Excerpts-

• From the cover 1
  
  
  With fire, there is light.
  
  With fire, there is heat.
  
  The fire within us is ancient.
  
  It has burned for thousands of years.
  
  Our flames can unmake what was formed from hate.
  
  Our ashes allow life to triumph over death.
  
  Those who covet our power will try to seize it for themselves.
  
  Our power must be protected,
  
  for our power will save this world.
  
  
  
  2
  
  
  Everything happens all at once. I am falling. I am flailing. I am mired in a pool of tar. I am soaring among the stars.
  
  When time is linear, one thing happens after another. When it’s not, things get messy!
  
  I brought us here. I wanted to be a leader and my friends followed me to Cloud Gate in downtown Chicago. I have been given an important mission by the Supreme Council. I used to have another job, but now I am the ambassador who will convince the Guardian of Palmara to open the portals linking her realm to ours. I am going to free the magical creatures being held against their will. I failed as a witch’s apprentice, but I won’t fail again. Will I?
  
  These thoughts swirl in my mind like a tempest—who I was, who I am, who I will become. I hear the fear and panic in my friends’ voices as the mirrored surface of the bean-shaped sculpture presses us to the ground. We are being flattened against the pavement. We are being sucked into a sticky blackness that stifles our screams. We are floating weightless in a distant galaxy. It can’t be happening all at once and yet . . . it is!
  
  I feel frightened. I feel angry. I feel guilty. I led my friends straight into this trap, and I can’t do anything to help them.
  
  My stomach sinks with the weight of my shame. Then it lurches as the giant silver bean starts to spin! The treacherous wizard Ol-Korrok cackles as we clamor for help.
  
  “Ah, dear guests, you have finally arrived! I have waited for this day for a thousand years. Let me say it again: you . . . are . . . welcome!”
  
  Suddenly, there is silence. The spinning sensation stops. I try to breathe, but it feels like my mouth—my entire body—is smothered by feathers. I think my eyes are open, but all I can see is a blackness so complete that it’s impossible to tell which way is up. I can’t see or hear my friends anymore, but I sense that they are close by. I reach for them, but my fingers only feel the softness of feathers. Then I hear the gentle voice I have heard so many times before in my dreams.
  
  “Be patient, my son. We’re nearly there.”
  
  He is not my father, and I am not his son. Beware the crow. I should have listened to that warning when I had the chance.
  
  I take a deep breath and reach out once more, hoping to grab hold of something. To my surprise and relief, I think I see stars sparkling overhead. The nauseating sensation of everything happening all at once recedes. The blanket of feathers thins, and I think I feel solid ground under my body. Before long I’m able to stand.
  
  I am here. This is now.
  
  With my sight restored, I realize that I am alone. I call out the names of my friends. “Vik? Kenny? Kavi?”
  
  The silence frightens me more than the darkness. I remember the phoenix and reach inside the pocket of my hoodie to make sure that it’s okay. It opens its eyes and looks around, clearly curious. Then it lifts itself into the black sky and starts to grow! The tiny bird that could fit in the palm of my hand spreads its wings and burns so bright I have to shield my eyes with my arm. It’s like a...

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