Bethany put her hand on Owen's chest. "Maybe we should have gotten him out before the whole robot heart thing?"

"I also got an input for computer chips, too," Owen said, showing her the back of his neck.

Bethany's eyes widened, and she dropped her head into her hands. Kiel smiled wider and patted her on the back. "It'll be fine," he told her. "We can cover that up with magic or something."

"You don't know any magic!"

"I bet he does," Kiel said, pointing to Owen, who giggled happily at being pointed at by Kiel Gnomenfoot. Even if he did have to go back to playing Kiel and therefore dying.

"Sleep time?" Owen asked.

"Just about," Kiel said. "Tell me one thing. What happened to Charm? She wasn't in the hallway with you when we snuck you out."

Owen's smile faded. "She got hurt. She saved me when the Scientific Method exploded. She thought I was you, though. I like her lots." He sniffed loudly. "I hope she's okay after all of this."

Kiel's face clouded over. "Hurt? Where is she now?"

"Dr. Verity has her," Owen said sadly. "Maybe if I don't die right away, I can try to magic her away or something? I don't know that spell, but I'll still try."

"You do that," Kiel said. "Sleep now, Owen. I'll take things from here."

"Sleep now," Owen said, and leaned back into his bed, a relaxed smile on his face.

As he started to close his eyes, Owen saw Kiel Gnomenfoot, Bethany, and some other random guy step away from his bed, which was now much bigger than it'd ever been, surrounded by curtains and marble and all kinds of rich things.

"Well, it's time," Kiel said from a short distance away now. "Take me back."

"You can't go back to just . . . die," Bethany said, before turning to the random guy. "You. I rescued you from a truly insane horror book, which we will never speak of again, so you owe me. Do something about this!"

"I can't!" the random guy said. "I set all of this up back in book two. Kiel was always meant to . . . um . . ."

"I know," Kiel said. "I knew it was coming. Take me back, Bethany. It's the only way to save everyone."

Bethany paused, then nodded. She took Kiel's hand, gave him a look, then threw her arms around him and hugged him close. Aww! Why did she get Kiel hugs? Then the two of them disappeared into a book.

A moment later, just as Owen started to fall asleep, Bethany came shooting out of the book and turned to the older man.

"I don't care what you've set up," Bethany said to him. "This is not happening. I'm not letting anything happen to him. To either of them!"

"You can't change the story!" the older man said. "The books have already been published!"

"Doesn't matter," Bethany said. "Get ready to rewrite it."

Wait . . . Bethany said that? Even in his dreamlike state, Owen couldn't believe that.

"You and me," Bethany said to the older man. "We're going to fix this. You're going to find a plot hole, and I'm going to use it."

"But my book doesn't have . . . Okay, there are a bunch, but-"

"Where's the closest one to the end here?"

"Well, probably . . . this one." He pointed to a page.

"Good. Watch over Owen. I'll be right back. Oh, and just a real quick note for later-there's a full-size version of the Magister's tower on your lawn, so I'd just tell everyone they're making a Kiel Gnomenfoot movie. Seems like the best excuse."

"Wait, what?" the older man yelled.

But Bethany disappeared into a book, and Owen fell asleep. And thankfully, all he had were amazing dreams of Hogwarts letters telling him he'd just been named High King of Narnia, without a robot heart in sight.

CHAPTER 44.

Kiel's eyes opened to Science Soldiers standing on all sides of him, powerful robotic arms holding him down. "What . . . what happened?" he said, struggling against the robots.

"You're awake!" said a voice, and Dr. Verity leaped forward, his face stopping just inches from Kiel's. "Finally! I wanted to wait to actually open the vault until you'd be here to see it too."

"Don't do this, Verity," Kiel said, staring at the doctor with fury in his eyes. "You can't. Billions will die!"

"Say it, Kiel," Dr. Verity said, turning his back to the boy magician. "SAY IT!"

"Say . . . what?"

"Tell me to HAVE A HEART!" Dr. Verity shouted, then broke into maniacal laughter.

"Yikes," Owen said to Bethany as they read the final Kiel Gnomenfoot book together. "That was awful. I wish you'd said something to Mr. Porterhouse about his puns."

