Dark Tricks

  Contents

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  In the Star World

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Also in the Series

  Extract from Star Friends: Secret Spell

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  A waterfall of stars fell into a beautiful pool. A snowy owl and a silver wolf stood beside it, watching intently as an image appeared in the water – a grey-haired lady holding a glittering black stone.

  “I don’t like this, Hunter,” the wolf said. “She is full of bitterness and jealousy, and she is planning on harming the new Star Friends.”

  The owl nodded in concern and swept his wing across the surface of the water. The image of the old lady dissolved and reformed, this time showing four ten-year-old girls chatting in a bedroom. There were four animals with them – a fox, a wildcat, a young deer and a red squirrel. Each of the animals had unusual indigo eyes – they were animals from the Star World.

  The wolf gazed at one of the girls – she had shoulder-length, dark blond hair and determined eyes. The fox was cuddled up to her side, resting his head on her shoulder. “Maia looks so much like her grandmother,” the wolf said.

  “I hope she has her grandmother’s courage and cleverness,” said the owl gravely. “These four girls and their Star Animals will have to be very brave if they are going to stop the one using dark magic. They will have to trust their instincts, their friendship – but, most of all, their hearts…”

  Maia Greene sat cross-legged on her bed. Magic tingled through her, making her feel as if every centimetre of her skin was sparkling. Her Star Animal, Bracken the fox, sat beside her but her eyes were fixed on the small mirror in her hands. Through her bedroom door, she could hear her older sister Clio shouting to their mum that she couldn’t find her favourite skirt.

  “Show me where Clio’s favourite skirt is,” Maia whispered.

  The surface of the mirror shimmered and a picture appeared. It showed a red skirt lying screwed up underneath the chest of drawers in Clio’s bedroom.

  “Found it!” Maia said in delight. When she had first started learning how to do magic, it would take her quite a while to connect with the magic current but now she could do it almost instantly.

  Maia had been able to use magic ever since Bracken and some other animals from the Star World had appeared to find Star Friends. Only those who truly believed in magic could hear the Star Animals speaking. Together, a Star Friend and their Star Animal would use the magical current that flowed between the two worlds to help people. Each Star Friend had different magical abilities and when they used magic for good it strengthened the current.

  Bracken nuzzled Maia, his soft fur tickling her skin. “You’re getting so good at using magic!” he said.

  Maia breathed in his familiar sweet scent – the smell of grass in the woods on a warm autumn day. “Good. I need to be strong if we want to stop whoever is using dark magic. We all need to be.”

  Maia’s three best friends, Lottie, Sita and Ionie, were also Star Friends. Together they had discovered that someone nearby was using dark magic to conjure Shades and that this was weakening the magical current. Shades were evil spirits who brought misery and unhappiness into people’s lives, and Star Friends could use their magic to send them back to the shadows.

  “We’ll find whoever is conjuring Shades and stop them,” Bracken declared. “Are we meeting up with the others today?”

  “Yes, we’re going to Ionie’s house later this morning. I thought I’d call in at Auntie Mabel’s on the way.”

  Auntie Mabel had been friends with Maia’s granny before she had died. She was the only adult Maia knew who could do magic – she wasn’t a Star Friend like Maia but used crystals and stones.

  Maia heard her sister shouting on the landing again. “Oops, I still haven’t told Clio where her skirt is.”

  Bracken disappeared in a shimmer of starlight as Maia opened the bedroom door. None of Maia’s family knew about him – the Star World had to be kept secret from people who didn’t believe in magic.

  Clio was standing at the top of the stairs shouting, “I’ve looked everywhere!”

  “Wear something else then,” her mum said.

  “But I want to wear my skirt!”

  Maia went into Clio’s messy bedroom and hurried over to the chest of drawers. She crouched down. Just then, Clio came into the room. “What are you doing in here?” she asked.

  “I thought I’d help you look for your skirt,” said Maia. “Is this it?” She pulled the red skirt out from under the chest of drawers.

