“What?”
“My dad got the call this morning. All of Hampshire is gone.”
“What?”
“Dad and the team are there now, but the Pitches told them they can’t come on their land. They’re calling it an act of war.”
“By the Humdrum?”
“By the Mage,” she says. “They say he’s controlling the Humdrum—maybe even that the Mage is the Humdrum. The Old Families have convened a Council of War, no one knows where. Mum says the Mage is looking for you, but she’ll be damned if she tells him you’re here. Unless you want her to tell him. Do you want her to tell him?”
“I don’t know, I guess so.… Why would the Pitches blame the Mage for this?”
Penny bites her lip and looks down. “I think because of you, Simon. Everyone is saying that you went to the Pitches’ on Christmas Eve and did some dark ritual to kill their magic.”
“I was fighting the Humdrum! I mean, I was trying. The Humdrum did something to Baz—he sent him after me like he does the dark creatures.”
“So you fought Baz?”
“No! I gave him my magic, so he could fight the Humdrum off. It was like a spell. The Humdrum was there, Penny, looking like me again—and he talked to me this time. In my voice. He watched us. And then … then he just disappeared. What if he stole the magic at Baz’s house out of spite? Because I beat him?”
Penny keeps biting her lip. “I still don’t understand why you had a tail.…”
“I—I needed to get out of there.” I’ve got my hands in my hair. I try to remember it, clearly, how it happened. “When Baz was himself again, we walked out of the forest right into a dead spot. His parents were freaking out, and Baz told me to go. So … I did. I didn’t have any other way to get here.”
“So you flew.”
“Yeah.”
She looks more worried than I’ve ever seen her outside of a kidnapping situation. “What spell did you cast, Simon?”
“Penny … It was just like last time. I didn’t cast any spell. I just—I did what I needed to do.”
She’s watching herself wring her hands in her lap.
“Penny?”
“Yeah?” She doesn’t look up.
“What should I do?
She sighs. “I don’t know, Simon. Maybe Agatha’s right.” She finally meets my eyes. “Maybe it is time to talk to the Mage.”
* * *
Penny decides we should eat lunch first. Late lunch. I’ve been sacked out most of the day.
Her parents are gone, and there’s nothing in the fridge but a raw turkey. Penny doesn’t trust herself to spell it cooked, so we eat cereal and toast and Christmas sweets.
Her little sister wanders in. “You’re the reason that Father Christmas didn’t come,” she says to me. “You scared him off.”
“Father Christmas will come, Priya,” Penny says. There are five kids in their family: Premal, Penny, Pacey, Priya, and Pip. (Penny says her mother should be charged for child cruelty, and her father for neglect.)
“Father Christmas is a lie,” Pacey calls from the living room. “So is God.”
I don’t know Pacey well. He’s at Watford, year five, but he and Penny don’t get on. Penny and her siblings all argue constantly. I’m not sure they know how to communicate any other way.
I still feel terrible: cold and wet, even though I’m perfectly dry and wearing some of Pacey’s clothes. (I woke up in ladies’ trackie bottoms.) And even though I couldn’t feel that weird dragon tail when I had it, now that it’s gone, it kind of aches. My Weetabix keep lurching up my throat, and I swallow them down hard.
I’m trying not to worry or think about what I should do next. Penny’s right—we’ll go to the Mage. The Mage will tell us.
When someone knocks at the door, I think it must be him. Priya goes for it, and Penny stops her. I stand up and summon my blade, just to be safe.
It’s Baz.
Standing on Penny’s doorstep, wearing that greenish black suit again and smelling faintly of smoke. His hand is in his pocket, and his eyes are narrow. He tilts up his chin. “Let me in, Bunce. There’s no time for pleasantries.”
“Don’t you have to be invited in?” she says.
He sneers, and she waves him in. “Come on.”
Baz shoves past her and looks around the living room. “Where’s your dad’s office?”
“My dad isn’t here—he’s at your house. And what makes you think I’d let you in his office? Why are you even here?”
“I’m here,” Baz says, looking over at me, then looking me up and down, “because we have an agreement.”
Penelope steps between us. “If you make a single move towards Simon—even a gesture—in my house, I will slaughter your whole family, Basilton. I’ll kill them so hard, they won’t even be able to find the Veil. Simon didn’t do this.”
He sneers at her some more. “That’s where you’re wrong—show me your father’s office. Are there maps? I’m assuming there are maps.”
We both stare at him. Me, because I can’t help it. Penny, in shock.
“Truce!” he says. “Come on, we’re still on truce. Make haste!”
I nod. “Come on, Penny. Take us up.”
She sighs and unfolds her arms. “Fine, but you can’t touch anything up there. Either of you.”