"Shh, I'm reading," Bethany told him.

"Listen to me," Kiel said. "They're innocent people who did nothing to you. I can't let you do this!"

"Actually, you can," Dr. Verity said. "The bomb's prepared, and just needs a power source. Now, where did I put my Source again?" He grinned. "Ah, right. Behind this door!" He gestured behind him, as if pulling aside a curtain. "Ta-da! See? I can do magic too!"

Behind the doctor lay a door with seven locks, each a different size and connected to large glowing energy bands that spread over the entire door. It was almost impossible to tell from looking at them if they were made from electricity or magic, but either way, the energy looked deadly.

"Want to do the honors?" Dr. Verity asked. "Or are you all tied up?"

"Did he always make these crazy-person kinds of jokes?" Bethany asked Owen.

"He's a mad scientist," Owen said with a shrug. "This is the mad part."

Kiel just gritted his teeth, struggling against his bonds, so the doctor shrugged and stuck the First Key into the lock. "Ah, fresh from a dragon's h.o.a.rd," he said, sniffing the key. "Mmm . . . you can really smell the fact that this dragon's not going to exist in about two minutes!"

"I know forbidden magic, Verity," Kiel said. "I'll use it if I have to."

"Ah ah ah," Dr. Verity said, holding up what looked like a tiny box with a large red b.u.t.ton on it. "Remember, you're the one with a robot heart. Shouldn't make a deal with the devil if you can't pay the price, boy." He laughed. "I added a little part of my own during surgery. If I even hear a word of magic, just one word, I'll push this b.u.t.ton, and your new little heart goes BOOM."

"Wait, what?" Owen said. "The robot heart is in my chest, not in the actual real Kiel's! If he pushes it, will my heart explode out here?"

"Of course not," Bethany said. "Maybe he won't push it?"

"Oh, he's gonna push it," Owen said, then shouted into the pages. "Kiel, stop him!"

"You know he can't hear you, right?"

"I'm the one whose heart might explode, so he'd better hear me."

"You wouldn't dare," Kiel said to Dr. Verity as the scientist turned the Second Key. "We had a deal."

"This key was hidden in the future, wasn't it?" Dr. Verity said, ignoring Kiel. "I hear there are interesting news reports there. Something about how you died of a broken heart?"

Kiel screamed in frustration. "I won't let this happen!"

The Third Key clicked in the lock. "Oh, but you already did. You've done this all for me. Finding the keys, playing the role of dangerous criminal to convince the Quanterians that Magisteria was on the verge of revolt. Everything I needed, you did!" He glanced between the the Third and Fourth Keys. "Now which one was melted, then hidden in the ice in the lair of the Ice Giants? I can never remember."

Kiel closed his eyes and began to cast a spell.

"NO!" Owen shouted, then grabbed his heart protectively.

"What did I say?" Dr. Verity screamed, then pushed his b.u.t.ton over and over. "Die, Kiel Gnomenfoot! DIE!"

But nothing happened.

Bethany grinned and patted the now breathing Owen on his shoulder.

Kiel laughed, and his bindings burned in a green fire, releasing him. "Oh, are things not going as planned?"

Dr. Verity raised an eyebrow, then pushed the b.u.t.ton several more times. "What's wrong with this thing?" he said, banging it against a nearby robot.

Kiel mumbled the rest of his spell, and the Science Soldiers fell apart at their joints.

"How did you do that?" Dr. Verity said, his eyes wide. "You've never been able to use magic against science that easily before!"

"Oh, I can do a lot of things I've never done before," Kiel said, his eyes burning a cold green. He held out his hands, and the robotic parts of the Science Soldiers slowly pulled back together. Soon, the robots rose, zombielike, and turned toward Dr. Verity.

"Oh, come on," the scientist said, and made a cutting motion with his hand. Instantly, the zombified robots crumbled to the ground. "Not that old trick. I haven't seen that for a thousand years, but I've got these things programmed to stop at a signal. You'll have to do better than that."

Kiel mumbled another spell, and green energy shot straight for Dr. Verity. The scientist just snorted, and the spell splayed off an invisible bubble surrounding him. "Really? Magic? On me? Don't you get it, Kiel? I came from Magisteria too! I have all the protection I could ever need! Charm spells, protection spells, everything a growing boy could want, all to keep idiots like you from coming anywhere close to me."