  “Yes!” Clio gasped. She frowned. “Did you put it there?”

  “No!” Maia protested. “Just a lucky guess.”

  Their mum appeared in the doorway. “Clio, this room is a tip. It’s no wonder you can’t find anything!”

  “Mum! Maia’s found my skirt!” Clio said. “You keep doing this – finding things that are lost. How do you do it?”

  Maia hid her smile. If only Clio knew the truth! “I guess I’m just good at finding things.”

  “I think you’re psychic,” said Clio, staring at her. “You should start a YouTube channel!”

  Maia laughed it off but thought perhaps she should be a bit more careful about how she used her magic from now on.

  “Clio, I hardly think Maia’s psychic,” Mum said, smiling. “I think you’re just very bad at looking. Now get changed quickly and I’ll drop you off at your friend’s house. What are you going to do this morning, Maia?” Mrs Greene asked as they both left Clio’s room.

  “I’m meeting the others at Ionie’s house. Is it OK if I go to Auntie Mabel’s on the way?”

  “Of course,” Mrs Greene said. “Auntie Mabel always loves to see you. Tell her I’ll call in for a cup of tea soon.”

  “OK,” Maia said and she hurried down the stairs.

  As Maia cycled through the streets of Westcombe, the coastal Devon village where she lived, the frosty November air stung her cheeks. Autumn had definitely turned to winter now – the branches of the trees were almost bare and there was a thin coating of frost on the grassy verges.

  As she cycled along, the locals she passed smiled at her and said hello. It was hard to believe that someone in the village wanted to use magic to hurt people. But Maia and her friends had dealt with a Mirror Shade who had been making Clio jealous of her best friend and a Wish Shade trapped inside a garden gnome who had made a little girl’s wish come true in horrible ways. Then, last week, they had faced Fear Shades that were hidden in four little yellow stretchy men. The Fear Shades had made it seem as if people’s worst fears were coming true. Luckily Maia and her friends had realized what was going on and had managed to send them back to the shadows, too.

  We have to find out who is causing all this trouble, Maia thought.

  Maia got off her bike and leaned it against the wall in front of Auntie Mabel’s cottage. She glanced towards the cottage on the right, feeling guilty as she remembered how she and the others had suspected that the eccentric old lady who lived there – Mrs Crooks – was the person doing dark magic. The Wish Shade in the gnome had told them that the person who had conjured him was a woman and when they had first met Mrs Crooks they had suspected her straightaway. She liked to go out into the woods at night, she was very grumpy, she had lots of garden gnomes and Sorrel had even smelled Shade
s near her garden. But it had turned out that Mrs Crooks was just a harmless old lady who didn’t like children very much and loved to collect garden ornaments and rescue injured animals in the woods.

  Looking at the two gnomes sitting either side of Mrs Crooks’ front door, Maia wondered who had put the Wish Shade in the gnome that had been given to Paige.

  Auntie Mabel opened her front door and beamed. “Hello, Maia. I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “I was on my way to Ionie’s and I thought I’d call in,” said Maia.

  “How lovely! I’ve just made some of my chocolate cookies – the ones I know you like.”

  Maia took off her shoes in the hall and went through to the familiar lounge, with its displays of polished stones and crystals decorating the shelves. On the coffee table she spotted an open cardboard box filled with cute knitted Christmas decorations – there were penguins, snowmen and reindeer, all with beautiful sparkling eyes made out of tiny black crystals.

  “These are lovely,” Maia said to Auntie Mabel.

  “Thank you, Maia. I’ve been making them to sell at the Winter Fayre this weekend. You are going to come, aren’t you?”

  The Winter Fayre was held every November in the village hall. There were homemade cakes for sale as well as Christmas decorations, cards and gifts. Maia’s Granny Anne had organized it when she was alive and Maia had been to it every year for as long as she could remember.

  “Yes, I’ll be there,” Maia said.

