It was gone.
Chase ran to the spot where the chest had been. “What happened to it?” he said, looking frantically around the room as if he hoped to see it stuck in a corner.
“Do you think James stole it?” asked Andy.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” said Chase as his shoulders drooped.
Andy jabbed the floor with his toe before crouching and running his hands all around. “Maybe there’s a trap door here.”
“I don’t think getting to those rooms has anything to do with a trap door, Andy.” said Persephone. “It’s the enchanted chest that makes the magic work.”
Chase crossed his arms and stared out the enormous, round window. The rain, which had been threatening to fall all day, had started, while the gusting wind caused white-capped waves to roll across the Sound. For some reason, the stormy day increased his unease. “If we want to find out what’s going on, it looks like we need to search the house.” Maybe I should just tattoo ‘idiot’ across my forehead, he thought, as he made this decision. The last thing they needed right now was a confrontation with James.
“Shouldn’t we go back to the cemetery and get help?” asked Persephone.
“We have to get back to Thomas’s bathroom to do that anyway,” said Chase as he headed out the door. “Let’s at least see what we can find out on the way. Come on.”
Soon the kids were slinking down the hallways, peering around corners and into every magic room they came to.
“I’m tired,” said Andy loudly after a while.
“You’re the one who insisted on coming with us,” Chase hissed.
“But aren’t we going the long way around?”
“We need to find those guys.”
Persephone rolled her eyes. “Always the bickering,” she muttered to herself.
“And you need to keep your voice down!” said Chase. “We—”
“You know,” Persephone cut in. “I think the library is around the corner and up the next staircase. Why don’t we check on those teleporting treasure chests right now?”
“Sounds good to me,” said Chase with one last glare at Andy.
Last summer, the kids had spent an afternoon in the enormous library, searching for a way into the hidden fighting powers rooms. It was filled with all sorts of astounding things: a two-hundred-foot ceiling that resembled the sky, a huge treehouse, a real pirate ship, a towering dragon spitting candy from its mouth, and a hot air balloon. It was also the Conjuring Room, so they were able to ask for almost anything they wanted and have it pop into existence, right in front of their eyes.
As they approached the library, Persephone jerked to a stop. “Wait. Something strange is going on.” She pulled her necklace from under her shirt. It was the glowing, coin-sized piece of the Relic Grandfather had given her and, even though she wasn’t a Tinker, it allowed her to share in the magic of the house. For some reason, it was pulsing madly, as if it had a heart beating inside of it. “It gets warm and tingly all the time, but never anything like this.”
“It looks—” began Andy.
Chase held up his hand. “Shh! I hear voices.”
Beckoning for Andy and Persephone to follow, he crept down the hallway. The library’s double doors hung wide open. Sliding against the wall, the kids inched forward and, craning their necks, they peeked inside.
CHAPTER SIX
Secrets
The enormous room looked as fantastic as it had the first time they’d seen it, except the high ceiling was now a mass of dark, roiling storm clouds. In the middle of the room sat a dining table covered in dishes piled high with food. Chase’s mouth began to water as he spied spaghetti, fried chicken, pizza, cheese burgers and fries, chocolate cake and pumpkin pie. It looked as though someone was giving a dinner party.
“Pizza?” murmured Andy, his nose twitching as he got a whiff of the tantalizing scents wafting toward them.
Goosebumps crawled across Chase’s skin as an icy breeze drifted from the room and curled around them. He stiffened and his stomach gave a sickening twist when he spotted the small group of people gathered around the huge fireplace on the far side of the room.
The three kids jerked back and pressed themselves against the wall.
“The Marlowes!” Chase gasped. All at once, the smell of the food wasn’t so appetizing, after all. Relieved that he had more magic for protection, he grabbed for his watch. A stab of panic shot through him when he realized he’d forgotten to slip it onto his wrist.
“Are you sure?” asked Persephone.
All Chase could do was nod.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no…” She squeaked out.
Oh no, is right, he thought, remembering that, unlike him, this was the first time Persephone had actually come face-to-face with any of the Marlowes.
Grasping her necklace in her fist, she whispered, “Do you think my necklace is doing this because of—because of them? Can it sense the Shard in there? Or maybe their dark magic?”
“It’s possible it’s powerful enough,” Chase murmured. His heart had started to pound so loudly it was a wonder they all weren’t hearing it. “We can’t just stand here. We have to do something.”
“But—but what?” said Persephone. “There are more of them than us.”
Chase pulled Andy aside. “Andy, you need to get to Thomas’s bathroom,” he whispered urgently. “You have to get Grandfather and Dad.”
“I’ve never teleported that far by myself,” Andy whispered back.
“I know you can do it.” Chase patted his brother’s shoulder. “Just concentrate on where you want to be. Now go!” He pushed Andy toward the stairs and watched until he disappeared from sight, then moved to peek into the room again.
Roland Marlowe, the one man Chase had hoped never to see again, had taken a sword from one of the suits of armor and was fencing with an imaginary attacker. Unfortunately, he’d somehow survived being blasted across the sky by Chase’s telekinesis. Even from across the room, Chase could see the icy coldness in Roland’s light-blue eyes as he glided back and forth, stabbing and parrying skillfully. His shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back and tied at the nape of his neck and, as Chase looked closer, he saw a long scar slashed across Roland’s face. It was an ugly souvenir from his fight with Grandfather on the night Grandfather had nearly died.