"What about idiots like me?" said a voice from behind Dr. Verity.

A metal Science Soldier arm slammed into Dr. Verity, knocking him to the ground. The doctor looked up with a dazed expression to find a second Kiel Gnomenfoot standing behind him with a big grin on his face, and just one energy band left on the vault door. "The Seventh Key," this new Kiel said, holding up a large red key. "It had to come from a heart given selflessly, which mine wasn't. You remember that deal we made, the one where I gave up the key to save my life? That's pretty much the definition of selfish, isn't it? Your key never would have worked." He glanced at the key in his hand. "This one, though, comes from a friend of mine who wasn't using his heart for much longer, after it'd just started beating again today. He offered-selflessly, I might add-and I figured, why not?"

"BUT . . . ," Dr. Verity said, then glanced behind him, only to find that the first Kiel now resembled a half-fleshed skeleton wearing a lab coat.

"Nice to meet you," the First Magician said.

"The First Magician?" Owen said, his eyes wide. "But . . . that was me in there! Then you took me out, and put Kiel in. When did-"

"It was a plot hole," Bethany told him. "Jonathan Porterhouse told me about it. You get the First Magician's heart beating and then don't use it, before he falls apart anyway? It just seemed wasteful. So I went back, grabbed the First Magician, and brought him forward, after a quick disguise spell."

Owen just stared at her. "So just so I'm clear on this: You let me get a robotic heart . . . when I could have just asked the First Magician to give up his heart instead?"

"Seems to be working okay," Bethany said, tapping his chest. "Besides, it's like a thousand times stronger, I bet. You'll live for way longer with that thing!"

Owen just stared at her openmouthed.

She winked.

"Kiel, this fun has taken far too much out of me," the First Magician said wearily. "I wish you all the best, but I've done all I can. It was nice meeting you, the robotic girl, and that other girl, the one who-"

"Right!" Kiel interrupted quickly. "Me and the robotic girl. We enjoyed meeting you, too. Thank you for your service, my friend." Kiel saluted him, and the First Magician smiled back, then crumpled to the ground, disappearing into dust.

"So much for you not getting mentioned in the books," Owen pointed out.

"Don't think I missed you saying my name already," Bethany said.

Owen sighed. "Saw that, did you?"

"NO!" screamed Dr. Verity. "You can't do this! There's something you don't know about the Magister! If you give him the Source of Magic, he'll use it to-"

"Destroy Quanterium?" Kiel said, tossing the Seventh Key from hand to hand. "I know. I figured that out months ago. Who didn't see that coming?"

Dr. Verity blinked. ". . . What? You knew?"

"I know everything," Kiel said. "Just like I know you tried to kill him, but failed."

"You can't know that!" Dr. Verity screamed. "You weren't there!"

"Part of knowing everything," Kiel said, tapping his head. "Don't worry. He's fine. And I've got it on good authority that he won't be hurting anyone, no more than you will. Now, let's see what we've got here." He inserted the Seventh Key and clicked the final lock. The ground began to rumble as the enormous vault door began to slowly pull away from the wall, opening to reveal the Source of Magic, the origin of all unnatural power in the entire universe. . . .

Which apparently looked just like a small pile of books.

"NO!" Dr. Verity screamed from the floor. "Where is my power source? It has to be there!"

Kiel stepped forward, picking up the pile of books and carefully carrying them out of the vault. "Books?" he said, his eyes full of wonder and curiosity. "Honestly? Books? That's what was in there this whole time? After all of this, there are books in the Vault of Containment?" He began to laugh, harder and harder. "That's amazing. I can't wait until she reads this!"

"I wonder who he's talking about there?" Owen said with a wide grin. "Sounds like you two are pretty close friends."

"Shh, we're almost done," Bethany told him, her face turning red like a strawberry.

"That can't be it!" Dr. Verity shouted, and pushed himself to his feet, then past Kiel into the vault. He frantically felt around the empty metal room, searching and scratching the walls for any sign of power. "It has to be here somewhere! The histories all promised a power greater than any other! I need it!"