Amari and the Night Brothers: Chapters 17–24

“You just stepped through a wall of Nightfyre. What you may not know is that Nightfyre isn’t actually a true fire at all, but rather a convergence of naturally occurring free magick and ultraviolet light energy that combusts harmlessly!”

There will be a sleep-in taking place in the training rooms tonight with the goal of fostering camaraderie in the midst of competition.

“It’s believed that boogeypeople were created by the Night Brothers and sent into the camps of enemy armies to terrify them in the night. The result being that armies would arrive on the battlefield drowsy and sluggish.”

“That’s quite enough, young lady. This boogeyperson is our guest. I don’t see how any of that is relevant.”

“Some magicians believe that the Night Brothers created their own spell book—something called the Black Book. Supposedly the most powerful spells a magician can wield. Vladimir was probably the strongest weaver the world’s ever seen.”

Once you've read this entire page, shut this book. Then, with only your pointer and middle fingers extended, wave your hand in front of it and speak the word Dispel.

THE SPELLS AND MUSINGS OF MADAME VIOLET, FOREMOST ILLUSIONIST OF HER ERA

“I like to think I make up for the rather significant, err...beauty gap in other ways. Devilish charm and impeccable character, for instance.”

“The leviathan,” says Dylan, coming up beside me. “One of the seven great beasts.”

Dylan picks me up and spins me around the stage. My arms are flailing and I’m grinning and laughing so hard my stomach aches.

“I told everybody I was taking you to meet my mom. She’s a Crisis Manager in the Department of Half Truths and Full Cover-Ups. She comes up with the cover stories whenever there’s a major secrecy breach. Remember that really bad hurricane we got last year? That was actually all-out war between the merpeople and the ocean nymphs.”

In the center of everything, there’s a really big photo with Quinton and Maria crouching down beside a short elf with a head full of dark leaves and skin like mottled tree bark.

I step past a few more magazine covers with headlines like “Supernatural Citizens of the Year” and “Ten Most Influential Members of the Supernatural World.”

“Being a Special Agent is hard. It has to be a lot of pressure having to protect the whole world. Especially when you get crazy famous and the older agents start to resent you for being promoted to Special Agent ahead of them. I know my sister had a hard time with it.”

“I want to be the one to stop them,” Dylan says solemnly. “Promise you’ll help me make Junior Agent. You know we make a great team.”

“She’s to meet with the Starlight Shaman himself,” says January.

Happy cherubs take aim at grinning couples, and children laugh and dance.

Most of the room is filled with curved tables arranged in concentric circles around the pillar.

On the bad omens side, I see a book titled Cursed or Blessed with Bad Luck? A Subtle but Important Difference.

“That’s for pyromancy. If you really concentrate and stare into the fire for long enough, you’ll start to see glimpses of the future amidst the flames. We’re trained in twelve different methods of fortune-telling.”

And then I watch as Director Horus reaches up to pluck a star right out of the sky. He drops the speck of twinkling light into my palm. Then another...and another. He continues until my hand is covered in a pile of warm, shimmering flecks.

“These are your ancestors. You are descended from great African tribal queens, from fierce warriors who protected the innocent, from renowned travelers who sought the thrill of adventure. Greatness, like all other traits, can be passed down in the blood, from parent to child.”

“There is resilience in your blood too. The willpower to endure seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Though your ancestors were once slaves, their descendants fought for equal rights.”

“There is resilience in your blood too. The willpower to endure seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Though your ancestors were once slaves, their descendants fought for equal rights.”

The director stares intently, and I watch him, anxious to learn what this might mean.

This whole thing has me flustered.

Not trusting humanity to possess both the Black Book and the Black Key, the inaugural Supernatural World Congress bestowed the Black Key upon an anonymous Key Holder whose duty it was to hide and protect it.

Therefore the Supernatural World Congress forbids the Bureau from ever seeking out the key. For if it does, then it has broken its foremost oath and shall be forever dismantled, its members immediately banished from the supernatural world.

Therefore the Supernatural World Congress forbids the Bureau from ever seeking out the key. For if it does, then it has broken its foremost oath and shall be forever dismantled, its members immediately banished from the supernatural world.

She’s the only trainee to be invited to Director Fokus’s Movie Night for the Intellectually Inclined. Apparently, they just sit around watching really boring documentaries that only geniuses would find entertaining.