Trial By Fire (Avalon: Web of Magic #6) Read Free Page A

to be pop star Johnny Conrad had put Kara under its spell. It had tapped into her blazing star magic, and to Kara’s horror she had discovered the magic to be dark and ugly. That was no illusion.
    “Kawaaa.” Ozzie jumped onto the table, his mouth exploding with marshmallows. “Makemee sommmorre!”
    “The Fairimentals should have made you a pig instead of a ferret,” Kara commented.
    Pop! The fire surged upward in the hearth with a huge crackle, startling the group.
    “How are you doing with the email search for B*Tween?” Emily asked Ozzie.
    “Nothing new,” Ozzie remarked. “I’ve tried replying a dozen times but wherever that email came from, it can’t be traced.”
    Ozzie was referring to a message sent from the magical musical group known as B*Tween. From somewhere on the magic web, they had told the girls to stand strong and be ready. Their time was coming.
    The ferret munched thoughtfully on another s’more. “B*Tween didn’t give us much information.”
    “Maybe they couldn’t,” Rasha said around a mouth full of mallows. “Afraid they might get caught.”
    “Hey, watch the fur,” Storm rumbled, licking a dollop of melted marshmallow off her shimmering coat.
    “Sorry,” Ozzie said, holding the stick of marshmallows behind him as he faced the group.
    Sparks leaped from the crackling logs, licking at the six melting marshmallows the ferret had crammed onto his stick.
    “Be careful, Ozzie,” Ronif complained. “That’s hot!”
    “And it smells awful.” The ferret scrunched his marshmallow mustache, sniffing the air around him. “Smells like—”
    “Ozzie!” Emily yelled.
    “Your tail’s on fire,” Balthazar observed.
    “Huh?” Ozzie looked over his shoulder. “ Ahhhh!”
    The ferret tossed his marshmallows as he ran across the room, a plume of smoke trailing behind him. Everyone jumped out of the way, grabbing rugs, towels, and anything they could find to throw over the smoking ferret.
    Kara grabbed a vase from an end table, pulled out the flowers, and emptied the water over Ozzie.
    “BluB!”
    Smoke hissed from the soaked ferret.
    “Are you okay, Ozzie?” Emily asked, hoisting him upside down to examine his tail.
    “Watch it! Watch it!”
    “Hold still.” Emily’s rainbow jewel pulsed with blue healing light. It bathed the ferret in a cool glow. “How’s that?”
    “Put me down!”
    The soft lights in the library flickered and went dark.
    The girls looked around. Smoke was slowly encircling the room.
    “We blow a fuse?” Adriane asked.
    The fireplace blazed, flames leaping high, sending sparks into the air as shadows skittered across the walls.
    Suddenly, the fire hissed and with a loud Pop! flames leaped out, licking at the mantel.
    The s’more eaters scrambled back.
    “The fire’s too big!” Adriane yelled.
    With a shudder, flames erupted from the stone hearth, pushing aside the screen to roll across the rug in a fiery wave.
    Hsssssssssssss.
    Like snakes, tendrils of flame reached up and coiled around themselves.
    “Get the extinguisher!” Emily cried.
    “Wait,” Lyra told the girls. The big cat was on her feet, fur standing along the scruff of her neck.
    “It’s not burning anything.” Ronif pointed a wing at the rug.
    The fire was now completely outside the fireplace, on the carpet in the center of the room. The flames left no mark on what they touched, as if the fire were merely a ghost.
    Swirling yellow, red, and blue flames reached to the domed ceiling of the library. They formed a figure, shimmering and glowing with magic.
    “A Fairimental!” Eddie the brimbee exclaimed.
    “It’s a Fire mental!” Balthazar said, astonished. “The most powerful and dangerous of the Fairimentals.”
    “We thought you were lost!” Ozzie’s fur stood out as he leaped to his feet.
    The fiery figure reached with flaming arms toward Kara.
    The blond girl squealed and stepped back.
    “Stand still, Kara!” Adriane urged.
    Kara stood motionless as a writhing river