The Stolen Chapters (21 page)

Then Kiel pulled away, and reality came flooding back. A
fictional
version of Owen? And they'd gotten him involved? He must know everything by now! What had they been thinking? How
could
they—

No. She wasn't going to blame them for breaking the rules, not after she'd done it herself. And it sounded like involving this Owen was her fault too, if Doyle had spoken to him.

“How did you find me?” she whispered, her throat still raw.

“Owen figured it out,” Kiel said, and Bethany caught a slight bit of disappointment in his voice. “After Doyle set his mother's library on fire—”

“WHAT?”

“The fictional version of her library,” Owen said quickly.

“He's a
monster
,” said the other Owen, the fictional version. The one who's mother's library had just burned down. “You need to take him down, or who knows what he'll do next!”

“What did Doyle want with you?” the real Owen asked her.

She gave him a confused look. “You were there when he took us.”

Kiel and regular Owen looked at each other. “We, uh, haven't really remembered everything,” Owen said.

“Doyle made me use the forget spell on the two of us,” Kiel said, looking embarrassed now. “I modified it when I cast it so we'd gradually get our memories back, but it's taking longer than I'd like. I was never that great at changing spells, honestly.”

“So?” Fictional Owen said. “What did Doyle want?”

“Books,” Bethany whispered. “He wanted books.”

“That's it?” Kiel said, raising an eyebrow. “All of this over a few books?”

“Not a few books,” Bethany said. “
Every
book. He wanted me to bring him an electronic copy of every book in the library.
Our
library. All the fiction books it had.”

Owen gasped, but Kiel looked confused. “Why would he want those?”

“He'd have known every secret in the fictional world,” Owen said quietly. “He'd know what people were thinking, what they planned on doing, and when. What more could a detective want? He could solve every mystery before it even started.”

Moira waved a hand at Bethany. “I love this craziness, I really do, but I kinda need to get home soon. Don't want my father finding out I've been gone. Want to pay me now, or . . .”

“I'm still not seeing why the books thing is so bad,” Kiel said. “Granted, he's evil, but solving mysteries isn't the worst thing.”

“It is if you see everyone as a criminal,” Fictional Owen said. “Look what he did to you two, and you're not exactly hardened criminals.”

“Wait, hold up,” Moira said, raising an eyebrow. “What's this, now, about hardened criminals? Tell me you didn't give Doyle this information.”

Bethany looked away, not saying anything.

There was silence for a moment, other than the sound of people shouting above them somewhere.

“So that's it, then,” Fictional Owen said finally. “You've unleashed a monster on us.
Great job
, Bethany.”

“It's not her fault,” Kiel said, stepping between Bethany and the fictional Owen.

“We'll fix this, don't worry,” regular Owen said. “She just needs a chance to rest.”

“So what, we just sit here while Doyle begins his reign of terror?” Fictional Owen said. “You guys can do that if you want. I'm not going to let this happen, though.”

“Hey, just wait for a second,” regular Owen said to, well, himself. “We'll figure something out, and—”

“He's right,” Bethany said, then went silent as the sirens stopped and red and blue lights flashed down through the manhole. That couldn't be good.

She started to get to her feet, and Kiel moved to help, but she pushed him away gently. “Look at what Doyle's done,” she said. “And that was just to punish us. We can't let him have those books. We need to fix this.
I
need to fix this.”

“Even if we get the books back, he'll still know all about you, about the real world,” Owen whispered to her.

“Nonfictional world,” Fictional Owen said.

“Then we use Kiel's forget spell on
him
,” Bethany said.

“Small problem with that,” Kiel said, pointing at his waist. “Doyle has my wands and spell book.”

“Then we get you replacements first,” she said, getting irritated. “Not like we haven't visited the Magister once already.”

“The wands I can re-create,” Kiel said. “But that was my last spell book. The only other one would be my master's, and that's the one Owen ended up using. We can't take that away from him, he'll die.”

“Then we get your spell book back from Doyle,” Bethany shouted, not sure why everyone had to argue. “I'm sure it's in that school of his!”

“That school is the most heavily guarded place on earth,” Fictional Owen told her. “And ignoring the surveillance cameras, the guards, and the electrified fences and doors,
Doyle
is there. He knows what you'll do before you do it. You'd need a miracle to even get close to him.”

“We've got her,” Bethany said, nodding at Moira.

Moira laughed. “Do you? You already owe me more gold than you can possibly pay. Oh,
don't worry
, that's just an expression, you'll totally find a way to pay it. But after that, I'm done. This has been a hugely fun time for me, but I can't be caught doing this. My father finds out, I'm done for.”

“Really?” Bethany said. “A chance to steal something from the descendant of Sherlock Holmes, right out from under his nose? You don't want in?”

Moira snorted. “You'd think I'd care about that, wouldn't you! But that's my mom's thing, not mine.”

“Then it'd be the kind of thing she might notice,” Bethany said quietly, feeling terrible for even mentioning it.

Moira went silent, just staring at her. Finally, she sighed. “I'm in.” There was no excitement or joy in her voice, just resignation.

“I hear voices!” someone shouted from above. “Inspector Brown, I think they're in the sewers!”

They all looked up, but Fictional Owen was the first to move. “Go,” he hissed. “I'll distract the police.”

“What?” Owen said. “You can't, they'll think you're me and throw you in jail!”

Fictional Owen paused for a second, then shook his head and smiled. “They'll have to catch me first. Now go! Go beat Doyle, and get him to admit to everything he's done. The police won't be able to hold me if you win. And you
will
win, Owen. I have faith in you. Be the hero you're meant to be. You can do it. I
know
you can!” And with that, he ran to the ladder and began scampering up it as they saw flashlights approaching through the manhole.

