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  Chapter Twenty Seven

  “Yesterday, you pared using magieditating,” said McGus. “What you didn’t realize was that that’s the most apt parison you’ll ever make.”

  I was surrounded by a small army of club wielding mannequins, each supported by a spiderweb of strings ing from the ceiling. One came for me, and I swung Sptsy to block its attack. Before I could finish it off, though, a sed dummy came at me from behind. I ducked and rolled out of its way, its club smashing into the floor where I’d just been, and came back up to sweep it off its feet with Sptsy.

  “You’ve chosen cogito et creo as your mantra,” McGus went on. They were sitting at the arena’s edge, safely out of my way. “Latin for ‘think and create.’ Fitting. What’s the purpose of a mantra duriation?”

  The third dummy approached, swinging at my belly. I leaped bad raised Sptsy behind my head to smash its wooden skull into tiny splinters.

  “To help you trate, I think,” Ethan said. “I’ve never meditated.”

  McGus grunted. “Close enough. It’s the same idea here. I told you st night: for a human to use magic, they have to pull the mana out of its dimension and into ours. You do that with your duit, in this case your spellhammer. But reag between dimensions like that requires tration, hehe mantra.”

  Three dummies ganged up oaking Sptsy in both hands, I swung her as hard as I could, knog the first dummy into the sed, and the sed into the third, like a row of evil killer dominoes.

  “Go Henry!” Aesop cheered for me. “You are Queen of the Dummied! Get it, Jade? Like, Queen of the…”

  Jade ignored him, her eyes fixed ohan as he listeo McGus ramble on.

  A loud k-ish sound came from above me, and I dove out of the way just as a massive wooden bde came swinging down from the ceiling. It whizzed past, tinuing its arc upwards before swinging back the way it’d e like a pendulum. A few seds ter, a sed one appeared.

  “McGus, you jerk!” I yelled. “When did you add this?”

  “Adapt, improvise, overe!” he shouted back before returning his attention to Ethan. “There’s nothing magical about the mantra itself. It’s just to help you empty your mind of distras, which will let you reato the mana dimension more easily. Let’s try it.”

  At his promptihahe spellhammer out in front of himself in both hands. “But what do I do with the magic if I mao pull some over?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge whe to it. Now close your eyes.”

  The two pendulums swung in perfetervals. When one swung forward, the other would swing back, missing each other by mere inches as they sliced an X shape through the air. I dodged one, rolled out of the way of the other, but then found my path blocked by the mannequins I hadn’t smashed yet. They moved forward, pushing me bato the danger zone.

  “Don’t think about anything except the task at hand,” said McGus. “Let your mind go bnk. There is nothing but you and the emptiness inside your head.”

  “That do be the way o’ calling someone brainless I’ve heard in all me life,” Aesop ughed in his fake at. “Ow! What was that for, Jade?”

  I weaved bad forth, narrowly avoiding the swinging bdes. One dummy came too close, and I hit it with a gng blow that threw it in front of an oning pendulum. It shattered.

  That gave me an idea.

  “Your words are a train travelling through the emptiness of your mind,” McGus tinued. “Load any distras you still have onto it, a carry them away.”

  “Cogito et creo,” Ethan ted, putting special emphasis on every sylble. “Cogito et creo. Cogito et creo.”

  “Now, reach out and pull the mana into our dimension!”

  “How?”

  “’t say. It’s more instinctive than anything. Just keep trying until you feel something happen.”

  I charged my shoes and jumped, w out a strategy on the fly. The dummies ed their wooden heads back to watch as I flew across the arena — right toward the first pendulum!

  “Cogito et creo,” Ethan ted. “Cogito et creo. Cogi…Hey, I think I feel something!”

  The spellhammer flickered owid then lit up like a flood mp!

  “Good, now hold onto it!” McGus enced him. “Don’t let it out, but don’t let it slip back through the portal either.”

