Page 77 of Monster's Pet

“It should be tall enough that nobody bangs their heads, but I’ve never brought anyone as tall as you two through here,” Bruce said in a whisper, indicating Aiden and Brom. “Best to keep a hand in front of your face. The lights need to stay at our feet so we don’t announce our presence to anyone. Keep your voices down.”

I rolled my eyes. Ofcoursewe shouldn’t be talking.

Bruce nodded, dropped the lights to the ground and let them roll out in front of him. They barely cast enough light for us to see beyond the second one.

The press of people at the entrance to the passageway thinned out as our friends started to follow him deep into the hidden passage.

The dust was thick on the floor, tickling my nose. I held back a sneeze, my eyes watering. There were cobwebs, spiders, and other various creepy crawlies back here. They must come in through cracks somewhere.

I almost ran into Hazel’s back when she stopped abruptly. I peered around her to see that Bruce was pointing at a spot on the wall before continuing on a little further.

When I got to the spot he indicated, I saw a tiny hole. I fitted my eye to it, and could just make out the inside of the Headmistress’s office.

Professor Akhtar was busy explaining the ley lines with charts. He showed her my trick of turning the three-dimensional image flat, the spiral clear even to me in the hidden passageway.

I pulled back from the eyehole to blink in the dim corridor. My friends were at their own spy holes, eagerly watching what was unfolding in the office. I pressed my face against the wall again, trying to hear what was being said. It was faint, probably due to the thickness of the walls.

“As you can see, the block in the ley lines corresponds to the trajectory of the manducares,” Grandfather was saying. “We need to go and help them.”

“Manducares are dangerous creatures,” Headmistress Blackthorn insisted. “They should be wiped from existence.”

Grandfather frowned. “I expected a little more understanding from one of the greatest witches of our age.”

“They weredesignedfor this exact purpose,” Professor Dunlop said.

“How do we know they weren’t part of the problem as well?” the headmistress said.

“Because the timelines don’t align!” Grandfather shouted. “We have the diary entries from over two thousand years ago, along with the scientific notes on the genetic manipulation that created the creatures—”

“Genetics weren’t known back then,” Headmistress Blackthorn interrupted triumphantly.

“Merlin’s hairy ballsack!” Grandfather swore loudly, throwing his hands in the air.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

“Akhtar, talk some sense into this woman. I can’t deal with illogical thinking.” My grandfather threw himself into a chair.

“As Declan has explained, Siobhan found diary entries in her grimoire, dating back to the last time the ley lines vanished. In their notes, they try several solutions to fix them, including creating these creatures. I know genetics weren’t a thing back then, they didn’t use that word. They bred the creatures the hard way, for specific traits, just like the monks did with the peas in Austria much later.” Professor Akhtar’s voice was calm, but I detected a bite of impatience. “Might I remind you that the Quran opens with descriptions of genetics, and it was written even earlier than the monk’s experiments with peas.”

“We are getting bogged down with semantics,” Professor Dunlop took over. “It doesn’t matter how, or when, these things took place. We have a problem, we have a solution, and we don’t actually need your permission to go to Australia to implement it. It would make it easier if we had your cooperation, but…” he trailed off.

“But I know about the manducare hoard,” Headmistress Blackthorn said, one hand at her throat.

“You do,” Grandfather said, bushy eyebrows furrowed. “What do you plan to do with that information?”

“I could tell the ministry,” she said.

“It’s out of their jurisdiction,” Professor Dunlop growled. “Their reach must have grown since I last dealt with them if they think they can wipe out an entire species on the other side of the world.”

“They can communicate with the Australian ministry, explain the situation,” the headmistress said frantically.

“Australia isn’t having an issue with the ley lines.Yet,” Grandfather said forebodingly. “If we don’t act quickly, they’re going to have more trouble than they know what to deal with, and the manducare won’t be around to help if they’re all killed off.”

“They eat magic!” the headmistress whined. I’d never seen her so out of control like this. Professor Wright had really done a number on her. “We can’t let them live! We’d all behumanin a few years!”

Grandfather scowled darkly. “You say ‘human’ like it’s a bad thing. At least we’d be alive. That’s not something the Australians will be able to say when the Gràineileachd wakes up.”

The headmistress scoffed. “Children’s stories.”

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