Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass (9 page)

Nick shook his head and then thought of the key his grandfather had given him.

“What is it?” Irina asked.

“Nothing.”

“Are you certain?”

He nodded.

“All right then, Nick. Know this—your mother was from the purest line of magician in the clan. She had no brothers or sisters and only one child. You represent, on your mother's side, our future.”

“Does that mean those creatures are going to keep trying to kill me? Forever?”

Irina turned. “Those creatures just follow the bidding of the one who imprisons them. I’m afraid the real power of the Shawdowkeepers is far darker. But try not to worry.”

“Easy for you to say,” Nick whispered under his breath. They hadn’t tried to drown her. Hadn’t sprouted wings right in front of her eyes.

“Good night.”

“’Night… Oh, one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“When can I see my grandfather and father?”

“We can send for them. But remember, Kolya, the less your father knows, the safer he will be. Damian wants what goes on here to remain with the clan alone. He doesn’t trust anyone outside the clan.”

Nick stared at her. The way she said Damian's name, he couldn’t decide if she was afraid of him or admired him.

Irina left, shutting the door behind her. Nick stripped out of his wet suit. Sure enough, where his ribs hurt there was an ugly, reddish-blue bruise forming. He padded into the
bathroom, took the longest, hottest shower of his life, and changed into his sweats and Death Note T-shirt. He climbed into bed and sat there, thinking about the night.

And the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. That creature could have killed him. It could have killed Isabella, who was, about now, the only friend he had. A real friend who wasn’t going off to Belize or who knows where else tomorrow. He shut his eyes, feeling a fury rising up in him. It was that feeling—not quite anger, not quite sadness, but… power. It was what Theo described.

Nick pictured the cage. The empty cage where he had somehow lost his hedgehog in space. He sat for a while, squeezing his eyes shut and concentrating on this electricity running through him, this feeling that started there, in the pit of his stomach. He imagined the feeling forming into a ball of electricity, with a glowing white-hot fury. He said the words Theo taught him. Whispered them, actually.

“Krax pex phax.”

And then he heard it. A faint rustling noise.

He looked up, and it was there. The hedgehog.

Nick leaped from bed and ran to the dresser. “I did it!” He leaned in close to the little spiny pet inside the gilded cage. “Sorry I lost you for a while, Vladimir.”

Vladimir looked up at Nick with beady eyes. The hedgehog
waved a paw at him—like he totally understood what Nick had said. Then Vladimir shuffled off to the corner of the cage, curled into a ball, yawned, and went to sleep.

“Sleep sounds good to me, too,” Nick yawned in reply.

He climbed back in bed, the last of his chills chased off by the soft, warm blankets, and sleep came over him like a heavy curtain.

Something was burning him.

Nick bolted upright in bed and flicked on the light. His chest hurt. He pulled off his T-shirt and realized it was the key. It was hot. He touched it, and his fingertips burned, like touching a flame. He looked down at his chest. There, burned onto his skin, was a faint red imprint of the key.

“Am I dreaming?” But he knew he wasn’t. It was hot. It was real.

The key was trying to tell him something. He was certain of it.

“What?” he asked it.

The key throbbed feverishly.

“What?” he asked it again, pleading this time.

But as quickly as it had heated to a molten-like burn, the key turned icy cold, pressed against his chest like a
hunk of metal, as though it had never tried to communicate with him.

The key had to open something. Maybe something the Shawdowkeepers wanted. But what?

He thought hard. His father had a small safe in his closet where he kept their passports and some important papers— but he knew there was nothing valuable. He had been next to his father when he’d opened it. No secret jewels. Certainly no magic talismans. And the key to his dad's safe didn’t look anything like this one. For one thing, the key around his neck looked ancient.

For another, the lettering was foreign. He needed to know what it said, but if he asked anyone in the clan to help him read it, then they would know he had it. And for some reason, he thought it would be better to keep it a secret for now. He didn’t know how much to trust any of them.

Then Nick thought of the library where Damian had first taken him. Surely somewhere in that library was a book that would tell him what the letters said.

Nick lay back down and touched the key. His mother must have kept secrets from the clan. She definitely kept them from his dad. It was up to him to figure out those secrets. Before the Shadowkeepers did.

T
HE NEXT MORNING, NICK DECIDED THAT NO MATTER what was served—even fish eggs—he was eating breakfast. He dressed in a pair of black pants and a white shirt from his closet. He hated the feeling of the cuffs around his wrists, so he unbuttoned them and pushed the sleeves up. He looked like a waiter. He just wanted his old clothes.

While brushing his teeth, he saw in the mirror just how much he looked like Damian. Sure, maybe Damian thought making Nick part of the show was smart. But he wasn’t Damian, no matter how much his hair color and eyes resembled his older cousin's.

He opened the door to his room and jumped backward. Two huge tigers—even bigger than Sascha—guarded his room. One lay like a furry doormat across the doorway.
The other paced back and forth in the hall like a sentinel, agitated.

At the sight of Nick, the tiger across the doorway stood up and then moved out of the way. The pacing tiger nodded, as if she was greeting him.

Nick nodded back, then walked down the hall to the family dining room. Behind him, he could hear the tigers following, and he felt a little like a wild boar in the grasslands, waiting to be their next meal. When he entered the dining room, the clan hushed. Isabella was there, sitting next to the Grand Duchess.

Nick looked at the food on the table and was grateful to see something other than caviar. He saw strawberries and cream in silver dishes, and something that looked like oatmeal. And there was also something that resembled Danish pastry—as long as it wasn’t filled with cabbage, he figured he was all set.

