Chapter Thirty Four

  “YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR MIND!”

  Those were the first words I heard when I rose out of my fy, cozy a. I’d been dreaming about being appointed chief sour cream taster in Tad. I sighed in disappoi. Did I have to e back to reality now?

  “I did what I had to do,” said a softer voice. Was that Jade? “I don’t regret it.”

  “But after everything you’ve been through,” whihe other voice. That one . “You’re just going to throw it all away? For him?”

  “Hey!” said an offended, and very Ethan-ish, sounding voice.

  “It doesn’t matter what you think, Aesop,” Jade snapped. “It’s done.”

  “Yeah, well, gratutions. You’re a sve again. I hope you’re happy!”

  I winced, but kept my eyes closed. I uood was so upset…assuming that what I remembered had really happened…but that was taking things too far. Nobody said anything for a long time.

  Be-deep….Be-deep…Be-deep.

  Was that a heart monitor? Was I in the hospital? That would expin why the sheets were so unfortable. Like someone had bined cotton and sandpaper into an unholy abomination and then expected me to sleep on it. I wasn’t in any pain, though, which was a first. Usually when I woke up here, I had a broken leg, or a cracked skull.

  “So, expin this all to me agaihan finally said. “You’re a genie?”

  “Yes,” Jade answered softly. “I’m…a living duit, I guess you could say. This body I’m using now? It’s not me. It’s just something I made to give myself physical form. The gem on that neckce is the real me. It’s ected to the mana dimension the same way that your spellhammer is, Ethan. Except that I’m, you know, alive.”

  “How?” Ethan asked.

  “Nobody knows. It’s just something that happens now and then. I don’t even know where I came from. The first thing I remember is waking up thirty million years ago—”

  “You’re how old?” Ethan excimed.

  That almost made me ugh, but I held it in. This was a versatiowo of them o have alone.

  “Thirty million, give or take a few thousand,” Jade answered.

  “Wow,” Ethan said ftly. “You don’t look a day over twenty million.”

  “I don’t age like people do. I don’t age at all, in fact. I form my body however I want in order to blend into my enviro. I’ve been so many people it’s hard to keep track of them all.”

  Something ked. “So, when you gave me this neckce…”

  “I gave you myself. Literally. That stone is what’s called my core. Everything that I am is there in your hand.”

  “Whoa.”

  “I knht?”

  “What does that mean, though? Do I get, like, three wishes?”

  Jade sighed. “Two now, actually. You used your first one when you asked me to stop Henry.”

  “Oh.” Ethan swallowed. “Right. So, I make two more wishes, and then what?”

  “And then I disappear,” Jade whispered, “and you never see me again. That’s the w.”

  “Law? What w?”

  “The Law of the Djinn. It’s an unbreakable spell that gets put on our cores as soon as we’re discovered. It keeps us from using ic for ourselves, except to make physical forms like this. The only way we use ic is to grant wishes for the people who hold our cores. And ohose wishes are granted, our cets whisked away to some random p some random dimension, aay there until somebody else finds us.”

  “But…But why?”

  “Because we’re too dangerous to be given freedom. Too powerful.” Jade’s voice grew softer with each word. “I’m living proof of that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s a long story. I’d need a week to tell you the whole thing. But it ends with my core somehow winding up in Aesop’s shop eleven years ago. His dad found out what I was, and he felt sorry for me. I’m…I’m not sure what he did, but he mao unravel part of the spell. He made it so that I could make myself a body without needing a master. As long as nobody else touched my core, I was free. Or at least that’s what we thought.”

  “Then why did you give it to me?” Ethan demanded. “I don’t want—”

  “It’s better this way, Ethan,” Jade said. “It turns out, there’s no such thing as a free genie. Mr. O’Gale couldn’t break the Djinn’s Law spell pletely. It was still there, trying to work around the hole Mr. O’Gale had cut through it. It didn’t know what to do, all it knew was that a genie must have a master. So in the end it decided that until somebody cimed my core, everyone would be my master.”

  Ethan didn’t say anything.

  “I tried so hard to live a normal life,” she went on. “It was all I’d ever wanted, and I thought that made the danger worth it. But every time somebody said the words I wish where I could hear them, well…”

  “You had to obey,” Ethan whispered.

  “The magic would burst out of me before I could stop it. I would grant their wishes, but I couldn’t trol how. Bad things would happen. People would get hurt. Remember what happe Wombo World? That was me.”

  “Jade…”

  “So, it’s good that you’re my master now!” she insisted. She tried to make herself sound happy about it, but I knew her well enough to hear the pain deep inside her. “I won’t have to grant anybody’s wishes but yours, and you get two more wishes! You ask for anything you wahan! Isn’t that great?”

  “But I…I don’t want to be your master!” Ethan protested. “Don’t you see how horrible that sounds? It’s like I own you!”

