Hex-cellent Tales from The Boiling Isles Read online

  Copyright © 2021 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

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  ISBN 978-1-368-07429-2

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  LUZ HELD HER nose, trying to keep out the stink of a rotting trash slug along with piles and piles of smelly trash. She had come to the Boiling Beach Dump with Eda and King to scavenge for junk. In the Boiling Isles, this place was kind of like a beach, but mostly it was a garbage dump. Eda thought the less-than-picturesque surroundings were breathtaking. Luz…not so much.

  “I…don’t…like this,” Luz said.

  Luz’s lack of enthusiasm didn’t dissuade Eda.

  “It doesn’t get much more inspiring than a trash slug,” Eda said, pointing at the big trash slug carcass. “It makes a home, a life from what others have thrown by the wayside, until—blam!—it gets blasted by a wave one day and croaks from all the salt. Then we get to sell the stuff it ate!”

  Eda handed a pickax to her young apprentice while King laid out his ducky beach towel. He had no intention of helping with the task at hand, but he joked with Luz that it wasn’t every day you got to go to the dump and pick apart a garbage carcass.

  “So, Eda,” Luz said carefully, “what if we tried some new lessons for my apprenticeship? Like read ancient scrolls, or mix together potions, or—”

  “Ugh,” Eda said as she began rifling through the garbage. “Sounds like a bunch of magic-school stuff.”

  Luz perked up. “Wait, is there a magic school here? Like winding towers, cute uniforms, dark-plots-that-threaten-your-life kind of magic school?”

  Eda nodded. “Mm-hmmm. What’s worse, they force you to learn magic the ‘proper’ way. But magic isn’t proper! It’s wild and unpredictable! That’s why it’s so beautiful! I didn’t finish school, and look at me! Who wouldn’t envy where I am right now?”

  Luz looked at Eda, who was standing in a pile of trash.

  “Uh, hey—here’s a lesson!” Eda said. “A great witch is resourceful! Like this!”

  Eda grasped Luz by the arm and stuck the apprentice’s hand into a pile of stinky garbage. Luz scrunched up her face and yanked out her arm only to see she was holding some kind of rock.

  “Oh, hey,” Luz said, pretending to be excited. “Greasy slime ball.”

  “Use your slime ball wisely, young witch,” Eda said. Then she turned to face the piles of garbage. “Back at it!”

  But Luz didn’t want to be “back at it.” She felt queasy, and she started to back away. She asked Eda if it was okay for her to head home.

  As she walked by King, she called out, “Love you, King! You li’l beach peach.”

  King giggled as Luz rubbed his belly playfully.

  * * *

  On her way back to the Owl House, Luz stared at the weird rock in her hand. If magic was all about digging for slime balls, maybe she didn’t have the stomach for it.

  “You can do it!” came a strange voice from nearby. “You can.”

  Luz froze in her tracks. “Mysterious voice of encouragement?” she asked.

  Pushing aside some shrubbery, Luz saw what appeared to be a little witch girl with big round glasses and pointy ears, sitting glumly beside a well-traveled path.

  “You can do it!” the girl said. She got up and started to pace in front of some books and a large vat resting in a wheelbarrow.

  “Even if you get a bad grade, it’s not a reflection of you as a witch,” she continued. “And my parents are right—there are better opportunities on this track. Now get to school!”

  The witch girl looked down and saw that she’d accidentally stepped on a flower.

  “Aw, little friend!” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry!”

  Luz watched silently as the girl performed some kind of magic, and suddenly, the flattened flower glowed and returned to its natural, beautiful state. Luz was about to approach her when she saw another girl riding in on an enchanted wheelbarrow.

  “Willow!” exclaimed the new girl, who sported cool mint-green hair and black nail polish. “Wow, you’re so unnoticeable I almost rolled into you!”

  “Hi, Amity,” Willow said, frowning.

  “Shouldn’t you get to class early to prep your—” Amity started.

  Willow’s vat wobbled, then tipped over. Goo spilled out, along with a single eyeball.

  “Oh, Willow,” Amity said. “You don’t have anything to show, do you?”

  Embarrassed, Willow pulled her hood over her head.

  “This is why people call you Half-a-Witch Willow!” Amity said.

  Then came a thump from Amity’s vat. “Looks like someone wants to say something to you,” she said. Amity removed the lid from her vat. “Abomination…rise!”

  Slowly, a creature with slimy purple skin rose from the muck inside the vat.

  “You’re…a…star,” the abomination croaked as it drew a little star with abomination goo on Willow’s forehead.

  “Aw, it’s like mine,” Amity said, grinning, as she touched a star-shaped badge on her school uniform that said TOP STUDENT, “but much smaller and meaningless! As top student, it’s my duty to tell you to keep at it. Even you could get a passing grade someday!”

  Willow just stood there as Amity said, “Abomination…cower!”

  The abomination sank into the vat, and Amity closed the lid. “See you in class, superstar!” she said to Willow.

  Amity walked off. Luz was so mad she stuck out her tongue at the mean girl.

