Read Sisters Grimm 05 Magic and Other Misdemeanors for Free Online Page A

argued.
    "Nonetheless I think I'll make you some chicken soup when we get home."
    The group continued down the path and soon Baba Yaga's hut came into view. A fence made from ancient human leg and arm bones surrounded it. Granny Relda pushed open the fence and led the family into the yard. Sabrina eyed her grandmother with awe and envy. The old woman was fearless. She strolled to the front door as if she were visiting an old friend. Sabrina wondered if she would ever feel that courageous.
    Granny knocked, and a moment later the door flew open.
    " The Young and the Restless is on," Baba Yaga seethed. She was holding a bowl of cereal in her hand and eating it with a spoon.
    Granny shuffled her feet. "I'm sorry. We thought you'd want us to get started as soon as possible."
    The witch frowned but waved everyone into the house. The inside was as disturbing as the outside. In a corner, dusty burlap bags leaked green ooze onto the floor. Along the wall stood stacks of crates, one of which seemed to have something inside struggling to break free. The brick fireplace was lit, and the flames formed the desperate faces of people who seemed to be begging for help. Sabrina shuddered to imagine herself trapped with those poor souls, suffering for eternity in Baba Yaga's home. Still, the most unsettling feeling wasn't the filth and despair that seemed to permeate the air, it was the odd sensation running up and down Sabrina's spine. At first she thought it was just nerves, but she soon realized that what she felt was more like hunger--a nervous, unnatural craving. Every drop of blood, bit of muscle fiber, and strand of hair in her being was awake and starving. She glanced around at the wands, spell books, and magical rings the witch left lying about. Baba Yaga didn't deserve these things. Look how she mistreated them!
    "Are you going to be OK?" Daphne asked. She squeezed Sabrina's arm.
    Sabrina took a deep breath and nodded. "Let's get out of here as soon as we can."
    "Where are your guardians, Old Mother?" Granny Relda asked the witch.
    "They failed me," the witch snapped.
    "That's not what I asked."
    The witch screamed in rage. "Don't question me! I created them for a purpose. They were to guard my possessions. They failed. You needn't know more."
    Sabrina could easily read between the lines. Baba Yaga's guardians were dead. Their bones were probably part of the fence outside.
    Puck, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the conversation. He was busy snooping around the room, opening cabinets and peeking into drawers as if he owned the place. "This book looks like it's made out of human skin!" he exclaimed when he picked up a discarded tome off the floor. The cover looked like leather, but had hair growing out of it. "It is!" Baba Yaga cackled.
    Puck looked like he wanted to hug the old hag. "This place is like my Disneyland."
    "Uh, hello?" Sabrina said. "What happened to the hellfire?"
    Puck scowled and put the book back on the floor.
    "Old Mother, tell us what you know about your missing wand," Granny said as she took out her notebook and pen.
    "It was here one moment and gone the next," the witch said, flashing Sabrina an accusing look.
    "Can you show us where you kept it?" Granny said.
    The crone hobbled into the next room. The floor was covered in dust and what looked like human teeth. There was an overstuffed reclining chair in the center of the room, across from a television on a rickety stand against the wall. The jawbone of a ferocious-looking animal rested on top of the TV with an old wire hanger wrapped in tinfoil sticking out of it, making a very disturbing antenna.
    "I kept the wand in here," the witch said as she gestured around the room.
    "OK, girls. Here's where we get to put your training into action," Granny Relda said. "Have a look around, and remember, keep an eye out for things that are out of place."
    In the last two months Granny Relda had been teaching Sabrina and Daphne to see--or rather, to