"This is your home," the voice said. "You are living out the story of your life. A mistake was made here, a mistake that will haunt you for years to come."

"I'll . . . I'll change it," Bethany said, and took a step toward the living room, not knowing what the mistake was, but feeling like that's where she ought to be. "I'll fix things. Whatever went wrong, I'll make it right."

"Will you?" the voice asked, and suddenly Bethany froze, unable to move. She struggled against whatever invisible bonds held her, but they tightened even more in response.

From the other room the girl in the blue dress yelled in surprise and happiness. All the other kids shouted too. Something about a gift.

"This is your life, Bethany," said the deep voice. "Yet you are not in control here. You have no power. Your life happens here, now, at my will, and you have no power to change it."

"No," Bethany whispered, and something in her mind screamed that she'd been here before, seen all of this. Years and years ago . . . The memory was so hazy, though. Why couldn't she think?

"What is it?" the man in the other room asked.

"A book!" shouted the girl in the blue dress.

The woman in the dining room next to Bethany froze in place, then dropped the plates she was holding back to the table. "No," she whispered, just like Bethany had.

"How does this feel, Bethany?" asked the deep voice. Time seemed to slow down as Bethany watched the woman start to run to the other room, her mouth open like she was screaming something.

And then Bethany was moving with her, too slowly to do anything, too slowly to change anything, just fast enough to reach the doorway to the living room at the exact same point as the woman, as her mother. . . .

The empty living room. Empty but for a few wrapped gifts, a couple of toys, and a book lying open on the couch right in the middle of everything.

"NO!" her mother screamed, and she ran for the book, time speeding up again.

"NO!" Bethany screamed as well. "Not again! This isn't happening again!"

"Come back!" her mother screamed at the book, her voice breaking. She sc.r.a.ped at the pages desperately, as if she could reach through and pull someone out. "Please, no, come back, Bethany, my little girl!"

As her mother screamed, Bethany turned away, unable to watch and more angry than she'd ever felt in her life. "Why are you showing me this?" she shouted at the voice. "Why are you torturing me?!"

"You have to see how it feels to live a life out of your control," the voice told her. "A life that chooses for you. A story controlled by another, putting you through horrible things for the entertainment of others. This is what you would have for me, and for my people. Do you see now, Bethany?"

"This is some sort of lesson?" Bethany shouted as her mother fell to the couch, sobbing, the book clutched to her chest. "You put me through this just to make a point? How could you!"

"Perhaps I did," said the voice. "But the lesson isn't over."

Abruptly, a tiny hand reached out of the book.

Bethany's mother shouted in surprise and grabbed the hand, pulling it and the body that followed out of the book. It was one of the children from the party, with another following right behind. Another, then another child climbed from the book, some crying, some seemingly happy.

Finally, the girl in the blue dress climbed out, a huge grin on her face. "Did you see, Mommy?" the girl asked excitedly. "Did you see what I did?"

"Where is your father, Bethany?" her mother yelled, holding the girl tightly by the shoulders. "Please, tell me where he is!"

"Perhaps stories might still be changed," said the voice of the Magister, "when writers are no longer in control of them."

The little girl's face grew determined, and she leaned back into the book, her arm completely disappearing, only to grunt and pull back out.

And holding her hand tightly was a man's hand, a hand that then grabbed the edge of the book and pulled. And there, just moments later, stood her father.

Her mother cried out, grabbing the man and hugging him tightly.

"Let's not give her any more books for now," her father said, and hugged little Bethany and her mother closely.

CHAPTER 32.

Charm's robot arm slammed Owen backward, smacking him against the wall as the First Magician's green magic bolt exploded right in the spot Owen had been lying. "We're in a little trouble here!" Charm shouted, tossing a ray gun at him. "No more magic, just shoot them!"

The First Magician aimed green magic at both of them, and Owen ducked as Charm took a hit in her robotic arm. The arm shuddered, then turned on Charm and began to clutch at her throat, as if it had a mind of its own.

Charm shouted in surprise, then shot her arm off at her elbow, letting it fall to the ground. The robotic arm hit hard but kept coming, clawing and sc.r.a.ping its way at her until Charm shot it over and over with her ray gun.

This is a horror book. What had changed? There'd never been any horror in Kiel Gnomenfoot, but now it was coming out of the walls! Was this meant to happen in the story, or was it because Owen had done something different than Kiel would have?

