Free The Conjuring Glass by Brian Knight Page B

growled, apparently pushed to the edge of his patience. “You two should be practicing.”
    Penny rolled her eyes skyward.
    “Why should we be practicing?” Zoe countered, ignoring the renewed growls rumbling up from Ronan’s throat. “Why is it so important to you anyway?”
    Ronan’s feeble attempt at intimidation ceased and he turned to face Zoe again.
    So did Penny. That was a question, she thought, feeling a little stupid, which should have occurred to her.
    “Yeah,” Penny said, catching the thread of Zoe’s new enquiry. “Why is it so important?”
    Ronan shook his head in frustration. “This is precisely why some animals eat their young.”
    Zoe giggled.
    Penny rolled her eyes again.
    “Can you at least answer one of our questions today?” Penny asked, despising the whining tone of her question but unable to help it. “Then we’ll practice.”
    Ronan considered them again in turn, then mimicked Penny by lifting his snout to the sky and rolling his eyes. “If you insist … I will answer two of your questions today.”
    Penny and Zoe sat up straighter, irritation turned into anticipation. They both leaned in a little closer to Ronan.
    Penny’s excitement grew stronger as seconds passed with Ronan only staring into the distance, silent and still.
    Then he turned to Zoe.
    “Pick me up.”
    Zoe seemed startled by the request. They were still a little intimidated by him, such a strange and unlikely creature roaming around boring old Dogwood, but after only a moment’s hesitation, she rose to her feet then bent to pick him up. She wrapped her arms around his middle gingerly, as if afraid he’d turn on her and bite, and when she rose again he lay in the cradle of her arms like a pet.
    He looked down at Penny. “Anybody can see me if I want them to, but humans have an unfortunate tendency to shoot at things that walk on four legs.”
    Ronan closed his eyes, and for a second Penny thought he was going to take a nap right there in Zoe’s arms. His outline blurred, his body became translucent, and he fell through Zoe’s arms and drifted downward toward the ground like smoke. Then he was solid again and falling toward the ground. He landed gracefully on all fours and sprang into the air again, scrambling up the side of the big tree and stopping on his usual high perch.
    “I am proficient at escaping your kind, but it’s easier just to avoid their notice.”
    Zoe was still staring into her empty arms in surprise. “That was seriously cool!”
    “The reason you can see me even when they can’t is because you are different. You may find you see a lot of things the others don’t.”
    “How did you do that?” Penny nearly shouted.
    Ronan ignored this latest question.
    “The reason only you two know about this place is because the others who came here before you knew how important it was that it be kept secret. People like you are gifted, but they can still die at the hands of a mob.”
    Penny had no reply for that. The morning’s light mood had departed. She met Zoe’s eyes and saw the new, serious mood had taken her too.
    “If other people learn about Aurora Hollow and The Phoenix Girls, eventually the wrong people will. You would no longer be safe. This place would no longer be safe, and too much depends on …”
    Here his speech broke off. He seemed to have thought better of the direction he was leading them.
    “What?” Penny and Zoe asked in unison.
    Ronan shook his head, and a glimmer of his normal good humor seemed to have returned. “I’ve answered two questions, just as promised. Now get back to work before I change my mind about eating you.”
     

 
PART 2
     
    The Red Magician

 
     
Chapter 10
    Dogwood School
    There was only one school in Dogwood, the one at the end of downtown beside the riverside park, where Main Street turned sharply to the left before winding its way toward the coast. Penny’s house was less than a mile from the school, so she rode the new bike Susan bought her