Page 57 of Monster's Baby

He hugged me tightly.“If your performance at the accuracy event was anything like tonight, I’m sorry I missed it.You were brilliant.”

I waved aside his praise.“You’re biased.”

“You’ll see once you get your score.”

“Look at them,” I said, pointing over his shoulder at the other competitors.They were doing tricks on various flying objects.Most seemed to be brooms, but there were bicycles, skateboards, and surfboards, among others.“They’re doing more complex tricks than I was.I thought I was going to throw up the entire time.”

Grandfather chuckled.“And yet, you were still brilliant.”

“Thanks,” I said bashfully.

“I have something for you,” he said, picking up my surfboard and leading me to the side of the tent.

“You figure out how to trap the thief?”

He nodded, and took a small box out of his jacket pocket.

I shrank my board down to a miniature.The gold glittered in the lights and I smiled, pleased with my abilities.

“These are glass,” Grandfather said, drawing my attention to the ruby earrings in the box he’d opened.“I bought them in town this morning.And then I added two spells onto them.Tell me what they are.”

That was a fun challenge.I cast a spell on my vision to help me see what he’d added.“One is a cleaning charm,” I said at last.“Keep infection away from the wearer?”

Grandfather nodded, pleased.“And?”

“And it looks like something to do with antiques?Protection from damage or something.”

“That’s right.Almost right, that is.”He looked proud of himself.“I twisted the protection spell to include protection from theft.”

“Oh, that’s clever,” I said, grinning at him.“The thief won’t realize that the theft will be tracked if he checks the spells on them.”

“Very good.Once they’re stolen, it’s a simple matter of searching for the protection spell.Only the owner can find them, so I am giving these to you.”

“Thank you.You shouldn’t have,” I teased.

“Keep quiet about the properties of the earrings,” Grandfather cautioned.“Tell only those you must.”

I nodded solemnly.“Got it.”

“Tomorrow night is the Dragon Polo event,” Grandfather continued.“I have a standing meeting with a friend in town, so I won’t be able to make it.Have fun!”

“How do you know what event it is?”I asked.

“The dragons have to be prepared for the event,” he said with a chuckle.“You just have to know who to ask.”

CHAPTER14

I wassurprised at how exhausted I was when we returned home from Cairo after the event.Europe had come second, only a handful of points behind Oceania.

To be honest, I was pretty damn proud of myself.

Professor Dunlop had put Professor Reynolds to bed in his own room, expanded to make space for the child, and had told us to go to sleep.

Aiden suggested fooling around, but once I was lying down, my eyes closed in a blink and I fell asleep the next second.

He teased me about it the next morning.

The day passed in a bit of a blur.I had my office hours, wherein I helped absolutely nobody, and managed to write ten pages of my thesis.

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