  “It’ll be strange without your granny this year,” said Auntie Mabel. “But we’ll make sure it’s a really special one. The village shall have the fayre it deserves! Now come into the kitchen and have a cookie.”

  They went into the kitchen at the back of the house and sat down at the table. “Have you and your friends got any closer to solving the mystery of who is conjuring the Shades?” Auntie Mabel said as Maia helped herself to a cookie. “When I last saw you, you said you thought it might be Mrs Crooks. I’ve been keeping an eye on her and she does act suspiciously – going out into the woods at all times of the day and night and—”

  “Oh, it’s OK, Auntie Mabel,” Maia put in. “It’s not Mrs Crooks. We still don’t know who it is, though. But we think that whoever it is put stretchy men with Shades trapped inside them on to the packets of sparklers you gave us.”

  Auntie Mabel looked shocked. “Those little stretchy men had Shades in!”

  Maia nodded and gave a shiver. “Yes. Fear Shades. They were horrible.”

  “But you’ve sent them back to the Shadows? How did you manage that?” said Auntie Mabel, intrigued.

  “It was Ionie and Sita really,” said Maia. “Ionie’s a Spirit Speaker so she sent them back to the shadows and Sita discovered she has this amazing ability – she can use her magic to command people and spirits to do what she wants. If she orders you to do something, you have to do it.”

  “Really?” Auntie Mabel breathed. “That’s a very rare ability. Your granny had it, too.”

  Maia nodded. She’d used her magic to look back into the past and had seen her granny using the same powers as Sita. Star Friends all had different magical abilities – Maia could use the magic current to see into the past and future and to see things that were happening elsewhere. Lottie could become very agile and fast, and Ionie could travel from place to place using shadows and command Shades to return to the shadows as well as casting illusions. At first they’d thought that Sita’s magic just allowed her to heal and soothe. But then, last week, she had discovered she could command people and spirits, too. “I don’t think Sita likes being so powerful.”

  “Well, if she wants to talk about it, she’s always welcome here,” said Auntie Mabel. “I might be able to help.”

  “Thanks, I’ll tell her,” Maia said. Suddenly she remembered something she’d been meaning to ask. “Where did you get those sparklers from, Auntie Mabel? The ones that the stretchy men were attached to?”

  “From the garden centre,” said Auntie Mabel. “Goodness me, if I’d known there were Shades in those stretchy men I never would have given them to you. I wonder who put them there? Have you tried using the Seeing Stone to find out?”

  “No, but I have been using it to look at other things,” said Maia. Auntie Mabel had given Maia a pale pink Seeing Stone to help her look into the past. Although Maia could use Star Magic to do that, she found it much easier with the Seeing Stone. “I’ve been looking into the past, to when you and Granny Anne were younger. I’ve seen you doing magic together.”

  “I’m glad you’ve been using it.” Auntie Mabel smiled. “You’re a natural with crystal magic as well as Star Magic.”

  Maia glowed proudly. “I’d better go,” she said, checking the clock on the wall, “or the others will wonder where I am.”

  “Wait a moment.” Auntie Mabel hurried through to the lounge and came back with four knitted decorations. “Here, give one to each of your friends to say how sorry I am about those stretchy men.”

  “Thank you,” said Maia.

  As she headed to the front door she noticed a large snow globe on the side table in the hall. She was surprised to see that it was empty apart from a thin layer of snow. “I’ve never seen a snow globe without anything inside before,” she said.

  “It won’t be empty for long. This is going to be a very special snow globe,” said Auntie Mabel.

  “Why?” asked Maia curiously.

  “Oh, you’ll find out,” Auntie Mabel said, tapping her nose. “I just need to test it first.” Maia opened her mouth but Auntie Mabel said, “No, don’t ask any questions. Like I said, you’ll find out soon enough.”

  Maia put on her coat and helmet and cycled off as Auntie Mabel waved from the doorway. What had Auntie Mabel meant? Maybe the snow globe is magic and she’s going to put something special inside it as a present, Maia thought excitedly.

