binx and Ridley came running up to her.
“What about ceasaro?” Binx said breathlessly.
“Yes!” Ridley nodded.
The three girls stood in a semicircle, pointed their wands, and yelled: “Ceasaro!”
Still nothing.
Just then, a red Miata convertible came tearing down the street. It screeched to a stop in front of 158 Spring Street, and Mira, Div, and Aysha jumped out.
“We got your message. What’s going on? Where’s Greta?” Div called.
“Inside. Where have you guys been?” Ridley demanded.
“No time. Everyone, form a circle, now!” Div ordered.
The five witches obeyed. They pointed their wands inward, creating six spokes in a wheel.
“Visualize Greta in the middle. And repeat after me. Exorior!”
“Exorior!”
Greta did not appear.
“Exorior!” they repeated, more loudly.
Still no Greta.
The clock was running out. Forget about Div’s spells or Callixta Crowe’s spells—Iris had to do what Jadora had done when her familiar, Baxxtern, was trapped inside a burning tavern and her magic wasn’t working because of the Ongolean Ork king’s Weakening Curse.
Run into the fire.
I am strong. I am brave. I can do this. Intention!
Wielding her wand in her right hand and covering her face with her left, Iris spun around, ducked her head, and shouldered her way through the front door. A tsunami wave of heat pounded against her. Smoke burned her eyes like acid. She could hear the girls outside yelling her name.
“Greta, where are you?” Iris shouted.
“I-Iris?” came the faint reply.
Greta!
Hope and resolve cut through Iris’s panic and gave her strength. She pointed her wand in front of her. “Malorna!”
A beam of light sliced through the dense smoke. Iris could make out Greta slumped in the chair, rope binding her feet and legs.
The smoke was getting thicker by the minute; Iris could feel it scraping and choking her throat, her lungs. Coughing, she aimed her wand at the ropes. What was that spell? Oh yeah.
“Solvo!”
The ropes splintered and snapped and gave way. Greta started to tumble out of the chair. Gasping for breath, nearly blinded by the smoke, Iris rushed to catch her before she fell.
“We have to get you out of here. Can you walk?”
Greta mumbled an incoherent reply.
“What?”
“S-save. G-Gofflesby.”
“Gofflesby’s here?”
A crashing sound. A ceiling beam had fallen just inches away from them, kicking up more flames. The fire was accelerating, blooming into an inferno; they had to get out of the house immediately.
Iris reached for Greta’s velvet scarf and wrapped it loosely around Greta’s nose and mouth. “Breathe through this; it’ll be less smoky. Come on… this way!”
“G-Gofflesby.”
“I know. I’ll find him, but we have to get you out of here first.”
Iris half led, half dragged Greta to the door. She could hear sirens in the distance; help was on the way.
The girls were waiting just outside the door. Ridley, Binx, and Aysha took Greta from Iris and laid her gently on the grass. Div and Mira immediately launched into a series of healing spells on Greta—first respiri, then medeora.
Ridley and Binx began casting the same spells on Iris. But Iris didn’t have time to be healed. She had to go back in for Gofflesby.
She started to head inside again… then stopped when she saw Mrs. Feathers from school, standing behind a column of flames in the burning house.
Was she… smiling?
“Mrs. Feathers!” Iris shouted. “You have to get out of there! Is there a cat in there with you?”
In response, Mrs. Feathers raised her arms in the air.
She said something, her lips moving furiously, but Iris couldn’t hear.
And just like that, the flames vanished.
The smoke cleared.
The siren noises stopped.
Iris turned around, feeling fuzzy and dazed. Greta was rising to her feet and brushing her hair out of her eyes. “What were we talking about?” she asked Iris.
“I—I can’t remember,” Iris replied.
“Where are we, anyway? How did we end up on this street? What is our location?” Binx asked her phone.
The screen flashed an answer.
“Huh.
