Free How to Stop a Witch by Bill Allen Page A

a way of fighting. It’s a whole way of thinking. True power can only come from inner peace.”
    “You sound like Dad.”
    “Oh, then you have heard me,” Mr. Caine said. He started wheezing again, and once again Greg was afraid he wouldn’t stop.
    “Maybe you should go to bed, Dad,” said Nate. “You don’t look so good.”
    Mr. Caine nodded but was unable to speak. He allowed the boys to guide him to a cot in one corner of the room. Nate draped a blanket over him while Greg adjusted the single pillow beneath his head. Then, as Greg started to draw away, Mr. Caine reached out and grabbed his hand.
    “Thanks for coming here,” he whispered. “About the chikan . . . I’ll try to tell him again. Maybe now that he’s met you, he’ll listen.”
    Greg wasn’t sure what to say. “Yes, you should do that. He needs to know about sensen and the meditation. I can’t tell you why, but it’s important.”
    Mr. Caine offered a faint smile and nodded as if he understood, even though there was no way he could. “I’ll teach him,” he said. “I promise.” He closed his eyes then and lay still, drawing breath in ragged gasps. Nate and Greg both stared at him worriedly. Finally Nate motioned for Greg to follow him to the door.
    “He’s not going to make it this time, is he?” Nate asked, as if it would be perfectly normal for Greg to know the future.
    “I-I don’t know,” Greg admitted, but then he remembered what Mr. Caine had just said. Nothing was likely to happen to him before he finished teaching his son the philosophy behind chikan. “I think he’s going to be okay for a little while.”
    Nate looked doubtful.
    “You should listen to whatever he has to tell you,” Greg added. He didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, but he decided to add one other thing, his voice little more than a whisper. “You might not have a lot of time left together.”
    Nate turned away, as if to hide his tears, but then was quick to recover. “Thanks for all those stories you made up. I think Dad really enjoyed them.”
    “I didn’t make them up.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    “No, I swear.”
    “Do I look like an idiot?”
    Greg’s backpack let out a yowl. He slipped it off hurriedly when he felt Rake struggling to get loose. Before he could do anything to stop it, the shadowcat wriggled free and jumped to his shoulder.
    “Whoa,” said Nate. “What is that?”
    “Uh . . . it’s a shadowcat. You’ll learn all about them if you come to Myrth.”
    Nate’s jaw fell slack. “Then you were telling the truth. You are from another world?”
    Greg nodded.
    “I wish I could see this Myrth place for myself. Maybe I’ll come see you when . . . you know.”
    Greg shooed Rake back into the pack and slipped it over his shoulder. “Yes, you should come . . . but you won’t be able to see me, at least not right away.”
    “Why? Are you invisible in your world?”
    “No . . . I can’t tell you . . . but we will meet again, I promise.”
    Nate smiled sadly. “I hope so. How does somebody get to Myrth anyway?”
    Greg stared back at him dumbly. All along he’d been thinking he just needed to relay a few stories to the young Nathan. He’d never stopped to question how the boy was going to get to Myrth when the time came. It’s not like he could just say a magic word and expect to pop between dimensions. Or could he?
    “My ring.”
    Greg slipped the special ring from his finger and held it out. Suddenly everything made sense. Of course Nate had to take it. Someone had to give it to Ruuan so the dragon could offer it to Greg years from now, when Greg faced him in his lair.
    Nate reached out cautiously for the ring while Greg explained how to use it and cautioned him about what he might find on the other end of his trip. Ruuan could seem a bit intimidating if you didn’t know him—and even if you did. Afterward Nate seemed twice as reluctant to take the ring, but he accepted it anyway and slipped it over his