The Longest Halloween, Book Three: Gabbie Del Toro and the Mystery of the Warlock's Urn. Frank Wood

the stony ground, falling over a wagon that had been parked directly in the path.

      “Have a nice trip there, Gabbie?” Grawl joked as he reached down to help her to her feet.

      “My sincerest apologies, Miss Del Toro,” a voice called as a tall figure emerged from the fog. “We were trying to get all of the older books transferred to the historical tower before classes started.”

      “It’s okay, Professor Menzies, I should have been paying attention.”

      Professor Menzies was the school’s librarian and former science teacher. He was incredibly tall, well over seven feet, and had a thick crown of silver hair that he kept twisted in dual braids circling each side of his head before running down his back as one.

      “Well, given what your family has been through of late, it is indeed understandable for your mind to be otherwise occupied.”

      “I’m sorry for leaving the wagon there, sir,” another voice joined them. Its owner was shorter than Professor Menzies but wider, with long, brawny arms. His olive skin was in stark contrast to the mass of bright red hair that sat on his head like a mop.

      “No harm done, Silas,” Menzies said his tone tightening. “Let’s be on our way.”

      “Hi, I’m Gabbie,” she said, introducing herself to the one Menzies called Silas.

      “I’m Silas Wedmore,” he said hesitantly, almost looking to Menzies for permission to speak.

      “Silas will be helping up out in the library this year.”

      “Welcome,” Gabby said.

      “Thank you, I’m sure,” he said. Gabbie wasn’t sure, but it looked as if Silas's face suddenly transformed in front of her very eyes—his nose and chin lengthened, his eyes turned colors and his brows darkened—but only for an instant. Gabbie had never seen such a thing.

      “Well, the day will be starting soon,” Menzies said, “best we all get about our business.”

      Professor Menzies had a point. Gabbie wanted to avoid the arrival of the other students, especially Florinda Evers, her former second-best friend (behind Pinkie) who loved to tease Gabbie about her change in station and fortune. Florinda was not only mean, she was way talented. She was on her way to becoming the most powerful witch since…well, since Zeldabub herself, really. She was not someone many people stood up against.

      Gabbie hadn’t been afraid to face her down, though. She and Florinda were rivals of a sort, the good witch and the bad witch, but once Gabbie entered the work-study program, things had pretty much gone Florinda’s way.

      Gabbie was going to mention what she had seen in Silas’s face to Grawl but then chalked it up to a trick of the early morning fog, which was rumored to contain old spell remnants. Grawl let out an audible groan as the two of them rounded the corner to enter the school’s main courtyard, and Gabbie saw why right away. There were Florinda and her coven of friends, making an absolute mess of things on the north lawn of the House of Ghouls.

      “Isn’t that the lawn you just finished hedging?” Gabbie asked.

      “Yes,” Grawl moaned. “Now I’ll have to start all over again. I’ll never get done in time.”

      “Well, we’ll see about that!” Gabbie snorted, tying her hair behind her back.

      “Gabbie, it doesn’t matter,” Grawl said, though he knew that once she started tying her hair behind her back, it was on like popcorn.

      “Florinda!” Gabbie roared, striding over to the other girl. “Knock it off! Set it back the way it was!”

      “Or what?” Florinda sneered, looking at Gabbie from under half-lidded eyes.

      “You’ll find out what!”

      “Are you threatening me, Beast?” Beast was Florinda’s cruel nickname for Gabbie since she started in the work-study program. You know, as in beast of burden.

      “I promise you that if you don’t put that lawn back like you found it, you’ll have me to deal with!”

      “Please, Beast, you and I are no longer in the same league. Things have changed for me over summer holiday, you know. Apart from the obvious change in our stations—helped by no doubt your father’s shenanigans—I got my stripe, something I daresay you haven’t, looking at your rat’s nest. So if you want to have it out, we can, though you’ll come up on the wrong side of things.”

      Gabbie noted too late that Florinda’s face suddenly changed. Gone was the superior and haughty expression, and her eyes softened and welled up. Gabbie knew in a flash that she had been trapped. There was also the whistle that tipped her off from behind.

      “Oh, bats!” she spat. Florinda pointed behind her and Gabbie slowly turned to come face to face with Lady Grimm. Grawl stood next to her, a helpless look on his face.

      “Of course, anything you want, Gabbie,” Florinda wailed, “anything you need. Only please don’t hurt us. We just want to get to class is all.”

      “Miss Del Toro,” Lady Grimm said in her low voice. “It’s awfully early in the morning, wouldn’t you say?”

      “Yes ma’am.” Gabbie knew there would be no point in arguing.

      “Come along then, I’ll see you in my office. Bring your things with you.”

      Gabbie trudged after the acting principal with Florinda looking triumphantly after her. Grawl heaved a heavy sigh.

      When Gabbie and Lady Grimm were well out of sight, Florinda’s cold eyes narrowed on Grawl.

      “Not so fast, troll,” she uttered, the words sending a chill down Grawl’s spine.

      Walden

      “Lady Grimm, if you’ll just let me explain...” Gabbie was attempting to plead her case with the no-nonsense acting principal.

      “That’ll be enough, Gabriella,” Lady Grimm retorted, leading Gabbie around the hallway to her voluminous and dreaded corner office, positioned in order to view the entire front lawn of the school. Gabbie noticed a portrait of Principal Croft being hoisted into place along the wall adjacent to the office.

      “Sorry to hear about Principal Croft,” she said.

      “Yes, it was indeed unfortunate,” Lady Grimm said, “but you and your family are not unacquainted with misfortune either, this year.”

      Gabbie also noted that her father and his student teachers' portraits had been removed from the hall.

      “Really! He hasn’t been proven guilty, you know,” Gabbie retorted.

      “They’ve just been removed for economy’s sake—doing some remodeling, you know,” Lady Grimm said. Gabbie didn’t buy it. “But to the matter of you and Miss Evers,” Lady Grimm said, thinking it best to change the subject. “You don’t have to let her bait you so, Miss Del Toro,” Lady Grimm continued, leading Gabriella into her cluttered office. “I am quite wise to Miss Evers’ cruel ways.”

      Gabbie was less than satisfied. “But you let her get away with it!”

      “I was actually doing you a favor, Miss Del Toro,” Lady Grimm said. “Miss Evers has progressed over the summer. It wouldn’t have been an even match at all.”

      Oh, Gabbie thought to herself, the stripe thing. “Hopefully I’ll be getting my stripe soon.”

      “Of course you will, Gabbie. You’re twelve this year, right?”

      “Yes.”

      Lady Grimm looked at her patronizingly. “Well sometimes there are genetic reasons for these things.”

      Not