  I stretched my arm out just as I flew past the pendulum, catg the thick wooden rod with my elbow, and slid down to stand on the bde below. Even with me on it, the pendulum kept swinging. It felt like I was on the deck of a boat in the middle of a hurrie, ging to the mast to keep from being thrown into the o. Only, what waited for me beloorse than pounding waves and deep water.

  It was really, really angry wood.

  The dummies didn’t know what to do, staring up at me as I swung bad forth just out of their reach. Keeping one arm ed around the pole, I held Sptsy as far out as I could, grinning when she smashed her way through a row of dummies. Then, ing my legs around the pole, I leaned backwards over the edge. The ground sped bad forth below me, only a couple inches away from tearing my blue haired head from my shoulders. Taking Sptsy in both hands, I smmed her onto the floor as hard as I could. The impaearly yanked her out of my hands, but I kept hold of her as the pendulum dragged her behind us, grinding against the floor like nails on a chalkboard.

  Just like I’d hoped, the pendulum screeched to a halt.

  I moved as fast as I could, pnting a foot on the side of the pendulum’s wooden bde and thrusting off from it. I flipped in midair, watg as the other pendulum crashed into that one, demolishing both and sh the arena with splinters. I ughed, pung the air — and then remembered I hadn’t nded yet.

  Cheese and blueberry muffins, I thought just before I crashed painfully into the edge of the arena, right below where Ethan and McGus were practig.

  “Oh, jeez!” Ethan excimed, springing to his feet. “Are you—”

  “Boy, pay attention to yic!” McGus roared.

  Ethan and I both looked at his glowing spellhammer — and the sparks that were flying out of it like a cheap firework. I rolled to my feet and sprihe other way, ign the dummies I hadn’t smashed yet, while McGus dove between me ahan.

  “Get down!” I yelled, flinging myself across the arena and tag Aesop and Jade. The mome the floor, there was a fsh of light and a BOOM loud enough to shake the walls. A wave of hot air rippled through the room, and the smell of smoke filled my nose.

  “Henry,” said Aesop from below me, “you really should buy a guy dinner before — mrrmmph!”

  I put my hand on his face to hoist myself up, surveying the charred and bed arena. The remaining dummies y scattered across the floor, shattered by the explosion. pared to them, the rest of the room didn’t look that bad. The walls were still standing, no holes in the ceiling. Just a big scorch mark where Ethan and McGus stood, both of them still clutg the spellhammer and looking like they’d beeling over a toaster in a bathtub.

  “Hey, you guys all right?” I called, pig my way over to them.

  Ethan opened his eyes and coughed a small cloud of smoke. “Peachy keen, Henry.”

  “Speak for yourself.” McGus released the spellhammer and twisted around to pop his back. “You probably just took ten years off my life, boy. I told you to empty your head of distras!”

  “That’s kind of hard when my friends are falling out of the sky.”

  I snorted, but McGus’ expression only darkened. “If that’s the case, then give me the spellhammer right now before you really end up killing someone.”

  Ethan took a step back, clutg the crystal hammer to his chest. “No!”

  “Then quit arguing with me!” the old Green snapped. “You think I’m doing this for fun? I’m trying to keep you safe here, kid. You got lucky st night, but ime you could end up turning yourself to stone, or opening a volo beh your feet. Is that what you want?”

  “Okay, okay, I get it!”

  McGus rolled his eyes. “Now you sound like Henry. Makes me think I should just take the hammer bad end this here and now.”

  “Hey, Ethan!” Aesop called from the other side of the room. “Do that again!”

  McGus turo gre at them. “Henry, expin to me again why those idiots are in my house.”

  “To annoy you,” I replied, then quickly added, “And because we’re grabbing lun town after we’re done here.”

  “Well,” he grunted, “you’ll be done here when I say you’re done here, and I’ll say you’re done here when you get this mess ed up!”

  He poi the charred bess on the walls and floors, then at scattered mannequin pieces in the arena.

  “Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’ll go get the—”

  “Hup!” McGus held up a hand to stop me. “All four of you.”

