DAY HAD BROKEN as Arkayna led the Mysticons through the dense forest, casting aside fallen trees and branches. She kept her eyes on the end of her Dragon Staff, letting Nova Terron’s spell lead the way.
“Faster, girls!” she yelled. “Give it all you’ve got!”
They were getting close, so close. Arkayna stopped in front of a giant bush, double-checking they were in the right place. “We’re here,” she said. “Mrs. Sparklebottom’s sanctuary.”
“So how do we get in?” Zarya asked.
Arkayna stared at the scene in front of her. It didn’t look like anything special. It was just a giant tree trunk with a lotus flower in front of it. But then the lotus flower opened, revealing a tiny pixie sitting behind a tiny desk.
“Lateensia?” Arkayna said, recognizing the pixie answering the phone. It was her stepbrother Gawayne’s on-again-off-again girlfriend. “You work here?”
“I’m a volunteer,” Lateensia sighed.
“We need to speak to Mrs. Sparklebottom,” Arkayna said.
“Yeah, I’d like to, but no,” Lateensia said flatly.
“We’re the Mysticons and we’re on an important quest,” Em tried.
“Sorry, not sorry!” Lateensia said in a sing-sing voice. “But the only things allowed inside are pixies and drooling little germ bags.”
The Mysticons stared at the tree trunk. All of a sudden the door slid back, revealing a swirling blue portal. A siren blared. A big fuzzy baby with several eyes sucked on a pacifier as it floated out. Before the baby could get even a foot beyond the door, tiny pixies swarmed it and brought it back inside. Arkayna looked to the other Mysticons, wondering if they were thinking what she was thinking.
“Fine,” she said. “We’ll leave, right … now!”
But instead of leaving they all ran straight for the portal, trying to get inside before it closed.
But Lateensia was too fast. She hit a button and the portal shut. All four Mysticons slammed into it.
“Mrs. Sparklebottom’s Sanctuary, a safe haven for special children,” Lateensia said, answering the phone.
Arkayna, Em, Piper, and Zarya picked themselves up and stomped off into the woods, ignoring a smiling Lateensia.
“She makes me so mad!” Piper growled. She scrunched her nose and did her best Lateensia impression: “Only pixies and babies get in.…”
“That’s it!” Arkayna said, getting an idea. She pulled up a recipe on her bracer. “Okay, I need youthroot, beetlebark, and primrose petals, stat!”
Piper disappeared into the woods, coming back a few minutes later with a handful of different ingredients. Arkayna telekinetically hovered them in front of her face, then combined them with magic. In an instant, she’d turned them into two separate vials of purple liquid.
“Drink this,” she said, handing one to Zarya. “It’s not dangerous.”
“That’s your pitch?” Zarya said, furrowing her brows.
“It’s the only way we’re going to find my sister,” Arkayna said. “Please, Z?”
“The things I do for you,” Zarya said, rolling her eyes. She gulped down the liquid in one shot. Then … Poof! She shrunk down to a tiny, toddler-size version of herself, complete with pigtails and a magic orb rattle.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” she shrieked, looking down at her new body.
“Only pixies and babies are allowed in,” Arkayna explained.
“So turn me into a pixie, genius!” Zarya yelled.
“Huh … I guess that was an option.” Arkayna smiled. But wasn’t this much more fun? At least for everyone but Zarya?
“Un-baby me!” Zarya demanded.
“You can un-baby yourself,” Arkayna said, giving her the second vial of liquid—the antidote. “After you get in. Now, cry.”
She yanked the orb rattle out of Zarya’s hand and set her down in front of the bush, rushing behind it to hide. Zarya’s lower lip trembled and suddenly she burst into tears, her wails echoing through the forest.
It didn’t take long for a flock of pixies to emerge from the orphanage. They swaddled baby Zarya in a blanket and floated her through the portal, the wood door sliding shut behind them.