  “‘Ooh, see you in class, superstar!’” Willow said, mimicking Amity. “I hate it when she does that.” Willow wiped the star off her forehead and formed her hands into fists. “I hate making abominations. I hate getting bad grades! I can’t stand this anymore!”

  The flower she had resurrected before began to glow once more, only this time with even more energy. Before Luz’s eyes, the flower changed into vines that sprouted from the ground and snaked all over the place. A vine raced past Luz and wrapped around her ankle. It picked her up in the air and dropped her right in front of Willow.

  “NOT A BAD haul,” Eda said, packing up her bag and tying it to her floating staff.

  King sat on a nearby trash heap while Eda admired the glistening eggs inside her bag.

  “Lose apprentice, gain garbage eggs,” King observed. “Fair trade!”

  “Pfff,” Eda said dismissively. “I didn’t lose anything.”

  “If you don’t teach Luz right, you will!” King said. “And that’s when I come in. Make her my apprentice!”

  Eda laughed. “What would you teach? How to get stuck in the arm of a sweater?”

  “Hey, that only happened once!” King said defensively. Then he collected himself and said, “I’d teach her about demons! How to identify them…talk to them…raise an army with them and tear apart the world!”

  Lifting an eyebrow, Eda said, “After they tear you outta the sweater arm, right?”

  “You think you�
��re so smart!” King jumped off the trash heap. “Well, why don’t we make a little bet? Where I can prove that I’d make a better teacher.”

  A little smile played on Eda’s lips as she pulled out a book she had stored in her hair. The cover said Eda & King: One-Sided Wagers.

  She felt obligated to remind King that he’d never won any of their bets. She opened the book to two pages showing a chart. Each entry in King’s column on the chart had a bright red stamp that said FAIL.

  “I like those odds,” King said.

  Eda bent down to pick up one of the slimy garbage eggs that were still on the ground. “So how’s this?” Eda said. Inside the almost see-through egg, a larva wriggled and writhed. “Teach this trash slug to be your loyal soldier in one day—prove that you can be a better teacher than me—and Luz is all yours. But if you don’t, I change your name from King to Mr. Wiggles.”

  King felt his competitive side awakening. “Well, when you lose, you’ll have to wear a shame hat!” he said. “And sleep in a shack and never come back into the Owl House again! Ha!”

  Eda smiled. “Deal,” she said.

  King slammed his paw into Eda’s book, making a mark next to Eda’s signature. Then she closed the book and threw the trash slug egg to King. He tried to catch it but couldn’t get a grip on the slimy thing. The egg cracked on his head, and the trash slug larva wriggled down his face and fell into his hands.

  * * *

  “Oh, no, no, no! I’m so sorry!” Willow said, untangling the vines that had wrapped around Luz’s legs.

  “It’s okay,” Luz said. “The thorns only went through a few layers of skin.”

  The two girls looked at each other for a moment, until Willow realized Luz was a human. “This is astounding! A human on the Boiling Isles! How’d you get here? What are you doing here?”

  Willow’s questioning was interrupted by the sound of distant ringing bells. She looked sadly at Luz and said, “I’m sorry. I can’t stay. I have to go disappoint my teacher. It was nice to meet you, human.”

  “Wait! I’m Luz. And you’re Willow, right? What you did with that flower and those plants, it was—”

  Luz couldn’t find the words, so she just made an excited face and said, “Wow!”

  “Thanks,” Willow said, “but I’m not even supposed to be doing plant magic. My parents put me in the Abomination track at school.”

  “Ooooh! Like magic school?” Luz asked.

  Willow nodded, and Luz practically lost her mind. “That’s so cool! I’m so jealous! I have a teacher, but her lessons are a bit…untraditional. I bet she wouldn’t even let me enroll. But I wish I could spend one day there.”

  “I wish I could get a passing grade for once,” Willow replied. “Then people would stop calling me Half-a-Witch Willow.”

  Willow looked down at the puddle of goo and eyeball that passed for her abomination and gave it a little kick. Luz had an idea of how both she and Willow could get what they wanted. She stuck her hand in the puddle and slapped it on her chest. A little of the goo even splattered onto her chin.

  “Make me your abomination!” Luz said. “I’ll get you a good grade and you can get me into magic school! It’s fiendishly clever!”

  Willow stared at Luz like she was absolutely out of her mind.

  “I saw that girl’s thing,” Luz continued. “It’s just chunks of stuff that talks weird. I’m chunks of stuff! And I talk weird!”

  “That’s true,” Willow agreed. Then she reached out her hand to shake Luz’s. “Okay, it’s a deal, Luz!”

  “This is a great plan,” Luz said.

  A LITTLE WHILE later, Willow arrived at magic school. The main building was huge.

  “Welcome to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics,” Willow said, walking toward the front entrance as Luz peeked over the edge of the abomination vat. “Remember to stay hidden, okay?” Willow added quietly.

  Inside the school, Willow headed to her locker-monster. She tickled it, and the monster opened its mouth. The creature unfurled its tongue, revealing her books. Willow took one.

