hopped out from behind a tree. It was the cutest brown rabbit she had ever seen and it bounded over to them and stopped at their feet. It looked up at the children with its soft, warm eyes and made a little twittering noise.
'A bunny!' Daphne cried, as she knelt down to pet it. 'I love him!'
The rabbit snapped at her finger and let out a horrible, angry hiss.
'An evil bunny,' the little girl said, yanking her finger away.
'So that's what your harmonica does?' Puck laughed. 'Sends a rabbit to kill us?'
Wendell didn't say anything. He didn't have to. His silence was filled by the sound of hundreds of rabbits pouring into the clearing as if they had heard Puck's taunt. They jostled one another for room, then turned and faced Wendell as if he was some kind of general. It was obvious the boy was controlling them.
'Guys, I forgot to tell you the other clue I discovered,' Sabrina said nervously. 'Wendell is an Everafter. He's the Pied Piper's son and apparently the magic runs in the family.'
'Now you listen to me,' Puck said, as his wings sprouted from his back and flapped vigorously, until he was floating above the ground. 'You're a killer and from what I've been told, that's against the law these days. Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way.'
'Puck, shut up,' Sabrina demanded, but the Trickster just kept on talking and Wendell's face grew more and more desperate. Each furry little rodent twitched with eagerness, waiting for the boy to give a command.
'If you think a bunch of hairy little garden thieves are going to stop me, you are sadly mistaken,' Puck continued. 'So, call off your fur balls or I'm going to skin the lot of them and make me the biggest winter coat you've ever seen!'
Wendell lifted his harmonica to his mouth and another sour note rang through the air. The rabbits instantly turned and faced the kids. Their soft brown eyes were now red with anger.
'Get them,' Wendell shouted and, like a furry army, the first wave of rabbits lunged at the children.
7
Chapter 7
That's the best you can do, fat boy?' Puck shouted, spinning on his heels and transforming into a massive thirteen-foot brown bear. He roared so viciously that Sabrina felt it in her toes, but it did nothing to stop the rabbits. They dove onto Puck in waves, knocking his mammoth body to the ground and covering him from head to toe.
'Puck!' the girls shouted, terrified that he'd been killed. And for a brief moment it seemed as if their fears were true. But the boy soared out of the bunny pile, giant wings flapping, and into the sky. He dipped back down, snatched each girl by the hand, and began an awkward effort to fly out of the forest.
'Next time, why doesn't one of you tell me to shut up?' Puck cried.
Daphne and Sabrina looked at each other incredulously.
“I am so going to have nightmares about this,' Daphne whined.
Puck sailed through the forest, barely managing to avoid the giant cedars and fir trees that seemed to appear out of nowhere. He ducked between branches and flapped fiercely to raise the girls over the brush and pricker bushes on the forest floor. One desperate effort to dodge a huge Chinese maple tree forced him to dive close to the ground, where one of the rabbits leaped up and sank its teeth into Sabrina's pant leg. She shook it off and it disappeared into the furry sea below.
'Head for the river,' Sabrina cried. 'They can't follow us over the water.'
Puck frowned at her. 'I know what I'm doing,' he growled.
'If you knew what you were doing, we wouldn't have two million zombie bunnies chasing us!' she shouted.
'Guys,' Daphne said, trying to get their attention, but her sister was too angry to listen.
'How was I supposed to know that kid was mentally unhinged?' Puck said.
'I don't know,' Sabrina snapped. 'Maybe when we found him running from a dead body?'
'Guys!' Daphne shouted.
'What!' Puck and Sabrina snapped.
'LOOK OUT!'
Sabrina looked up to see a fifteen-foot-high fence in front of them. Puck made a desperate swerve and narrowly missed smashing into it, but the near collision didn't slow down the argument.
'I don't know why I'm involved in this, anyway!' he cried. 'I'm one of the bad guys!'
'The only bad thing about you is your breath!' Sabrina shouted. 'All we ever hear about is Puck the villain! What kind of villain has creamed corn all over his shirt?'
The boy snarled, made a dramatic turn to the left, and looked Sabrina dead in the eye.
'You want to see how bad I can be?' he growled. 'I'll show you what I'm capable of!'
He soared into the backyard of someone's home, a stocky senior citizen who was puttering around his yard. As the trio flew past him they heard the man shout, 'Agnes! The rabbits have been digging up the yard, again. I swear, the next one I see is going to wish it hadn't been born!'
Puck howled with laughter as he led the bunnies right through the poor man's yard. By the time the old fellow saw them coming, it was too late. Sabrina caught a glimpse of his shocked face as the first wave of rabbits knocked him to the ground. 'Agnes!' he cried. They hopped over him as if he wasn't even there.
'That was mean!' Daphne shouted at Puck.
Flapping vigorously, the boy flew across the street just as an old woman's car came to a stop at the intersection. She was a tiny old lady who could barely see over the dashboard. She must have been legally blind, too, because she waited patiently, unblinking, for Puck and the two girls to fly across the road, followed by a couple thousand rabbits. When her way was clear, she drove off as if nothing unusual had happened at all.
'People are going to see us! You've got to get us off the street,' Sabrina insisted.
'Oh, you want me to get us off the street? Fine, your wish is my command,' Puck yelled. He flew straight toward a house where a tall man had just opened his front door. As the man bent over to pick up his newspaper, Puck flew inside.
'No! Don't,' Daphne cried as Puck sailed through the living room, into the dining room, and flapped awkwardly over the table. Below them, two small children were setting the table, oblivious to the scene above their heads. They were hungrily eyeing a glistening golden ham in the center of a dinner feast. Puck dipped lower and Daphne accidentally kicked the ham and a bowl of mashed potatoes onto the floor. The family's two hyperactive English springer spaniels then raced into the room and tore into the fallen food.
' Chelsea! Maxine! No!' the mother shouted, running in from the kitchen and desperately trying to drag the remains of the ham from their greedy mouths. 'Bad dogs!' She didn't look up, but the children did.
'So sorry,' Daphne shouted to the open-mouthed children as Puck flew into the kitchen. They found the back door. Sabrina opened it and they zipped outside. The rabbits had noticed their detour and now tumbled through the house, knocking over furniture and sending lamps crashing to the floor. They blasted out of windows and knocked the back door off its hinges and still managed to gain ground.
Sabrina looked up at Puck and saw the proud grin on his face.
'That wasn't funny,' she snapped.
'Yes it was,' he said.
'They're still coming,' Daphne cried. 'We have to go somewhere they can't go.'
'We're on our way,' Puck crowed. Soon they were out of the neighborhoods and flying back over acres of overgrown woods. In no time, the Hudson River stretched out before them.
'If we fly out over the river, they won't be able to follow,' Sabrina said.
'Oh, we're going over the river all right, but not to save you from the rabbits,' Puck cried. 'We're going over because you questioned my villainy.'
Sabrina looked up into his face. 'You wouldn't dare!'
'That's another thing you shouldn't question!'
He flapped his wings hard and soon the three were soaring over the rocky cliffs, high above the Hudson. Sabrina watched as the rabbits raced to the cliff's edge and then abruptly stopped.
'Anyone ready for a swim?' Puck asked.
'Don't do it!' Sabrina demanded.
'Next time you talk to me, maybe you'll do well to remember that I am royalty.'
But before Puck could dump them into the icy water, his body buckled as if he had flown into a brick wall. Sabrina lost her grip on him and dropped like a stone, landing hard in the freezing river below. She sank deep into the river then swam frantically to reach the surface in time to see Daphne splash down beside her.