  Crossing the main road, she turned on to the lane that led down to the beach. Seeing Lottie and Sita arriving at the driveway of Ionie’s house, Maia cycled quickly to catch up with her friends.

  “Hi, Maia!” Lottie called, jumping off her bike. Her black curls stuck out from under her pink helmet. She pulled it off and readjusted the butterfly clip in her hair.

  “Hello.” Sita’s gentle brown eyes sparkled as she whispered, “Are you ready to do magic?”

  Maia grinned. “Always.”

  As Maia propped her bike against the fence she accidentally brushed her hand against some nettles. “Ow!” she exclaimed.

  “Let me look,” said Sita.

  Maia held out her hand. Sita touched the nettle rash and concentrated for a second. The pain and tingling faded and the bumps disappeared.

  “That’s awesome,” said Maia, inspecting her hand. “Thank you.”

  Sita sighed happily. “I love using magic to heal.”

  The door opened and Ionie looked out. “I thought I heard you. Come in!” They all hurried upstairs to Ionie’s bedroom. As soon as the door was shut behind them, they called their Star Animals’ names.

  “Bracken!”

  “Juniper!”

  “Sorrel!”

  “Willow!”

  In a wave of starry light the four animals appeared. Bracken put his paws up on Maia’s knees and licked her face. Juniper, a red squirrel with a bushy tail, jumped on to the dressing table and then from there on to Lottie’s shoulder. He tickled Lottie’s cheek with his little paws, making her giggle and squirm. Willow, a deer with a coat the colour of a conker, nuzzled Sita’s hands, and Sorrel the wildcat wound through Ionie’s legs purring happily, her tail high in the air.

  When the greetings were over they all sat down on the rug, the animals happily cuddling up to their Star Friends.

  “Has anyone used their magic since yesterday?” Maia asked.

  “I have,” said Lottie. “I was walking home from my piano lesson and I saw a cat about to run into the road. I used my magic to move really quickly, and I grabbed it and took it to safety.”

  “Tha
t’s brilliant!” said Sita. “I used my magic to heal my baby brother after he bumped his head on the coffee table.”

  “Cool!” said Maia.

  “Have you used your powers to command people yet?” Ionie asked Sita.

  Sita shook her head.

  “I’d use that power if I had it,” said Ionie longingly.

  “Why haven’t you?” Lottie asked.

  “I just haven’t,” Sita muttered.

  Willow spoke up. “What have you used your magic for, Ionie?”

  “Ionie’s been wonderful,” said Sorrel smugly. “Tell them, Ionie.”

  “I used my magic to shadow-travel to the park. We’d been playing there and my little cousin had left her cuddly monkey. I went to find it and bring it back,” said Ionie.

  “Very clever,” Sorrel said approvingly.

  Maia caught sight of Lottie rolling her eyes. Sorrel always acted as if Ionie was better than the rest of them. Maia didn’t mind but it irritated Lottie.

  “How about you, Maia?” said Sita.

  “Well, I used my magic to find Clio’s skirt this morning,” Maia said.

  “That’s all you’ve done?” Sorrel said, not sounding impressed.

  Bracken stiffened. “It might have been a small thing but it was still a good deed.” He rubbed his head against Maia’s leg.

  Sorrel gave him a cool look. “Not like Ionie’s.”

  “I bet Clio was pleased though,” said Ionie quickly.

  “Yes, the trouble is, now she thinks I’m some kind of weird psychic,” said Maia.

  “Mystic Maia,” Lottie said, grinning. “You could use your powers to tell people’s fortunes and earn lots of money.”

  Sorrel sniffed. “Do I need to remind you that magic should only be used for good?”

  “Maia would be doing good – she’d be helping us!” said Lottie.

  Juniper chattered as if he was laughing and Bracken yapped cheekily but Sorrel flicked her tail round her paws, a disapproving look on her face.