Besides Roland, he saw a blonde woman wearing a red, sequined dress, as though she was attending a fancy ball—this had to be Roland’s sister, Maven; another man slouched in a chair was probably their cousin, Clive. A scrawny, shaggy-haired boy who looked to be around James’s age was cramming pizza into his mouth, while Maven daintily nibbled on a chicken leg, as if she’d rather not be bothered with the whole thing.
Chase tried his hardest to control the fear threatening to burst loose as his eyes darted from one dark being to another. He almost cried out in horror when his gaze unexpectedly locked onto Janie seated in one of the armchairs. Her face was so pale and waxy, she looked as if Andy had frozen her in time. James was also there, standing in front of her, murmuring something Chase wasn’t able to hear. Suddenly, Janie leaped to her feet and grabbed James’s shirt in her fists. She shook him wildly. His longish hair flopped back and forth, like a yellow rooster’s tail.
“No! No! No!” she shrieked hysterically. “James, do you have any idea what kind of people they are?”
“I—”
“They’re our enemy!” she continued, her voice rising several more octaves. “They want to take our house and our magic from us. They plan to take everyone’s free will and make the whole world dark and evil. They want to control everything! James, why are you doing this to me?”
“I’m sorry, Janie. Honest. It’s just the way things turned out,” he said as he pried her hands from his clothing and brushed his hair out of his face. “You have to understand.”
“Well I don’t! When you said you had a secret to tell me, I never imagined it would be—it would be—this!”
“I wanted
to tell you earlier, but I didn’t think you were ready.”
“Like I’m ready now, James?”
Chase swayed dizzily and raked his hand through his hair. He knew he’d suspected James of destroying the study, but to actually see him there siding with the Marlowes was almost too much to handle. He squinted at Janie’s now scarlet face. He didn’t understand—she should be scared out of her wits, but she wasn’t. She just looked and sounded angry more than anything else.
“Chase. Chase!” Persephone whispered. She yanked on his arm. “Look at this.”
He turned reluctantly from the scene in the library. “What?”
Persephone pointed frantically to her necklace. It was twitching and jumping worse than ever. “Why’s it acting so crazy?”
Chase shook his head. “I—I don’t know.” He swung his attention back to his cousins. Too many things were happening at once. He already had way too many questions flying through his brain. What were James and Janie talking about? Why had James let the Marlowes into the house? Was he truly working with these people? Was this the secret he’d shared? Did he want Janie to join them?
Ha! The joke’s on him, thought Chase snidely. Janie will never turn to dark magic.
“This is too much!” cried Janie. She dropped to the floor and swiped at the tears dripping off her chin. “I just can’t take more bad news.” After all the screaming and crying, she sounded hoarse and stuffy.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” said Maven. “It’s not that dreadful.” She pointed at the scrawny boy. “Ethan, tell her how fabulous we are.”
“Not now, Mum,” muttered Ethan around a huge mouthful of cheeseburger.
James glared at Maven as he crouched next to his sister and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Sis. It’ll be okay.”
“No it won’t! This is so bad! First Mom dead, and now this. I can’t believe it. How did this happen, James? How?”
James’s face turned the color of mashed potatoes. “What did you say? Mom’s dead?”
“It happened in England months ago,” Janie answered flatly. “She fell off a cliff. Uncle Ben was pretending to be her all summer. With—with his shape-shifting magic.”
“He was fooling everyone the whole time?” said James, rubbing his forehead and looking as if he was having a hard time believing it.
Janie nodded, her bottom lip quivering.
“Benjamin Tinker is alive?” exclaimed Roland. With one last vicious slash of the sword, he spun to face Janie.
She nodded again and sniffed loudly. “We found out a couple weeks ago.”
“And Hiram?” asked Clive quickly.
“He’s okay, too!” she said, her voice full of bitterness. “They’re all at a funeral for Mom right now, which is so ridiculous because her body’s g-gone.”
Chase had heard enough. Angry and hurt by Janie’s betrayal, he stepped into the room. Persephone grabbed his arm, but he yanked it away. “Janie, stop telling them things!” he yelled. “What the heck is wrong with you?” Everyone whirled to stare at him. “Uh-oh,” he muttered, taking a step back as he realized he probably shouldn’t have done that—especially since he was seriously outnumbered.
Roland smiled. “Well, well. It looks as if we have some eavesdroppers.”
“You—you get out of our house!” Chase was trying his best to sound as brave as possible while eyeballing the long, lethal-looking blade pointed in his direction.
“Chase, did you forget already?” said Roland. “I told you some weeks ago it wasn’t going to be your house much longer.” Flicking the sword up, he ran his finger along the glittering edge. “This is brilliant. You can assist us in getting into the attic.” He strolled across the floor toward Chase.
“I’m not helping you with anything,” said Chase as he switched his gaze to Janie. She’d climbed to her feet, but she was swaying as if ready to tumble to the floor again. “Janie, you have to come with us.”
