Page 39 of Artificial Moon

I shake my head. “Wouldn’t help. I would just teleport right out of it.”

“Then why don’t you teleport out of your clothing?”

I shrug. “I don’t make the rules, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“That said, I do have an idea,” I say. “Tammy, hun, can you come here?”

She snaps her head around while a 4-D Chinese dragon undulates around her ankles. She carefully steps away and comes over to where we’re standing around a table. “Yeah, Ma?”

“You want to help me catch this guy?”

“Hey, I want to help, too!” shouts Ant from the living room, tumbling to his side, then coming up in a full run, skidding to a stop next to me. “Fire Warrior at your service!”

“Actually, kiddo, I’m looking for something a little more subtle.”

Tammy nods, winking at me. “I got you, Ma. Let’s do this.”

Chapter Twenty

We’re alone in one of Andrew’s many guest bedrooms. Tammy stands before me, her eyes glowing faintly with fairy magic.

I hold the image of the stolen yacht in my mind—but first, we need to get small.

“Are you ready for this, Ma?” Tammy asks, smirking. “I don’t think I’ve shrunk you before.”

“Do it,” I say.

Tammy mutters an incantation under her breath, and a rush of shimmering light engulfs us both. The world expands around me in an instant, everything growing massive as we shrink down to the size of mice. The air feels denser, too, and my voice—when I try to speak—comes out impossibly tiny.

I glance over at Tammy. Even shrunken, she looks smug, clearly pleased with herself and her abilities.

“Are you okay?” she asks me.

I nod. “Let’s go.”

Taking Tammy’s hand, I summon the single flame and see within it the stolen yacht’s deck. I step toward the wavering flame as the image of the yacht rushes to meet me. The sensation is familiar—weightlessness, the cold rush of space folding around me—and then, just as quickly, we appear aboard the yacht, which is rocking and swaying in the ocean just off the Southern California coast.

The deck is vast from our new perspective, the wooden planks stretching like highways. The ocean’s salty scent is invigorating. The thrum of the engines vibrates beneath our tiny feet. We scamper forward, darting into the shadows like a pair of two-legged—and super cute—mice.

From our vantage point, we can see everything. And it’s worse than I expected.

Henchmen—dozens of them—line the deck and the walkways, each armed with revolvers, undoubtedly loaded with silver bullets, if the tingling in my teeth is any indicator. And considering my inner alarm has remained silent, it appears we’ve fooled all on board. And no, they’re not just standing around. They’rewaiting. This was a trap all along.

Tammy hisses, her teeny-tiny voice heard only by me. “Norm set this up. I bet he’s not even onboard, and long gone.”

To where, I haven’t a clue. Yachts of this size often have smaller boats attached. Likely he escaped in one of those or the speedboat I’d seen him get in; in fact, he might not have ever made it onto this vessel. Just arranged for it to be dramatically stolen, complete with security footage.

I grit my teeth, scanning the ship, consider my next move. The captain’s quarters. That’s where some answers will be.

I tell Tammy to follow me, and she does just that. Soon, we’re sprinting across the deck, dodging boots the size of trucks. No one notices the two tiny intruders sneaking beneath their noses; shortly, we reach the starboard side of the ship and follow the curve of the hull until we reach the captain’s quarters. There, we slide under a crack in the door itself. The captain is in there, standing over a small table.

I gesture to Tammy, and she nods. A moment later, she whispers another spell, and I feel myself stretching, expanding, growing back to my normal size.

Weird, and kind of fun.

Tammy stays small, tucked into my pocket, just in case we need stealth magic.

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