Theron woke up sweating. Something had hit him from behind, so hard he’d conked out. That had never happened before. He winced as he moved. His wrist and hand throbbed like his arm was broken. He worked it back and forth. Not broken. Just whacked really good. He felt weak and shaky, and he shook his head to clear it.
It was really hot in here. He wiped a hand across his wet face, pushing back his hair. He was behind bars made of lava rock that stretched along this side of the circular room. The room was short and fat and shaped like the inside of a flying saucer. The ceiling sloped all the way down to meet the floor, except in two places. The first was on the far side: a giant metal door with fist-sized rivets, shut tight. There was also a normal-sized door to his right at the end of the row of bars. That one was open.
Well, they weren’t going to keep him in a cage. He reached into his pocket for his knight figure.
It was gone.
“Looking for something?” Jimmy Schmindly appeared in the normal-sized doorway. He walked into the room, looking through the bars at Theron with a smile. He held up Theron’s silver comet stone as though inspecting it.
Pins prickled across Theron’s scalp. Fear. He hated fear.
A little spider made of silver metal rested on Jimmy’s wrist. As Jimmy gestured, it moved, resettled, but stayed on his arm. A spark of flame bounced around his shoulders.
“No stone. No Mirror Man,” he said. “And the spectacular just flies away, doesn’t it?” He flipped the stone and caught it.
“Lorelei is coming for you,” Theron said.
“Counting on it,” he said. “Whole plan would fall apart without it.” He flipped the stone again and caught it.
“She can just erase you from existence,” Theron said.
Jimmy stopped flipping the stone and looked at Theron. “You know, she could,” he said. “But she won’t.”
“She will.”
“She won’t, and you know she won’t. She only goes so far.”
“Good thing for you.”
“It is.” Jimmy paused, looked at the stone again, then back at Theron. “Wanna hear a secret?”
“Why would you tell me a secret?”
“I wasn’t even supposed to come to the Wishing World,” he said. “Dad didn’t think I had it in me. Didn’t think I could make it,” He looked past Theron, past the sloped room to somewhere else. “He thought Tabitha was going to get him into Wishing World. Then I got my comet stone, and I left him behind.” Jimmy blinked, then turned and looked at Theron again. “And I learned I was bigger than him. I got the castle I wanted. Went to the places I wanted. I had ratsharks and beetlins and my Octo-gone. I had everything except loving parents. So I took those, too. Except that didn’t work. That brought Lorelei . . .”
“Good,” said Theron.
Jimmy nodded. “Yeah,” he whispered. “You probably want me to get mad. But here’s the thing: I thought I had it all, and then along comes Lorelei and shows me how small I really was.” He paused, flipped the stone again, and smiled at Theron. “I owe her a thank-you for that. Because of her, I know what’s most important. If you’re not the biggest,” he flipped the stone, “then someone like Lorelei just crushes you.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Theron asked.
Jimmy looked down at the bouncing spark on his shoulder and said, “Go show him.” The spark bounced across the room, turning into twenty sparks along the way. Some of them skittered up the wall, lighting torches on the sloped ceiling and on the tunnel walls that led to the huge door. It was probably twice as tall as HuggyBug, made of iron, and the metal was pocked and rough like someone had shot it with a hundred guns. There was no handle.
Theron wrinkled his brow.
“What is that?” he asked.
“Everything,” Jimmy said. He flipped the silver figurine up into the air and caught it again. “Lorelei’s going to make me bigger than her.”
“Lorelei’s going to turn you into a pee stain,” Theron said.
Jimmy chuckled. “You don’t know anything, because all you do is punch stuff. There are other things out there. Scary powerful things. Things beyond the Wishing World . . .” He trailed off, then shook his head as if he was trying to forget something. He cleared his throat and continued, “You never even met Vella Wren, I bet. But Lorelei has.” At Theron’s confusion, Jimmy smiled wider. “Oh, she didn’t tell you? Surprise, surprise. ’Course she didn’t. Couldn’t have you knowing too much. Yeah, all the Sea Princesses and Ink Kings and Mountain Queens and Forest Lords don’t mean spit. The real boss of the Wishing World was called Vella Wren. Except she’s gone now, and I’m in charge.” He held up the metallic spider up like it was a trophy. “I can invite whoever I want to the Wishing World.”
“You’re a fart face,” Theron said.
“And you’re only as powerful as the Wishing World lets you be,” he said. He threw the figure up as hard as he could. It hit the ceiling, fell and smacked into the floor.
“Jimmy,” Theron shouted, pressing his face between the rough bars. “Don’t!”
Jimmy bent over the silver figure. “It didn’t break. Huh.” He looked over at Theron, then stomped on the stone, smashing it.
“No!” Theron felt his heart break. His ears rang, and he slid to his knees.
Jimmy leapt to the bars and grabbed them. His eyes blazed. “How tough are you now? You’re no Mirror Man. You’re just a little boy who runs away when he’s scared.”
Theron sobbed.
“You’re small,” Jimmy whispered, and he looked around, like he was searching for something but couldn’t find it. “You’re nothing,” he said.
Two of his henchmen came in, the ones with the three legs and burning beards. They opened the cell and dragged Theron out.
“Put him with the others,” Jimmy said. “He can’t hurt anyone anymore.”
Theron didn’t fight them. He couldn’t feel his heart anymore. It was gone. They dragged him out of the room, leaving the broken shards of the stone behind.