If Bethany was okay and he lived through all of this, he'd gladly sit for hours while she told him how stupid he'd been, and how right she was about everything. Hours.

A moaning Science Soldier zombie grabbed for him, and he yanked away, firing his ray gun at the creature. Holes exploded in the robot's chest, but it didn't stop coming until Charm dropped a computer monitor on its head.

"Watch out!" he shouted at her as the First Magician turned to them again. Owen aimed his ray gun at the zombie, but Charm pushed the gun off course before he could fire.

"Don't kill him! We need to know where the last key is!"

"I don't care!" Owen shouted at her. "That almost got us killed in the Original Computer, and it's definitely going to kill us here!"

Charm just stared at him. "Wait. It's the same trap. The same one, Kiel! Someone set these up to protect the Seventh Key. The viruses were the science version, and this is the magic version!"

"So?"

"Magic saved us last time, so maybe science will work here." She felt around in her pocket and pulled out a tiny field medical pack, then tensed, like she was looking for an opening to move.

"What are you doing?" Owen shouted at her, shooting his ray gun at the robot zombies behind her.

"Fixing this," Charm said, pulling open the med pack with her teeth and shaking something out into her remaining hand.

The zombie blasted green magic at them, and this time Owen couldn't move fast enough. The blast hit the spell book under his arm, and the book began to shudder and shake. He quickly dropped it to the ground, where it began to drool and s...o...b..r, using its cover to drag itself over toward Charm.

"AAH!" he shouted, shooting the spell book over and over until it stopped.

Well. That was it for any more spells, then.

"I'm going," Charm said, jumping past him and the now-dead spell book, weaving in and out so the First Magician zombie couldn't get a fix on her. "Cover me!"

Owen just gritted his teeth, his eyes everywhere at once. The zombie robots were about to overwhelm him from behind, but every time he tried to shoot them, the First Magician almost zombified him. And now Charm was actually running straight at the undead creature? With a first aid pack?

The First Magician raised his hands together, forming an enormous ball of the same green magic just as Charm reached him. "Hope this works," she muttered, then smacked the item from the med kit right into the zombie's chest. It stuck there, a white square of plastic with a big red b.u.t.ton on its front. Charm slammed her hand on the b.u.t.ton, then jumped away.

Thousands of volts of electricity jolted into the zombie's chest, and the green ball of magic went careening off into the back of the cave somewhere. The First Magician toppled over, still shaking and shuddering, while Charm just grabbed her ray gun with her now-free hand and aimed it at him warily.

The shaking stopped, and the magician didn't move again.

"I thought you said not to kill him!" Owen shouted at her, finally able to turn his attention to the shambling robotic zombie horde shuffling toward them. For every robot he shot, two more zombies rose from the ground, replacing their fallen comrade.

Charm kicked the First Magician. "Huh. Thought that'd work."

"Work? Shooting him full of electricity?"

Charm stared to reply, then leaped backward with ray gun raised as the First Magician began to cough, then slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Ah," he said in a dusty and rarely used voice. "Guests!"

"Shoot him, he's awake!" Owen shouted, and turned his ray gun on the First Magician.

"Don't!" Charm shouted. "He's going to be okay. I restarted his heart."

"You what?!"

"Ah, the robots," the First Magician said with a frown. "I'd forgotten about them. I never did like robots much. What say we do away with them?" He gestured, and green magical energy swept out, playing like lightning through each of the zombie Science Soldiers. As the magic touched them, the robots immediately dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Owen looked at Charm, who grinned for maybe the first time ever. "Science wins again," she said.

"Excuse me for a moment," the First Magician said, waving his hand over himself. "I just want to tidy up a bit." A long white coat grew out from his clothes like a living thing, covering his tattered outfit and decaying skin. Gla.s.ses pushed up from his face, and sensible brown shoes from his feet, along with a pair of brown pants. All in all, he looked like nothing more than- "A scientist?" Owen blurted out.

The First Magician raised an eyebrow. "Well, of course I was. Once. But that's not important right now. You're probably here to ask me about the Seventh Key, I would suppose?"

"I'm Charm Mentum of Quanterium, and this is Kiel Gnomenfoot of Magisteria," Charm said. "And yes, we're looking for the Seventh Key. The current leader of Quanterium, Dr. Verity, is about to destroy Magisteria with an army from alternate dimensions. We need your help to open the Vault of Containment so we can use the Source of Magic against him."