  Suddenly, someone bumped into Willow. She turned around to see a fellow student with his head stuck inside a magazine called TWEEN BO$$. It was from the human world!

  “Willow, you would not believe humans!” he said, looking at the magazine.

  “Humans?” Willow said quickly. “I haven’t seen any. What?!”

  But the boy didn’t pay any attention. Instead, he shoved a page of the magazine, featuring a kid grinning with a mouthful of metal braces, in Willow’s face.

  “Did you know that humans nail barbed wire to their kids’ teeth?” he said. “But why? Maybe to make them magnetic!”

  “Actually, it’s for storing treats!” Luz said inside the vat.

  Willow tried to keep the lid on the vat, but the boy was already giving her the eye.

  “Okay, Augustus,” Willow said, “I’m gonna tell you something. But you have to be cool.”

  “I can be shpool!” Augustus replied. “I mean, cool!”

  “Okay,” Willow said. “Abomination…rise.”

  A moment later, the lid came off the vat, and Luz rose, covered in the abomination goo. It was all over her body and caked in her hair, making her look monstrous.

  “Ta-da!” Luz announced. “I’m an abomination!”

  “Luz, that’s not how abominations act!” Willow said.

  Augustus stared at Luz for a moment, studying her. His eyes slowly widened. “No. No, it couldn’t be.”

  “He’s the president of the Human Appreciation Society,” Willow said to Luz. “Most witches wouldn’t be able to recognize a human right away. But Augustus is an expert!”

  “Where are your gills?” Augustus asked.

  Luz told Augustus that she knew a boy with his name back in the human world. “We called him Gus,” she said.

  Augustus’s eyes lit up. He was thrilled that he now had a human nickname. “Wow! Gus!” he said. “This is the best day of my life.”

  Suddenly, the school bell screamed.

  “I’ve got to get to spelling class,” Gus said. “See you guys at lunch!”

  “All right,” Willow said, looking at Luz, “into the darkness you go.”

  Luz hissed as she sank into the abomination vat.

  * * *

  The trash slug, which King had named Prince Jr., writhed along the ground outside the Owl House. King gave it a dog biscuit. Eda sat nearby in a lawn chair, sipping a drink and smiling.

  “Hey, Mr. Wiggles!” Eda called. “You’re not gonna teach it anything doin’ that!”

  “It’s called positive reinforcement, Eda,” King sniffed. “And it works wonders!”

  The trash slug chowed down on the biscuit and got larger.

  “Haha! See?” King said, pointing at the trash slug. “Now watch this! Prince Jr., attack Eda! Knock over her drink! Mess up her hair!”

  King anxiously awaited Prince Jr.’s attack—an attack that never came. The trash slug seemed interested only in looking at another dog biscuit King held in his hand.

  “Oh, no,” Eda said. “Please stop.”

  “Well, I haven’t seen your student in forever,” King retorted. “For all we know, she’s not even loyal to you anymore!”

  As Prince Jr. nibbled at King’s hand, trying to get at the dog biscuit, Eda chuckled. “You wish!” she said, but then a look of concern crossed her face. “But yeah, where is she?”

  * * *

  Willow had just taken her seat in the Abomination 101 classroom as class began.

  The teacher stood at the front of the class, looking at one student’s abomination.

  “Too many toenails in unexpected places,” the teacher proclaimed. “Fail!”

  The student walked back to her seat, crestfallen.

  “Pathetic!” the teacher hollered. “The biggest abominations are all of you! If the next abomination is a failure, everyone gets extra homework for a month!”

  At once, the class was abuzz with worr
y.

  “And the next one to come up is—” the teacher began.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Amity interrupted, “but I am ready to present my abomination. Rise!”

  Amity’s abomination erupted from the vat. The teacher giggled. “I’ve always saved the best for last, Amity. You’ll have to wait your turn!”

  Amity basked in the praise as the teacher slowly turned his head. He looked at Willow and asked her to share her project.

  The groaning started in earnest, and students murmured, “Not Half-a-Witch!” and “Great homework for a month!”

  Luz peeked out from the vat. “Don’t listen to them, Willow!” she whispered. “We can do this!”

  Nervously, Willow rolled the abomination vat to the front of the classroom.

  She took a deep breath and stuttered, “A-a-abomination…r-rise!”

  Luz jumped from the vat in all her creepy, gooey glory. The class gasped!

  “Abomination…bow!” Willow commanded, and Luz delivered a bow worthy of any stage actor.

  “Very impressive,” the teacher said. “But does it speak?”

  “Uh, I may be your abomination, but you’re my aMOMination,” Luz said to Willow.

  The classroom filled with cries of “Awwwww!”

  “‘AMOMination,’” the teacher said, laughing. “Splendid wordplay! A-plus!” The teacher wrote a big A+ on Luz’s forehead.

  The class broke into applause. Everyone seemed to love Willow’s abomination!

  Everyone except Amity, who looked suspicious.

  THE BELL SCREAMED. Willow was wheeling her vat down the school hallway when the teacher called after her.

  “Wonderful work today, Willow,” the teacher said. “Looks like we have a new top student!”