  “Wait, what?” Aesop demanded.

  “You’re in my house, and I’m a grumpy old turd, so all four of you get to the pce up today.” He gred at each of us in turn, ao sit at the edge of the room where he could watch. “Maybe you’ll think twice about ing over uninvited ime.”

  We all looked at each other, Ethan coughed another puff of smoke, and I shrugged.

  “e on, guys,” I said. “This shouldn’t take too long. Aesop, help me pick up these dummies. Ethan, go grab some wet rags from the kit so you start scrubbing the walls. Jade—”

  “I’ll go with Ethan,” she interrupted me. Ethan’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t object as the dark haired girl hurried up the steps after him.

  “So, you’re not gonna stop that?” Aesop asked ohey were gone.

  I looked at him. “Why would I? Ethan’s cool once you get past the whiny nerdiness. He’ll uand.”

  “Uand?” Aesop shook his head. “Uanding will just make it more dangerous!”

  I paused. He had a point.

  “Even so,” I said quietly, “this is good for her. Jade o learn how to trust other people so that—”

  “So that what?” Aesop scowled at me as he dumped an armload of wooden pieces onto the pile. “So that she make other friends? Are we not good enough for her?”

  I gred at him. “You know that’s not what I was going to say. What is your—”

  “So, Backfire eats the nuke because his iines are made of uanium,” Ethan said, appearing back through the door with Jade. Aesop and I immediately went back to work as if nothing had happened. “But it explodes in his stomad gives him radioactive gas so people turn into zombies every time he farts.”

  To my plete and utter shock, Jade burst into ughter. Her face had turned as red as Ichabod’s hair, and tears ran down her face.

  “That,” she gasped, “is too freaking funny! You have to let me read it sometime!”

  Ethan grinned, while I shared a look with Aesop — or tried to, at least. Aesop was too busy gring at the floor to notice me. Before I could say anything about it, though…

  DING DONNNG!

  I froze, eyes going wide. It was just McGus’ doorbell, but the sound chilled my blood like the ominous toll of a funeral bell. Dropping the wooden head I was holding, I turned and rushed fus’ entryway, the old Green just a couple steps ahead of me. I knew what we would find, but my heart still pounded as hard today as it had when I’d first bee his apprentice. Part of me wished that would go away.

  The other part was afraid of what it would mean if it did.

  An envelope was waiting on the floor for us when we reached McGus’ entryway, sitting underh the iron mail slot that was about a hundred years out of date. The mail slot, I thought with another shiver, that oed on the inside of the door.

  McGus bent down, picked up the envelope, and held it out to me. I took it, holding my breath as I read the immacute cursive writing inked across the front.

  To They Who Bear the Title of Hunter.

  “What is it?” Ethan asked from behind me.

  I sighed, closing my eyes. “I’ve got work to do. e o’s get going.”

  He took a step toward me, but theated. Jade was watg us from the door to the training room. Ethan looked back at her, then at me.

  “Um, do you think I could,” he paused to clear his throat, “you know, stay here this time?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry. You know what the cil will do if—”

  “Bah, leave him,” McGus grunted, elbowing past me with a dismissive wave. “Those idiots know better than to show their faces here.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Are you sure? You won’t, like, murder him or anything?”

  “No promises,” he said as he disappeared bato the training room.

  Woeople say miracles don’t happen.

  “Just be careful, okay?” Jade said, stepping forward.

  I fshed her a grin. “Aren’t I always?”

  “I’m serious!” she insisted, a worried look on her face. “Something about this feels…”

  She g Ethan, and her voice trailed off. A shiver went down my spine.

  “We still have luns ter, remember?” Ethan said. “If you died, that’d kinda screw up our whole day.”

  I looked down at the envelope, then back up at my friends. If Jade was getting weird vibes from all this, then leavihan here robably a good idea.

  “Promise me, Henry,” she said softly.

  I hesitated, then nodded. “I will. I promise.”