Page 91 of The Tree of Spirits
He shrugged. “Often enough. I find it best not to indulge him when he gets like this.”
“Ah, look at you two talking about me like I’m not even here!” He wrapped an arm around each of us. “You already have eyes for no one else.”
I peeked behind his back at Kato. “It’s going to be hard to ignore him if we’re all working together to stop the Templars.”
“Yes, I’malreadyregretting my decision,” Kato said earnestly. “Now let’s get to work before I change my mind.”
CHAPTER 3
QUESTING FOR BREAKFAST
You couldn’t set off on an important Quest on an empty stomach. So Kato, Conner, and I went to the hideout for some much-needed breakfast.
“Anyone up for pancakes?” Conner asked, pulling a flour sack out of the grocery bag he’d set on the counter.
I raised my hand. I was starving.
“Fine, but I’m making them.” Kato snatched the mixing bowl right out of his hands. “You always put too much sugar in the batter.”
“Hey, what can I say? I have a sweet tooth.” Conner winked at me.
“You can sweeten the batter naturally with orange juice.” Kato grabbed a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice from the counter. Took a taste. Nodded in approval. Then emptied the rest of the glass into the mixing bowl.
“Hey, that took me like a whole thirty seconds to squeeze!” Conner protested.
Kato started stirring the batter. “Your work ethic is impressive.”
“Hey, was that a joke I heard?” Conner looked at me, grinning. “Way to go, Red! You helped him find his long-lost sense of humor!”
Kato batted Conner’s hand away before he could taste the batter.
“I’m famished,” I said as I watched the first pancakes start to sizzle in the pan.
“Then you shall have the first batch,” Kato promised me.
I grinned at him.
“You will need your strength. And that means consuming lots of calories.” Kato pointed the spatula at the pancakes.
They smelled so good, I had to stop myself from grabbing them out of the hot pan, gooey batter and all.
“The Templars sure won’t be playing around,” Conner said. “We’ll need a lot of magic to defeat them, especially when they’re wearing those techno suits. With those suits, they can fight a lot longer before their endurance runs out.”
“Ah, right. Performing magic requires endurance,” I said.
“Aww, you remember what I told you yesterday.” Conner looked very pleased about that.
“It’s kind of hard to forget passing out on your sofa.”
“You passed out?” Kato flipped the pancakes. “You pushed her too hard, Conner.”
“Hey, we had to act fast. Someone had to save your precious Watchers before they got pulled into Shadow Fall. Or worse. You know how it works, Kato. The longer you’re invisible, the greater the risk of your getting pulled into Shadow Fall—or even deeper, more menacing dimensions.”
I winced. “That sounds dangerous.”
“That’s where the magic stamina comes in, Red. While you’re invisible, you’re in an area hovering just over the dimensional divide. You need to use your magic to anchor yourself there, so you don’t get pulled under.” He glanced at Kato. “I think we canall agree that the Watchers don’t have any magic stamina. So as soon as the big splash of the initial spell faded, they’d get pulled under very quickly.”
Kato spun the spatula in his hand. “Forget the Watchers.”
