Amari And The Great Game

Amari and Elsie then prepare to go on their last-day-of-school field trip to the Georgia Aquarium. Elsie tries to reassure a worried Amari, but the latter still has an ominous feeling. A little later, Mr. Ames, their teacher, comes over to congratulate Elsie on being admitted into Oxford University’s program for gifted children. Elsie is elated and, while Amari is happy for her best friend, she is also disappointed that they will be separated the following year. Their conversation is interrupted when the bus is suddenly shaken by a strange storm outside. Everything then goes still for a few minutes, with everyone except Amari being frozen in place.

Things quickly go back to normal, but no one remembers being briefly petrified. Amari and Elsie receive a red alert text from the Bureau explaining that a massive time freeze has just occurred over most of Georgia, a feat of magic so powerful that it seems impossible. They watch as the head of the Department of Supernatural Investigations, Director Van Helsing, gives a live interview explaining that the magical attack will not go unanswered. Soon after, Amari receives an email informing her that she has been uninvited from the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs’ summer camp.

Since the storm has cut power in downtown Atlanta, the class goes back to school. Amari is desperate to go to the summer camp to see her brother Quinton, who has been cursed with a sleeping spell. She decides to talk to Maria Van Helsing, the only other magician she knows, but she has been locked out of the othernet, the hidden network used by the Bureau.

Later that day, Amari is walking home when she notices that her neighbor, Mrs. Walters, is not sitting at her window as usual. Mrs. Walters is, in fact, not one woman but four witches who disguise themselves as a single, nosy old lady. Amari knocks on their door in the hope that they might know something helpful. The witches invite Amari to a game of spades, which the young girl accepts, thinking she may be able to get information while they play. During the game, some of the enchanted cards pull pranks on the players when they lose a hand. The Ace of Dangers, for instance, causes electric shocks, which hurt the witches but unexpectedly do not harm Amari. The young girl learns that the witches are going into hiding because Deputy Minister Bane has taken over as acting Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister is Merlin, a centuries-old elf, but his absence in the aftermath of the time freeze suggests that he is incapacitated. Bane, on the other hand, is a wraith who has a long-standing feud with witches and magicians.

Amari gets back home, where she meets Elsie for a sleepover. A new message from the Bureau shows them a press conference led by Bane. He informs supernatural citizens that the Supernatural World Congress, where Merlin and other supernatural leaders were working, is still inexplicably frozen in time. Bane then appoints himself Prime Minister and sets out to weed out all “UnWanteds,” meaning magicians and people or creatures associated with them.

Amari and Elsie are angry that centuries-old prejudices against magicians are causing Amari to be ostracized from the supernatural community. Amari is set on clearing her name by uncovering the cause of the time freeze. She and Elsie realize that a single magician could not be responsible for the incident, so Amari tells her friend about the League of Magicians, which she encountered in Amari and the Night Brothers. They are a secret organization who have passed down Vladimir’s magic through generations. Amari and Dylan, whom she defeated the previous year, are the only people to have been born with magic since Vladimir and Moreau. Amari uses a card given to her by Cozmo, the League’s steward, to contact the League. The card teleports her into Cozmo’s mansion at the bottom of Loch Ness.

Cozmo welcomes Amari, but he seems frazzled by the recent events. He assures her that no magician from the League is responsible for the time freeze, then urges Amari to accept Vladimir’s crown. As a magician by birth, Amari is set to inherit Vladimir’s full power and authority over the League if she accepts his crown. Amari is overwhelmed by the responsibility and afraid that accepting it may cause a war between magicians and other supernaturals, so she asks Cozmo for some time.

The next day, Amari’s friend Jayden visits her just before the camp starts. He is very excited about spending the summer learning about the supernatural world. After Amari’s mother drives Jayden to summer camp, the young girl receives a text from Elsie, who has been working on reversing her friend’s punishment. Indeed, Elsie teamed up with Lara Van Helsing to raise awareness of Amari’s and Maria’s situations. As a result, the Bureau authorities lifted her banishment and Amari is elated to be allowed back at camp.

Elsie takes Amari to the zoo, where a secret entrance leads them to the Tube, a transportation system for supernatural creatures. The crowd there cowers in fear when they realize who Amari is, which makes the young girl feel awful. After they get to the camp, Amari and Elsie immediately set out to see Quinton, Amari’s brother. However, they are taken to Elaine Harlowe, the new Director of the Department of Half Truths and Full Cover-Ups, an oddly friendly faun who ambushes Amari into a press conference. She does not let Amari answer any questions and instead reassures the media that Amari being uninvited from camp was simply a misunderstanding. After introducing herself, she takes Amari to her brother, who is still under a curse of eternal sleep. There, Amari is greeted by her friends Agents Magnus and Fiona and Maria Van Helsing, who give her a new Junior Agent jacket to celebrate her admission into the Department of Supernatural Investigations.