Janie glanced at James. Her earlier rage was gone and now she only looked lost and confused. “She doesn’t have to do anything you say, stinker!” snarled James. “We’re in charge now.”
“So you did destroy Mr. Hiram’s study,” said Persephone slowly, still trying to process everything that was going on.
James grinned and puffed out his chest, acting as if he deserved to have a gold medal pinned to it. “With the help of some very special magic. I had to get that crappy invisible barrier down somehow.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Chase saw Roland stab the sword into a chair and raise his hands. Chase was pretty sure he knew what that meant. Roland was preparing to zap him and Persephone with his powerful energy beams. Chase grabbed Persephone’s arm and pulled her through the doorway just as several scorching beams slammed into the door frame. The wood exploded. A large splinter flew out and pierced Persephone’s shoulder. She stumbled and cried out.
Chase slowed, but sped up again when Persephone screamed, “Don’t stop! I’ll be okay.”
Moments later, all the Marlowes scrambled from the library.
“There they are!” yelled Clive.
The Marlowes’ footsteps thundered behind Chase and Persephone as they darted down the long hallway, dodged around a corner, and then scurried down a u-shaped staircase.
Chase stopped and looked around, wild-eyed. Of all the times to be lost, this certainly wasn’t one of them. “Oh, man! Which way should we go?”
“Don’t worry! I know where we are,” said Persephone. “Come on. I have an idea.” She pulled Chase down another hallway and through a doorway on the left.
It didn’t take long for the Marlowes to realize that Chase and Persephone had taken refuge in one of the rooms.
“Check every room up and down these corridors!” ordered Roland. “They’re not escaping again. Not if I can help it.”
Maven, Clive and Ethan rushed to follow his order, ducking in and out of doorways as they searched the places large enough to hide two teen-agers. James tried his best to keep up as he dragged his stumbling sister along behind him.
“Hey, Uncle Roland!” said Ethan from one of the doorways. “They’re in here, but it’s going to be bloody hard to find them.”
“What do you mean?” asked Roland. Followed by the others, he strode to Ethan’s side and stopped on the threshold.
The room was completely jammed with dozens and dozens of Chases and Persephones.
“It must be some sort of duplicating magic,” said Maven.
“You can’t catch us!” said a Chase clone, sticking his thumbs in his ears and waggling his fingers at the befuddled Marlowes.
“Yeah, you big dorks,” said a Persephone clone.
“Dorks! Dorks! Dorks!” chimed in the other clones. “Dorks! Dorks! Dorks!”
“Find them!” snapped Roland over the din.
“How do we know which ones are the real ones?” asked Ethan.
“Look into their eyes,” said Roland. “That should hopefully tell you something.”
The Marlowes crowded into the already full room. Maven was immediately grabbed by a grinning Chase-look-a-like, who spun her in a wild polka dance while he sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” at the top of his lungs.
“Let go of me, you buffoon!” she snapped, waving her arms and shoving the exuberant clone away.
A bunch of Persephones began kicking Ethan, making him hop around and howl in pain. Clive jumped in and tossed clones to and fro while Roland just zapped them, as if he were swatting nothing but a bunch of pesky flies.
In the far corner, crouched behind their noisy replicas, were the real Persephone and Chase. Persephone clutched her throbbing shoulder and winced. They’d pulled out the splinter and wrapped it with a piece of Chase’s shirt in order to stop the bleeding. He hoped his mom didn’t kill him for destroying his fancy new shirt. But what else was he supposed to have done?
Chase touched Persephone’s arm. “Hey, great idea,” he said, knowing it was pretty unlikely the Marlowes would hear him ove
r the din. “It should keep them busy for a while. You doing okay?”
She nodded. “It only hurts when I smile,” she joked. Then, “Um, Chase…I want to tell you something, in case anything happens to us.”
Chase’s heart skipped several beats. Tell him something? Was Persephone about to say she liked him? He wanted to jump up and down and yell for joy; instead, he mumbled, “Nothing’s going to happen.”
“I still want to tell you—”
Chase held his breath.
“—that I’m sorry I yelled at you the other day, outside Clair’s room.”
He sagged against the wall. “That’s it?”
“Well, it was awfully rude of me, and I know you only wanted to help. I was just so mad at Janie.”
He sighed. “Forget it, okay? I forgive you.”
She smiled radiantly. “Thanks.”
He smiled back. “Now we better get going. Those clones won’t last forever. So even though I’ve only done it that one time, we can try to melt through—” He paused when a small door magically appeared in the wall behind them. “How’d that happen?”
She shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t know. I was just wishing this room had another door. Weird, huh?”
“Yeah, but it sure came at a great time,” said Chase. “Come on.” Turning the tiny handle, he pushed the door open. “You first.”
Persephone crawled into the next room. Chase was through the door and jumping to his feet when a hand grabbed his leg.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Into the Fire
Now, Chase knew that it wasn’t possible for the ghostly-white hand holding onto him to be attached to anything but a real person, but for one split second, he thought his cemetery nightmare with gruesome phantoms had come true.
Chase Tinker and the House of Secrets Page 5