“Xtelle.”
She opened her mouth and widened her eyes, the image of innocence. Then she jiggled her hoof.
The machine went wild.
Xtelle pulled her hoof out and rocked back on two legs so she could make jazz hooves. “Ta-da!” She sprayed pink glitter in a three-foot circle.
The woman jumped to her feet. “Thank you, Jesus!”
Xtelle dropped back to all fours. “What about ‘Thank you, demons? Thank you, Xtelle!’ Just because I don’t have a book written about me…”
“Stop.” I clapped my hands and smiled like everyone else, moving toward her. Myra turned and headed back the way we’d come. I didn’t know why she was leaving, but I trusted her instincts.
Staff arrived, a mix of polite smiles and narrow eyes. They knew the machines were malfunctioning. They knew a table had just mysteriously fallen over. They knew someone had to be behind all this.
I suspected the table had been shoved by a pink demon throwing a hissy fit. But they didn’t know that.
Xtelle stuck out her tongue and trottedthroughthe machine. Lights flickered, sounds warped, then she popped out the other side.
The crowd was growing, drawn by all the noise. I pushed through it as quickly as I could, while running through my options. How was I supposed to stop an invisible demon on a chaos spree?
I finally made it around the bank of machines and into the next row. I heard an “Eeep!” and the weirdthunkof a carrot breaking in half, then spotted Myra pointing two jagged chunks of carrot at one snarling unicorn.
“Hold it right there,” Myra ordered.
Two people passing by slowed to get a better look at what was going on. Since Xtelle was invisible, it looked like my sister had lost her mind.
“All right,” I said, loud enough for the snoopers. “You’ve had your fun. Let’s take this outside. We can talk.”
“I’ll sign the contract,” Xtelle said.
“Bullshit,” Myra said.
“What?” I said.
The snoopers had multiplied, and people at machines turned to give us a good look too.
“Outside,” I repeated. “C’mon.” I grabbed Myra’s shoulder and smiled at the people bug-eyeing the scene.
Myra pointed one of the carrots toward the exit. “That way.”
“Yes,” I said, for the crowd and for the sulking unicorn, “that way.”
Xtelle huffed, tossed her shiny mane, and clopped off, wagging her butt and swishing her tail.
“You might want to put the carrots down,” I said.
Myra dropped the carrots into her pockets and gave the onlookers a little wave.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just get a little over-excited about fresh produce.”
“Good save,” I said. “That didn’t sound crazy at all.”
She huffed a laugh and I patted her shoulder, following her into daylight.
Chapter Four
“Talk.”I crossed my arms and leaned against the Jeep’s bumper. Myra had parked the cruiser in front of my car, but she was leaning next to me.