Stomach growling, he filled a blue and gold rimmed plate with food and walked down to Isabella and the Grand Duchess. The old woman was wearing a long, old-fashioned dress with a high lace collar with ruffles. At her neck was pinned an enormous diamond and ruby brooch that glittered under the chandelier's lights.

Isabella's eyes seemed to ask him if he was okay, and he nodded and dug into his meal. He ate without saying a
word until his plate was clean. Then the Grand Duchess whispered, “When I was a little girl, I believed the world was a beautiful place.”

Nick looked over at her. The Grand Duchess's eyes were closed, and she rested her fingertips at the point of her chin.

“I lived in a palace filled with diamonds and jewels.” She fingered the brooch at her neck. “We ate on plates rimmed with gold.”

Nick looked down at his plate. A crest was etched in gold in the center of it. Surely, it couldn’t be from the Grand Duchess's childhood.

“I played at the summer palace. The winter palace. My room,” she clasped her hands together. “Filled with toys. Dolls in extravagant dresses, and a dollhouse filled with furniture carved by master craftsmen.”

Nick couldn’t move—he was afraid of disturbing her. He leaned forward, listening to her soft voice, wondering what secrets she would tell. The key felt warm against his chest.

“And then, I discovered that there will always be people, Kolya, full of deception. The man who deceived my parents still lives in a shadowy realm. He is cunning. Secretive. Powerful. And he… he is looking for something. He will not rest until he finds it.” Though she looked half-asleep, she suddenly opened her eyes and stared knowingly at him.

The key burned hotter, and it was all Nick could do to keep from yelping. He was about to ask the Grand Duchess more about this man when Theo entered the room.

“Kolya, time for school.”

Nick looked at Isabella. She shook her head and whispered, “I’m working with Irina today. Just you.”

Nick stood and walked to Theo, following him out of the dining room and toward the classroom. Once in there, Theo handed him a crystal ball and a small pedestal for it to rest on and then gestured for Nick to sit at his desk.

“This ball is yours—it was your great-grandmother's. You get to keep this one. After last night, your training is being accelerated. The first rule of the ball is you must approach with a pure heart or it will deceive you.”

“The rule of the ball?” Nick rolled his eyes. Everyone in the family was so dramatic. “What does that even mean?”

Theo looked at his watch. “Ask your ball for the number the roulette wheel at table eighty-five will land on in ten minutes.”

Nick looked at Theo. “Ask the ball? Like talk to it?”

“Exactly.”

“I feel like an idiot talking to a ball.”

“Put your hand on the ball. It's yours. You must bond with it.”

“Bond?”

“Just do as I say.”

“All right.” Nick rubbed his hands on the crystal ball. It felt warm to his touch—alive in a way. But he knew that was impossible. Feeling foolish, he said, “Crystal ball, what number will the roulette ball land on in ten minutes at table eighty-five?”

The ball filled with a smoky green haze, and then Nick saw, in a flash—twelve red.

Nick smiled at Theo. “It gave me the number!”

Theo smiled at him, sat down at his desk, and said a few words, and a pot of tea appeared. “We wait. Care for tea?”

“No. Why can’t you guys drink soda?”

“It's not our way.”

Nick rolled his eyes again and leaned back in his chair. If he had a crystal ball that told him numbers to bet on, that could predict the future, then he would be rich. No more small hotels with his dad. Heck, they could
buy
a hotel. A hotel where he would serve cheeseburgers and orange soda and pizza, and he wouldn’t have to wear ridiculous black pants and white shirts. He’d ride his skateboard through the halls, and there’d be a skateboard ramp in the lobby.

After about ten minutes, Theo took his own ball and spoke to it, and Nick could see inside the casino. Theo spoke in Russian, and a roulette wheel appeared close up. The dealer spun the wheel. It whirred. The little ball flung around, click, click, click… and landed on eight black.

Nick looked at Theo, puzzled. “What happened? Why wasn’t it twelve red?”

“Precisely what I said. You must approach your crystal ball with a pure heart. It will deceive you otherwise.”

“But how do I know if I have a pure heart?”

“You cannot ask for personal gain. You must ask with the intention of doing good. Not for money or fame or riches. You must learn to discern, my young cousin. And most importantly, you must learn to do it quickly. The Shadowkeepers are closing in.”

“How long have you been reading crystal balls?”

“Since I was your age.”

“Well, how can I ever get good at it so fast? I need more time.”

“The Shadowkeepers do not care about such things.”

“But what do they want?”

Even as Nick asked, the key burned.

“Come,” Theo said. He stood and led Nick out of the classroom and down the hall to an elevator. The minute Theo stood in front of it, the doors opened. Nick jumped back. An enormous brown bear took up most of the car.

“Our elevator operator. Keeps out the riffraff.”

They stepped onto the elevator, and Nick noticed there were no buttons at all on the elevator's panel. The doors closed, and with a whoosh that made his stomach feel like it dropped to his shoes, they descended.

“Where are we going?” Nick asked, aware that the bear's breath was hot near his neck.

“The vault.”

The doors opened, and as they exited the elevator, they entered an enormous room. The floors were marble, and their heels clicked on them as they walked. The ceilings were three stories high, Nick guessed. Like Damian's library, they were painted with scenes of magic in Russia, fanciful pictures of people flying through the air and polar bears and tigers soaring over onion-topped domes in snow-covered Siberia. As he looked upward, the pictures moved, stars twinkled, and occasionally a polar bear dove into a painted water scene.