  “I’m a gehan. That’s how—”

  “I want you to be my friend, Jade! Not my sve!”

  The two of them were quiet for a minute.

  “Well,” Jade finally said, “nothing says you have to make your wishes right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that you just hang onto me for now. My core is bound to you until you make all three wishes anyway. So, we could just…you know…keep going like we have been?”

  I smiled. This was good. What she’d done had bothered me at first, just like it bothered Aesop, but now I was ing to realize that she’d made the right—

  “Wait a sed,” Aesop excimed. “Henry’s smiling! You absolute turd, how long have you been awake?”

  I finally opened my eyes and found myself in a room that was eerily simir to the one I’d seen in Feverdream Field. I immediately khis one was real, though, because I was surrounded by my friends and family. Jade and Aesop stood on the right side of my bed, ahan stood on the left. Grandpa Teddy immediately sprang to his feet and hobbled over to me.

  “Hey, guys,” I said, throat dry. “How long have I been out?”

  “A little more than a day,” Teddy said, taking my hand. “How do you feel?”

  “sidering I just got stabbed, pretty good.”

  He squeezed my hand, his smile not reag his eyes. I looked at Ethan, hoping for anh, but wasn’t too disappointed when I didn’t get one. What I did see was…well, I didn’t really see anything. But I se. It was faint, like trying to watch cartoons on a TV that was more than half static, but it was there. I could sense myself. Jade. And him, too. All three of us together. Backfire defeating a giant snailtopus by pying a death ray tuba. I even caught a brief glimpse of Aesop stumbling around Feverdream Field.

  “Ach, ssie, ye gave us quite a fright, there!” the real Aesop said, leaning toward me.

  “Your wounds all went away,” Jade agreed. “But you still went into a a. We weren’t sure if you were going to wake up or not.”

  My smile faded as I remembered more about what happened.

  “And Legion,” I said quietly. “Is he…”

  “Destroyed,” Grandpa Teddy said sternly, his eyes turning cold. “And good riddance!”

  A chill went down my spine. He was wrong. I couldn’t bring myself to say so, but I k was true. I may have destroyed the body, maybe even the amulet that Legion was using to trol it. But there were more bodies. More amulets.

  And they would be back.

  But that roblem for another day. Against all odds, Ethan was safe, I was alive, and Mauldibamm wasn’t a sm pile of ash. What followed was one of the happiest days of my life. Everyoayed with me all day long, talking, telling jokes, and ughing. Mom and Dad showed up a couple hours ter with pizza and wings, which was infinitely better than the crappy hospital food. They told me that McGus was somewhere on the floor above me. He would live, but nobody knew how much he would heal after the thrashing Legion had given him.

  The doctors wanted me to stay for another couple days, just to make sure there were no sting side effects from what I’d gohrough. For once, I wasn’t in any hurry to leave. This could be like a little vacation. Lying in bed for a few days, eating ice cream and watg TV while people waited on me hand and foot? I’d just saved the whole freaking city. I think I deserved a little pampering, don’t you?

  Finally, long after the sun had set, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Teddy left. Jade, Aesop, ahan stayed behind, promising to take an IW home before much longer. For another hour or so, we just gabbed. Gab. Do people still use that word? Either way, yeah, we gabbed. But then I heard a sound that soured my good mood like milk on a hot summer day.

  “What is this?” a loud, angry, and familiar voice ranted from further down the hallway. “Cookies and cream? I specifically demanded cookie dough! If you don’t have it here in five minutes, I’ll have you fired!”

  A frightened kon nurse went rushing down the hallway, a heaping bowl of uen ice cream in her hands. I narrowed my eyes and, after thinking for a sed, got out of bed.

  “Henry!” Jade excimed. “You’re not supposed to—”

  “e with me,” I said.

  They didn’t argue, following quietly as I walked down the hallway. Sure enough, just a few doors down, I found Ichabod Hench lying in bed with an ugly red bump on his forehead.

  He sneered when he saw me. “Well, well, well. Look who it is!”

  “That knot on your head suits you,” I said. “I make it perma if you want.”

  He scowled. “What do you want, Hea? You’re lucky I don’t press charges for assaulting me like—”

  “I know.”

  He froze, eyes widening. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Guys, close the door,” I said.

  Ethan pulled the door shut, and then joined me with Jade and Aesop by my side. Once I was sure there was nobody around the eavesdrop on us, I stepped up to the foot of his bed.

  “The b,” I said in a harsh whisper. “The mae. I know you made them.”

  Ichabod’s eyes were as cold as ice. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t py stupid!” I spat. “You’ve been trying to figure out how my grandpa collects ughter for his inhalers so you could take over his business. Yhter always came out stale. And then one of your experiments backfired in your face, didn’t it?”

  Ichabod’s face was reddening.

