Chapter 18

“She had other plans.”

Dez appeared a split second after Spencer and Daisy, shouting like a maniac, “Close the dumpster! Close the dumpster!”

Rho stepped up and grabbed the black lid, slamming it shut with a resounding clang. Daisy removed the orange healing spray from her belt and carefully misted Spencer’s arm. The magical solution was capable of knitting broken bones back together, though Spencer would have to endure several more minutes of pain before the spray took effect.

Dez let out a laugh and gave a victorious fist pump. “Man, those Witches never saw me coming!”

“Literally,” Rho pointed out. “You were invisible.”

“Did you guys get it?” Dez asked, turning to Spencer and Daisy. “Did you find the stupid hair?”

Spencer was just beginning to shake his head when Daisy produced the pink hairbrush, choked with long, scraggly black hairs.

“I thought you dropped it!” Spencer said, feeling more encouraged than he had in weeks. “Where was it?” He couldn’t figure out how V had missed it when she had searched them.

“It was in my hand the whole time,” Daisy said. “As soon as the Witches showed up, I knew they would try to take it away. I used the bleach to turn the hairbrush invisible. Then I just had to make sure I didn’t set it down or I’d never find it again.”

Spencer grinned. Amid so much failure, he was thrilled that they had accomplished what they’d set out to do. “Nice work.” He was amazed at her quick thinking. “You did great.”

“It was nothing,” Dez said casually.

“I was talking to Daisy,” replied Spencer.

“Hey! I did some awesome stuff too,” Dez said.

Spencer had a hard time admitting it, but they never would have escaped without Dez. “How did you get past Hal and the Sweepers?” Spencer asked, remembering that Dez didn’t have bleach at the time.

“I have a skill they weren’t expecting,” answered Dez. “Burping.”

“You belched at them?” Rho raised an eyebrow. It didn’t sound like a very threatening skill.

“Yup,” Dez said proudly. “I burped up a huge cloud of black dust and escaped while the Sweepers couldn’t see anything.”

“Only you could find a way to make burping your secret weapon,” Spencer said.

“I made my way back to the garbage truck and came through the dumpster,” Dez carried on. “Rho was sprawled out on the concrete. It seemed like a dumb time to be sleeping. I could have used some help.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Rho said. “Someone hit me with the green spray and took the squeegee.”

“That was V,” Daisy said.

“I thought she went into the landfill with the boys,” Rho said.

“She had other plans,” said Spencer, wondering how to break the news.

“Anyway . . .” Dez said, annoyed that other people were talking during his story. “I grabbed some extra bleach from Rho’s belt and went back through the dumpster. The first thing I did was make myself invisible. But then I realized that the BEM would be looking for the garbage truck, so I bleached it out, too. I drove up and parked it right outside the Academy wall. Then I made my way back to that office where you guys were. When Hal went inside to report to the Witches, I slipped through the door. That’s when the Witches tried to blast you, so I knocked off their aim.”

“That was you?” Daisy said. “I was starting to think they couldn’t point their wands straight.”

“Wands?” Rho said. She froze as the gravity of that statement struck her. “The Witches have their wands?”

Spencer nodded regretfully. “V swapped out the nails, and Dez delivered the real ones to the Witches.”

“I didn’t know I was helping V,” Dez said. “I promise.” He held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

“You’re not even a Scout,” Daisy said.

Dez shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I can’t use their honor.”

Rho’s face was turning red, her hands clenched into fists. “Where is the traitor now?” She was struggling to keep her voice calm. “Where is V?”

Spencer and Daisy glanced at each other. When Daisy put her head down, Spencer knew it was his responsibility to break the news.

“V’s dead.”

Rho’s expression softened, then sank. Tears welled in her eyes, and Spencer wondered what the loss must feel like. The Aurans had been together for nearly three hundred years. They shared centuries of memories. Prolonged time had given them the opportunity to grow closer than a family. No matter what V’s betrayal had been, this was going to hurt the Aurans.

“How?” Rho finally managed, just barely keeping her emotions in check.

“She grew up,” Spencer said. “She grew old.”

“That old dead grandma lying on the floor in the office?” Dez said. “That was V?”

“Show some respect!” Daisy scolded.

“The Witches have Timekeepers for all of you,” Spencer said. “They’re bronze bracelets on Belzora’s wrist. They kept them from the moment you first became Aurans. The years you should’ve aged have been collecting in the bracelets. When V put hers on, she aged so fast she couldn’t get it off until it was too late.”

Rho nodded to show that she understood. “I’ll call the others,” she whispered. “They deserve to know.”

“In the end,” Daisy said, “V wanted you to know she was sorry.”

And Spencer remembered V’s final message. The Glopified scissors were lost somewhere in the landfill. Spencer didn’t know how they could possibly find the scissors when the Dark Aurans had searched the trash heaps for centuries with no luck. But he chose to take hope from V’s last words.

“We need to get Marv,” Spencer said. His Bingo game in Florida was a dead end. The retired Silver Swiffers didn’t have the scissors. They’d been lost at the landfill all along!

“And we need to talk to the Dark Aurans,” Spencer added. “When will they be back?”

Rho was staring off into the landfill, a vacant expression on her youthful face. “Sorry,” she said, turning when Spencer paused for an answer. “What did you say?”

“I know this is hard,” Spencer said. “But we have to keep going. When will the Dark Aurans get back?”

Rho swallowed and wiped the tears with the back of her hand. “They were going deep,” she said. “Almost all the way to the Broomstaff. They won’t be back until tomorrow night.”

“Then we’ll have to start looking without them,” said Spencer.

“Looking for what?” Rho asked.

Spencer gazed out into the strange formations of Glop-tainted garbage in the landfill. Somewhere out there was the tool they needed to destroy the Toxite brain nests.

“The scissors.”