The zombie nodded. "Ah, I can see why you would need the Seventh Key, then. Are the two planets still really at war? Seems like yesterday we invented magic, left Quanterium, and formed Magisteria, just to stave off that kind of problem."

"Invent magic?" Charm asked.

"Form a planet?" Owen said.

The First Magician started to say something, then seemed to almost faint. He grabbed for the circuit-covered throne, while Owen rushed forward to help him. "I don't have much time," the zombie said. "I used the science in this cave to keep my body preserved, in the hopes that someone would come along and use the throne's circuitry to reanimate me." He looked from Owen to Charm. "I suppose you two found a different way."

"Kiel's fault," Charm said. Kiel gave her an indignant glare.

"But I think we've reached even the limits of science," the Magician continued. "This body is just too old. As for the key, I must pa.s.s my secret along before I sleep once more, if the danger is so great. Everything was arranged to ensure that neither Quanterian nor Magisterian could ever find all seven keys without the other's help." He smiled gently at Charm and Owen. "You two seem to be exactly what I'd hoped for."

Charm snorted. Owen just shook his head. The First Magician probably wouldn't be thrilled to learn that one of them wasn't a magic-user so much as a kid from the real world who'd been magically disguised to look like one.

"The Seventh Key doesn't actually exist, not anymore," the Magician said, then keeled over in pain. When Charm tried to help him, he shook his head. "We destroyed it after locking the vault. But it can be re-created. The magic of the vault ensures that only a person with a truly selfless intent may open it, and that's where the final key comes in. Re-forming the key requires a heart that wishes to open the door for others, not for him or herself."

"That's a little metaphoric," Charm said, flashing Owen the look that she gave him whenever magic impossibilities came up. "How exactly do we remake the key?"

"I just told you," the First Magician said, then coughed hard. "The heart of a selfless individual. Remove the heart from the body, and the key will emerge from the heart itself."

"Wait . . . what?" Owen said. "Actually remove the heart? Wouldn't that kill the person?"

"Of course," the First Magician said. "But what selfless person wouldn't be willing to die for their cause?"

Was he joking? Heroes in books didn't die! Sometimes they thought they might, and were willing to, but they never actually did. That'd be a horrible ending. There must be some twist here. There had to be!

Charm seemed lost in thought as well, finally turning to Owen. "Actually, that explains some things."

"Explains?" Owen asked, barely able to concentrate on what she was saying. "It doesn't explain anything!"

"Remember back when we went to the future to find the Second Key?" she said. "Remember how we saw all those historical stories about you dying? They all said you died after losing your heart." She awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. "We thought that meant you gave up. Guess it wasn't metaphor there, either."

CHAPTER 33.

Happy birthday, Bethany," her father said, removing his hands from her eyes.

Bethany gasped. "A Pegasus?" She ran toward the pitch-black winged horse with eyes blazing red and hooves sharp as knives. "You got me a Pegasus!"

"Be careful!" her father yelled after her. "Those hooves can cut through steel, and he's a man-eater!"

"I will!" Bethany yelled, then ducked under the creature's snapping jaws as she ran, only to throw her arms around his neck and swing herself up and around onto his back. "No reins?"

"Do you need them?" her father yelled.

"Nope!" she shouted, and nudged the startled Pegasus in the side. "Let's fly, boy!"

The winged horse had never had a rider on its back and didn't exactly know how to react to Bethany being there. First, he tried bucking her, which didn't so much as budge her. Next, he took off, and tried to fly close enough to trees and underhanging rocks to sc.r.a.pe her right off his back.

"I know all these tricks, boy," she said, yelling in his ear over the rushing wind. "A centaur taught me everything anyone could ever know about riding horses. But do what you have to. I can wait!"

From the ground her father waved over and over, while her mother stood shaking her head in disappointment. Bethany laughed loudly, knowing that her mother had probably said no to her father getting Bethany a fictional creature for a pet, and that her father had just gone ahead and done it anyway. Sneakily.

As her new Pegasus began to slowly realize that Bethany wasn't going anywhere, and that maybe cooperation might be better, things began to smooth out, and the ride grew a bit less exciting.

That wasn't going to work.

"Yah!" Bethany said, and nudged the creature in the side again. "We're not gonna do boring on our first ride! Let's go find Hercules or something and help him fight monsters!"