“How are you feeling?” Avery asked.
“Non-magical,” I answered. Then I looked up at her dad. “I hope you’re not here to arrest me.”
Frank Lawden smiled. “Quite the opposite,” he said. “The evidence that you and Avery found was more than enough to clear both your names. It doesn’t mean I’m happy about what you did.” He cast a stern glance at his daughter. “But I’m willing to overlook a few things. I owe you both my thanks. For uncovering the truth. For revealing a network of traitors inside Magix Headquarters. And for saving the magic core.”
“Speaking of traitors,” I said, “my parents told me about the Cleaner. But what happened to Wreckage and Lina Lutzdorf?”
“Clarkston didn’t make it,” said Avery. “He was wearing so many boons that when they all supercharged, the force was too much.”
“We tried to save him, but he died before we could get to the hospital,” finished Mr. Lawden.
I actually felt a little bad about Clarkston. He’d been a smart guy, but he’d been too willing to follow the Mastermind’s dangerous plans.
“And Lutzdorf?” I asked.
“When the device reversed and boosted the magic core, the boon in Lina’s leg exploded like yours,” said Avery. “We got her to the hospital, and she woke up two days ago.”
“Of course, by the time she recovered, she didn’t know who she was anymore,” said Mr. Lawden. “The committee had considered her crimes and sentenced her to a full and total memory wipe. We gave her a new name and a one-way ticket to Argentina. She’s just a regular Ignorant now. You don’t have to worry about seeing her again.”
“So, Lina sort of got what she wanted in the end,” I said.
“What do you mean?” asked Dad.
“She didn’t want the responsibility of knowing about magic,” I said. “She wanted to be Ignorant so she could benefit from touching random magical items to brighten her day. But the boon in her leg made it so Magix couldn’t erase her memory. That was why she built the device to destroy the core.”
“Well, I hope she has many good days,” said Mr. Lawden.
“You aren’t mad at her?” I asked.
“Of course I am,” he said. “But wishing her a bad life doesn’t make anything better. Lina Lutzdorf has the chance to start her life over. Magic exists to give Ignorant people good days. I hope she rubs up against a lot of boons so she never starts thinking like the old Lina Lutzdorf.”
The door opened, and Hamid came into the room. “Sorry,” he said. “We got distracted by a vending machine. There was a bag of chips dangling on the edge, so I bought a candy bar hoping it would fall and knock the chips down with it.”
“It failed miserably,” said another familiar voice. That was when I noticed that Hamid was holding something soft and white.
“Fluffball?” I cried.
“Yeah. Good to see you, too, kid,” said the bunny.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Wreckage tore off your collar. It lost its power.”
“True,” said Fluffball. “Until you went and used your throwing star to reverse the Mastermind’s device. When the magic core surged, it revived my collar. Avery let me out of that evidence box and put it on me again. Good as new! You thought you could get rid of me so easily?”
Hamid released Fluffball, and the rabbit leaped onto the edge of my bed, his pink nose bouncing as he sniffed me. “Much better,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t stink anymore,” answered Fluffball. “When Avery put the collar back on me, I noticed something interesting. Lina Lutzdorf had the same kind of foul odor as you.”
“Umm . . . thanks?” I said.
“I thought she smelled nice,” Hamid admitted. “Like perfume.”
“Maybe to a human nose,” said Fluffball. “But to a detector nose like mine, she was rotten. That’s because she was a boon that I couldn’t quite get a reading on. Just like you. The magical rods in your legs threw off my sniffer, but since I couldn’t see them, I didn’t know why you smelled funny.”
“I never actually died, you know,” replied the animal. “I just turned back into a regular bunny for a while.”
“Hey!” I cried. “You said bunny.”
“What?” Fluffball looked around, his ears twitching nervously. “No, I didn’t. You’re clearly having trouble with your hearing, kid.”
Mr. Lawden reached out and put a hand on my arm. “The doctors tell us you’ll be in that cast for a couple of months.” My shoulders slumped with discouragement. “But we might have some healing boons to speed up the process,” he finished. “And as soon as you’re out of that cast, I’d like you to pay a visit to Magix Headquarters. I’ve got an offer for you.”
“What kind of offer?” I asked.
“Avery?” said Mr. Lawden, stepping back so his daughter could explain.
“Magix has decided to start an official apprentice detective program,” she said, beaming. “Students will partner with full-time agents for different kinds of training. They might even have us go out in the field for practical experience.”
“Us?” I said.
Avery nodded. “You’ve been accepted into the program. You’ll get to come into Magix Headquarters three times a week.”
“If you can find time between your piano lessons,” my mom joked.
“I’m doing it, too,” said Hamid. “Maybe we could carpool.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Mr. Lawden. “You’ll both get transportation boons that will take you directly to the Doorman.”
“It’s going to be so fun, Mason,” said Hamid, bouncing up on his toes. “What do you think you’ll choose for your secret weapon?”
Avery sighed. “They’re not weapons . . .” She trailed off in frustration, turning to me. “Thanks for all your help, Mason Mortimer Morrison.”
“Thank you, Avery Lobster,” I said. “I wouldn’t have gotten very far without a real detective on my side.”
She smiled. “Not bad for our first case together.”
“I’d say we make a pretty good team.”
Case closed.
Acknowledgments
The idea for this book came to me after I wrote a short story for a book titled Super Puzzletastic Mysteries. I had so much fun writing a short mystery that I decided to try my hand at writing a longer one! Of course, I had to mix the mystery with magic. Because magic is just plain fun.
I would like to thank my wonderful editor, Elizabeth Lynch. You were so great to work with on this project from day one! Thanks for your patience with me. Your keen eye and thoughtful insights helped make this book better.
Thanks to Simini Blocker for her fun, eye-catching cover art, and the whole team at HarperCollins Children’s Books for making this book a reality. And thanks to my stellar agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette.
I dedicated this book to my fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Foster. She fostered so much creativity in the classroom and motivated me to spell words correctly (a handy lifelong skill for an author).
And thank you for reading! Now let’s make the magic level rise with some acts of pure goodness!
About the Author
Photo by Jamie Younker
TYLER WHITESIDES always wished to be an author. Somehow he accomplished it without the help of a genie and wrote the acclaimed Janitors series, The Wishmakers, The Wishbreaker, and Magic’s Most Wanted. When he’s not writing, Tyler loves eating good food, playing drums, and fishing. He has two sons and lives in northern Utah.
Books by Tyler Whitesides
The Wishmakers
The Wishbreaker
Copyright
MAGIC’S MOST WANTED. Copyright © 2021 by Tyler Whitesides. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable
right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2021 by SIMINI BLOCKER
Cover design by JESSIE GANG
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020942414
Digital Edition JANUARY 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-256839-7
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-256837-3
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2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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