Chapter 15

“That would ruin everything!”

It was a horrible revelation, adding to the list of lies and deceit. The Instigators were the ones who had created Toxites. They had captured the Dark Aurans and performed experiments on them. . . . Spencer couldn’t believe it was true, but at the same time it began to make sense. Had the Witches been evil from the very beginning?

V smirked at the look of shock that Spencer and Daisy wore.

“What are you doing?” Daisy asked her.

“Collecting my reward,” answered V.

Ninfa reached out and put a protective hand around the girl’s thin shoulders. “V has been a wonderful little helper.”

“I thought that’s what Dez was for,” Spencer said.

“Don’t be foolish,” Belzora replied. “That boy is nothing but a nuisance.”

For once, Spencer momentarily agreed with her.

“So Dez wasn’t part of this?” Daisy asked, her hopes seeming to rise.

“Of course not,” V said. “I couldn’t trust someone like him. During the night, I swapped the real nails for the false ones after the Dark Aurans had forged them. Dez had no idea what he was really doing. Once the Dark Aurans were far enough into the landfill, I gave them the Spade, doubled back, took Rho’s squeegee, and led you here.”

“She is very clever,” Holga said.

“If Dez wasn’t working with you,” Spencer said to the Witches, “then why’d you let him go?”

“Punishment was waiting for him outside,” Ninfa said. “Sweepers deal with Sweepers. It’s an internal affair.”

If Dez had walked out of the office and into a trap, the Sweepers wouldn’t go easy on him. At least he hadn’t betrayed the Rebels . . . again. Spencer wished he had the chance to thank Dez Rylie, but he feared that opportunity would never come.

“Now,” Belzora said. “What was it you came for?” She tapped her pale chin with the tip of her wand. “Oh, yes. Search them for a Witch’s hair.”

Spencer glanced at Daisy. If the Witches found the hairbrush, the Rebels would have no way of closing the source. That was assuming that they even survived the next few minutes.

Holga’s stubby wand released a thread of dust that curled forward with tremendous speed. It struck Spencer’s belt, reducing the buckle to mere particles. His belt slipped from his waist, caught in the wake of Holga’s wand dust. It tumbled to the office floor in front of him and was joined by Daisy’s belt a second later.

V stepped forward and rifled through the contents of both belts, shaking her head as the search turned up negative. Spencer glanced at Daisy. She stood rigid, her right hand in a fist as V stepped closer and began to inspect her coveralls. She patted Daisy’s pockets before moving on to frisk Spencer.

“Nothing,” V finally said. “The only hairs on them are the ones attached to their heads.”

Spencer never took his eyes from Daisy. Where was the hairbrush? Had she left it behind in the parking garage?

Ninfa gave a shriek of victory, her wand tip coming around on Spencer and Daisy. A blast of wand dust shot out, forming midair into a familiar rake. Spencer tried to step aside, but the projectile rake was moving too quickly.

The wooden handle slammed into the floor directly between Spencer and Daisy. The metal prongs of the rake expanded over them, growing so quickly into bars that they knocked the two kids together.

In a heartbeat, the rake had become a cage, crushing all hope Spencer and Daisy had of escaping the Witches in Garcia’s office. Spencer had been imprisoned in a rake cage before. The only way to retract the bars was to twist the rake handle.

Spencer grabbed the wooden handle that rose in the center of the cage, but he knew it was useless. The rake cage would open only if a hand from the outside twisted it.

“That’s better,” Ninfa said. “Hairless and trapped.”

“Goodie,” said Holga. “Their plan is derailed. They cannot close the source without a hair from our heads.”

Ninfa nodded. “And unless they feel like blowing half the earth into dusty particles, they cannot destroy the nests while the source is open.”

“That’s a relief,” replied Holga. “We worked too hard creating those brain nests to have some little brats destroy them.”

“You created the Toxites?” Daisy whispered in horror.

“From scratch,” Ninfa said, taking a curtsy.

It was one thing to know that the Instigators had done it. Now they were looking at them, realizing that the revered Founding Witches had started it all. . . . Spencer shook the bars of their cage, and Daisy looked like she might cry.

“We needed something that would dull the mind,” Belzora explained. “Something that would sweep across this growing nation and infest the schools, targeting the future’s greatest asset—an active mind.”

“But we didn’t want to take possession of a few struggling British colonies,” Ninfa cut in. “During our time, America was not the world power that it is today.”

“There was that whole Revolutionary War thing,” Holga added.

“So we waited, tucked away in the security of the Dustbin,” Belzora continued. “Wars were fought and our nation grew, while school janitors, spread across the states, fought a secret war against the very Toxites we created.”

“Then, in the prophesied Day of Wickedness, when our three warlocks felt as bitter about the world as we did, the Warlocks Box was opened,” said Ninfa. “The pieces were in motion, and our Toxites were finally allowed to do what we created them to do.”

“Now we are back,” Belzora said. “Stepping into a world of possibilities. In a few short years, the cycle will be complete. Then we will lead the Academy students to rule over the mindless masses!”

Holga cackled. “Mindless masses!” she repeated. “Nice alliteration.”

Spencer tried to process it all. The Founding Witches had created the Toxites in the Dustbin. Hundreds of years ago, they had opened the source for the first time, letting through a wave of Toxites that would continuously be recycled at the landfill. It was just the right amount of creatures, and the nation’s janitors could keep them at bay until the time was finally right to withdraw. That time was now. The source had reopened and the final phase of the Witches’ three-hundred-year-old plan was in effect.

“What’s your part in this, V?” Spencer asked, watching her through the bars of the rake cage. He couldn’t understand why anyone would side with the Witches after hearing their centuries-old scheme. “What did they promise you?”

“V has been very helpful,” Belzora said. “We needed someone trustworthy to watch over the Dark Aurans. It isn’t good for them to be free. Something could happen to them. Something bad.”

Spencer swallowed hard. “You’re going to kill the Dark Aurans?”

All three Witches burst into demented laughter.

“Don’t be foolish, boy!” Holga cried.

“The Dark Aurans mustn’t die!” said Ninfa. “That would ruin everything!”

“Why?” Daisy asked. “You don’t seem to care about anyone else.”

“Only the Dark Aurans have the power to destroy Toxites forever,” Belzora said.

“I know,” Spencer said. Aryl had told him that. “Isn’t that just another reason for you to want them dead?”

“You don’t understand,” Belzora said. “The Dark Aurans are the only things keeping the Toxites alive. That’s why the boys are the only ones who can destroy them.”

“If you want the Toxites destroyed so badly,” Ninfa added. “Go back to the landfill and kill your friends. If the Dark Aurans die, the Toxites die with them.”