“Thank magic! I was worried you’d never speak again.”
“Why?”
“Because you weren’t talking at all last night. For heaven’s snakes, Simon, what happened to you?”
“I…” I’m lying on my stomach. I try to roll onto my back, but can’t—the wings must still be there. Just thinking about them makes them spread out again, and they knock Penny over.
“Simon!”
“Sorry!” I say, trying to pull them back. “Sorry.”
Penny takes the edge of one wing and rubs it between her thumb and forefinger. “Are these permanent?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “Not intentionally.”
“We coated you in spells yesterday, and none of them did anything.”
“Who’s we?”
“Me, my parents. Do you even remember coming here?”
“Sort of… I remember flying. I didn’t recognize London. From above. So I had to go to the Eye, then sort of half-fly down the streets to find your house. I’ve only ever come here before on the Tube.”
“I wonder if anyone saw you.”
“I don’t know. I tried to think about being invisible—”
“You what?”
I close my eyes now and think about the wings. I think about how I don’t need them anymore. I feel the magic welling up in me. (The magic is always welling up in me lately. Always coming up the back of my throat.) I think about how I don’t want to fly, then I think about pulling the wings back into my back.
When I open my eyes again, Penny is staring at me, her hand empty where the wing had been. She looks spooked. “What did you just do?”
“Got rid of the wings.”
“What about the tail?”
I reach down and feel a ropy, leathery tail. “Jesus.” I think hard about getting rid of it, and it zips through my hand, scratching my palm on its way back into my body.
“Why did you evenhavea tail?” Penny asks.
“I don’t know,” I answer, sitting up. “I must have been thinking about that dragon.”
“Simon…” She’s shaking her head. “Whathappenedlast night?”
“The Humdrum,” I say. “He attacked me at Baz’s house. He tried to use Baz against me.”
“He created the biggest hole in Great Britain!”
“What?”
“My dad got the call this morning. All of Hampshire is gone.”
“What?”
“Dad and the team are there now, but the Pitches told them they can’t come on their land. They’re calling it an act of war.”
“By the Humdrum?”