  “Henry,” Ethan muttered under his breath, “maybe don’t yell at the guy who have us all thrown in jail?”

  I ignored him. “That’s what the mae was for, wasn’t it? You’ve been kidnapping humans and using mind trol magic to force them to ugh. But there was never any joy in that ughter, and that made it poisonous. Like it’d been sucked it out of them by a maiam — because that’s exactly what you were doing! But then your amulets malfuned, creating Legion. They escaped, and you thought the experiment was a failure. You had no idea that they would e back to bite you it!”

  My voice was getting louder, but I didn’t care. I was angry. Everythihan and I had gohrough over the past few weeks was because of him. As if I needed another reason to hate this fat, ugly, arrogant Red!

  “You’re a monster and a murderer!” I accused him. “I always knew you were a pig, but even I never would have thought you’d go this far just to make a quick buck. I’m going to make sure everybody hears about this. Everybody! You’ll be kicked off the cil, sent to prison for the—”

  “I don’t suppose,” he interrupted me, “that you have any proof?”

  My mouth snapped shut.

  “I didn’t think so,” he said in a dry voice. “Hea, these are some very serious accusations you’re making. Unless you’re able to prove them, I reend you keep them to yourself.”

  I scowled at him. “Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  With disdain in his eyes, he took the remote that trolled his bed, and adjusted it so that he was sitting up. The sight made me sick. Even when he’d been found out, he obviously thought he was the one in trol.

  “You don’t seem to uand the position you’re in,” he said. “Barely a day has passed since you went on a rampage through Mauldibamm. You nearly killed your mentor, assaulted the cil of Shnoob, and all but destroyed the Grand Lark!”

  My cheeks burned blue. “Don’t try to make this about me!”

  “Oh, but it is about you, Hea. You might have saved your friend, but these were all problems caused by you. How popur do you think you are with the cil right now? Or with the kon popution as a whole?”

  “Henry didn’t do anything!” Ethan said. “She—”

  “You should learn not to speak unless spoken to, boy!” Ichabod snapped. “The fact remains that none of this would have happened if not for her.”

  My heart slowly sank into my stomach. Frito chili pie, he was right…

  He leaoward me, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Imagine eople would think if you began saying these horrible things about a cil member. Things you have no way to prove. How much patience do you imagine we have left for you, Hea?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Exactly. Now do the smart thing. Turn around, go back to your room, and keep your mouth shut. You might just make it out of this with your job if you do.”

  My hand itched to draw Sptsy, but I wasn’t wearing her. Good thing, too, because I’m not sure what I would have done. Kill Ichabod? Part of me thought it’d be worth it. Without Ichabod and his greed, no more of those maes would get built. I’d go to jail, yes, but I’d have the satisfa of knowing I’d done something good for the entire world. Would that be enough?

  “Henry,” Ethan said, putting a hand on my shoulder, “let’s just go.”

  No. No it would not be enough. Not so long as it meant losing friends like Ethan, Jade, and Aesop.

  I gave Iy darkest gre. “I’m going to find evidence. And when I do, I’m taking you down!”

  He smirked at me. “Good luck with that.”

  Fuming, I turned on my heel and marched bay room, my friends following. I colpsed bay bed, exhausted through and through.

  “That,” Aesop said, “was either the bravest thing I’ve ever seen, or the stupidest.”

  “Why not both?” Jade asked.

  I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you guys into this.”

  “Don’t be.” Aesop plopped bato the chair Grandpa Teddy had been using. “Everything you said makes sense.”

  “And if he’s the one who made that mae,” Jade agreed, “then sitting bad not doing anything would make us just as bad as he is.”

  “We’re with you, Henry,” said Ethan. “All the way. Just tell us how we help.”

  I opened my eyes, looking at him, and something stirred inside me. Wheood like that, with the lighting just right and that determined expression on his face, he almost looked…

  Kind of handsome.

  Uh oh.

  “Of course,” Aesop butted in, “we still have to discuss our fee.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Your fee?”

  “Well, sure. If yood at something, never do it for free.”

  “The only thing yood at,” Jade said, rolling her eyes, “is getting on our nerves.”

  “A skill that I have spent years honing!” he insisted. “ you think of anybody in the world who does it better than me?”

  “Fine, fine,” I said with a smile. “What’s your fee, oh great and mighty irritator?”

  He thought for a sed. “Movie night. week. My pce. You buy the food.”

  My smile spread into a grin. The world had bee a darker, more dangerous pce almost ht, and things were only going to get harder from here. But with friends like these, I knew I could push through it. I could rely on them, and I would make sure they could rely ooo. Because no matter what Ichabod and the rest of the cil thinks, I’m not just some weak little girl with blue hair.

  I’m Henry freaking Rider.

  And I’m the Hunter.

  TO BE TINUED IN

  HENRY RIDER AND THE NUYU PRESCRIPTION!