Wild Ride Read Online Free PDF Page A

work.”
    Mab stirred her tea and thought of her grandmother, who had sold anti-evil charms and done exorcisms for the neighbors; and her mother, who had picketed Dreamland every Halloween, demanding the park be shut down with her sign that said THE DEVIL LIES WITHIN! thereby ensuring that Mab would never get a date or a friend without moving to a different town; and now her uncle, who had promised to fix the park and gotten himself elected mayor on that, in spite of his nonexistent charm. “We don’t have any social skills. Thank you for the tea.”
    Glenda leaned against the counter. “So did the clown say anything else?”
    â€œUh, no.” Mab blew on her tea, watching Glenda to see what was coming next.
    Glenda nodded, noncommittal. “Did his eyes . . . flash or glow or . . . anything?”
    â€œOf course not. They’re painted turquoise. I painted them turquoise. I may have been hallucinating, but I was
accurate
.”
    â€œOf course you were.” Glenda glanced at Delpha as if for support.
    Delpha nodded.
    â€œSo,” Glenda said, “there wasn’t anything else . . . strange about him?”
    â€œHe was a robot clown. That was strange enough for me.”
    â€œOf course it was.” Glenda patted her hand. “Don’t you worry about it. We’ll find the statue tomorrow. If it’s banged up, you can just touch it up and it’ll be good as new.”
    Mab looked at her in disbelief. Touch it up? That waistcoat had been
glazed
, ten coats to give it that depth. She’d painted the shadows in the folds of the coat, stroked individual hairs in those curls, put tiny glints of silver in the eyes to make them sparkle—
    Touch it up?
    She picked up her tea mug and slid off the stool before Glenda couldsay anything else insane. “Thank you very much for the tea and the nursing, but I need to go to bed—”
    Delpha straightened and said, “Ethan is hurt,” and Glenda stubbed out her cigarette in the sink and made a beeline for the front door.
    â€œHow do you know?” Mab said, but Delpha was already out the door, following Glenda.
    Mab went to the window and saw Gus supporting Ethan as they staggered back from the Dragon, Ethan looking more drunk than injured. Glenda put her arms around them, and they made their way to the candy-colored first-aid station across from the Dream Cream. Clustered together like that, they looked like a family, a strange family, but still family, bonded and loving and supportive. Even Frankie flying overhead was sort of Lassie-like, if Tim Burton had done Lassie.
    Ray may have been all the family she had left, but at least he was normal.
    Kind of.
    She didn’t need family anyway.
    It was past midnight and her head hurt, and Ethan had his family propping him up, so she locked the front door and turned out the lights and carried her work bag upstairs. Tomorrow she’d find out what had happened to the FunFun at the gate, and if there was anything wrong with it, she’d take care of whoever had messed with her work.
    That better have been a hallucination
, she thought, and went to bed.
    Â 
    K haros had been drowsing, dreaming of conquering the park and the earth, when a surge of power had jolted him awake.
    One had broken free.
    He concentrated, searching for the miscreant, the one of four who had disobeyed him, but he already knew it was one of two. Vanth and Selvans would make no move without his order, but—
    Another surge of power, another Untouchable free, two now, Fufluns and Tura. The damage they could do to his plan—
    Ray walked up and sat down beside the Devil statue, lit up a cigar, and rapped on the metal. “Hey.”
    If Kharos had been out, he’d have swatted him like a fly.
    â€œIt’s a good news, bad news thing,” Ray said, leaning back and puffing away. “Fufluns is out.”
    HOW DID HE GET OUT?
    Ray took the cigar out of his