Page 76 of Monster's Pet

“I’m ready,” Paige said.

I led the way to Professor Akhtar’s office. Aiden was with him, which was a relief. I reallywouldn’tneed to re-explain myself.

“Professor, I know how to deal with the giant,” I said the second we entered the room.

“What giant?” The professor looked completely confused.

I paused and then laughed. “Paige, maybe you’d better start. I forgot to explain the problem before presenting the solution.”

“This sounds like it might take a while,” Professor Akhtar said, holding up a hand. He conjured up enough chairs foreveryone to sit, and then indicated that Paige could start her story.

At the end, he looked very serious. “You should have contacted someone from the Australian magical council before performing such a large magic on their land.” He sighed. “But what’s done is done. Siobhan, you said you had a solution?”

“I haven’t figured out what to do with the diamond issue yet, but the giant, if he’s really woken up—”

“He has!” Paige insisted, interrupting me.

I swallowed back my impatience and held up my grimoire to the correct page. “Youreallyneed to see what my ancestors were up to two thousand years ago.”

CHAPTER 21

Grandfather arrived earlythe next day. He, Professor Akhtar, and Professor Dunlop went straight to the Headmistress’s office, and they were still in there at lunchtime.

“I really wish we could listen to their conversation,” I moaned at lunch, pushing my mac and cheese around my plate with my fork.

“I mean… We could…” Bruce said slowly.

“What do you mean?” Aiden asked, leaning forward.

“My family built this castle. I grew up here as a child. There are hidden passageways you can’t even imagine,” Bruce explained. “And, if I recall correctly, there’s one that passes behind the Headmistress’s office with peep holes for eavesdropping.”

“Why haven’t you mentioned this before?” Paige demanded.

Now that her story—her shame, she called it—was told, she was a lot more relaxed. She even managed to sleep last night; I know, because I insisted that she stay in our room. It hadn’t managed to completely get rid of the dark circles under her eyes, or her skeletal gauntness, but she was looking a little healthier.

Bruce shrugged. “It wasn’t necessary.”

“It would have been nice to have advance warning about the manducare hunt,” Rhiannon muttered.

“How?” Bruce crossed his arms on the table. “We didn’t know it was likely to happen. I can’t exactly set up a recording device in my descendant’s office. We’d spend all our time combing through it for very littleusefulinformation.”

I waved my hands, drawing everyone’s attention. “The past doesn’t matter. Why aren’t we listening to themnow?”

“Right.” Bruce got to his feet, dusting his hands on his pants. He tilted his head. “Let’s go.”

In pairs, we left the mess hall, trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves. There were still some teachers who watched us suspiciously, Professor Wright among them.

I bit my lip nervously. “I’m worried that he thinks we still have Moonbeam,” I whispered to Aiden after we left the room.

“Nothing we can do about that,” Aiden said tensely. He nodded at Bruce, who was near the main doors of the academy.

Bruce knocked on a stone half-hidden behind one the statues and then ducked down, Clarissa following him.

We made eye contact with our other friends and silently agreed to continue down this path we had chosen.

We decided to become invisible before we all made our way through the secret passageway. If Bruce hadn’t shown us how to open the door, there was no way we could have seen it, but the rest of us didn’t need to be visible. Someoneelsemight see us.

The passageway behind the stone wall was already dimly lit by Bruce’s magic.

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