“NO!” Owen shouted, and tried to catch his other self, but Bethany grabbed his hand and stopped him.

“We have to go,” she said, pulling him toward Moira and Kiel. “We'll fix this, and get him out. I promise.”

Owen just looked at her, and she'd never seen so much doubt in his eyes. But finally he nodded, and Bethany grabbed the hands of the other two and jumped them out of the book.

She was so weak, they barely made it past the cover of the book, slipping out in a pile to land on the floor of the library.

One by one, they all stood up, and Bethany faced them each in turn. Kiel, the magicless magician, who still managed to wink at her, though somehow it seemed more forced than usual. Moira, who looked around with wide eyes, then turned back to the book they'd just left in amazement. They'd need Kiel's forget spell for her, too.

And finally, Owen, who met her gaze for just a moment, then turned away, shaking his head.

UGH. She deserved that. But she'd make it up to him. She'd make it up to his fictional self too, and the entire fictional world. She'd fix this, she'd fix
all
of it. She had to.

“Hold up,” Moira said, pointing at
The Baker Street School for Irregular Children
on the floor with a shaking finger. “Did anyone else just see us pop out of that book?” She began to laugh nervously.

Bethany nodded, too tired to talk.

Her visitor had been right. Jumping into books was just too dangerous. As soon as she fixed things with Doyle, that'd be it.

She'd never step foot in the fictional world again.

O
wen wandered through the library's bookshelves, partly to pick out books that Bethany might be able to use as weapons if she needed to, and partly just to reassure himself that the library was still standing. In spite of the craziness of the night, he found himself yawning every few minutes and realized how late it must be.
Wow
, had it been a long night.

And it was only going to get longer for Fowen now.

Why had his other self done it? Bethany could have taken Fowen out too. But instead, he'd done the heroic thing, and now he was probably locked up in jail. Or
worse
, facing his horrified mother.

And in spite of all that, Fowen still believed in him. In both of them. Why? All Owen had done was mess things up. He wasn't the hero that Kiel was. He wasn't even the hero that his fictional self was!

Through the shelves, Owen saw Moira reading
The Baker Street School for Irregular Children
, preparing for the break-in. He and Kiel had managed to calm her down a bit since they'd jumped out. They'd even shown her a copy of her own book. She refused to look at it, though, and only had one question: Did it say anything about where her mother was?

Owen had shaken his head, and since then, she'd just jumped into planning. She'd even come up with a list of tools she'd need, but they'd all been easy to find. In fact, he'd simply had Bethany reach into Moira's book for most of them. Not that he'd told Moira that.

“This is all so crazy, isn't it?” he said to Moira. “That there's a world where people read about you? I just found out the same thing about me today, so I know what it's like.”

“It doesn't matter,” Moira said, not looking up.

“It doesn't bother you at all?” Owen asked.

“
You're
bothering me.” There wasn't a trace of her excited energy now, just annoyance.

“Think about it. Someone can see into your head,” Owen said. Abruptly, he glanced around, wondering if he could see any readers. And then the worst thing in the world occurred to him. “Wait! What about the bathroom? They don't read about you going to the bathroom, do they?”

Moira sighed loudly, but Owen barely heard her. “Maybe that's why they never show people going to the bathroom in books?” He had to go now, in fact, but like
that
was going to happen. If necessary, he'd just hold it for the rest of his life. . . .

“Are you not busy?” Moira said, looking up at the ceiling. “Do you need more to do? Because I can give you a job, or I can shut you up permanently. Those are your two options.”

Owen paused for a moment. “What's bothering you, Moira?”

The Baker Street School for Irregular Children
slammed shut, and Moira's face appeared on the other side of the shelves an instant later. “Permanently it is!” she said, and a hand shot through an empty space to grab for him.

Owen leaped back out of reach. “Just think of this as more rule breaking,” he said. “Because you're totally breaking all kinds of laws of physics just being here!”

Moira didn't reply, and instead tried to shove her arm farther through the shelves.

“Isn't that your whole thing? You love being bad?” Owen asked, stepping back again.

“That's not what this is!” Moira shouted. “Don't you get it?”

“No?” Owen asked. Moira's hand disappeared, and he realized she was coming around the shelves at him, so he quickly circled around, keeping the shelves between them.

“Before, when I was helping you and my Magical Koala escape, that was fun! I love that kind of thing because it doesn't matter. If you two got caught again, it's not like I'd be in trouble.”

“Hey!” Owen said, moving quicker now as she continued following him around the shelves.

“But this?” she said. “This is
important
. I've been trying to get my mother's attention all my life, and nothing I do works.” She stopped abruptly, then switched directions, causing Owen to do the same. “And now we're trying to break into a place that, if I'm reading it right, has some of the best security I've ever heard of. So excuse me if I'm taking this a bit more seriously!”

Owen gave her a confused look. “So it's not because there's a book about you?”

“Who cares!” Moira shouted at him. “What does it matter if people read about me? They should, I'm brilliant! There should be classes taught in how I commit crimes!” She slowed down and sighed. “I'm sorry, Sad Panda. I shouldn't be taking this out on you. I always get a little more stressed out when I'm trying something big. And it doesn't get bigger than this.”

“But you're a criminal genius,” Owen told her. “If anyone can do this, you can.”

“Obviously,” she said, cracking a smile. “But what if
no one
can? That's the part that worries me, Owen. And failing on this kind of stage not only is embarrassing, but will get back to my dad. More importantly, it'll get back to my
mom
. She might not want anything to do with me after that.”

“Your mom loves you,” Owen said, coming around to her side of the shelves, still ready to run if necessary. “Your father said so, and he hates her, so why would he lie?”

Moira snorted. “I don't need a pep talk. All I want is a way to bypass a security system designed to counter every break-in tool that exists.”