Ray thought magic only existed in books and movies--not in real life! From the streets of Centerville to the dangerous caves beneath, can Ray and his friends protect the magical artifacts and defeat the villains before it's too late?

       Ray let his breath out quietly because he had to start breathing again. He saw now that the men weren't wearing bathrobes, but long brown robes with deep hoods. Sheer fabric panels inside the hoods hid their faces. They looked like something out of one of his books. In his books the faces behind the mesh would be lizards. Or insects with eight eyes and clicking claws for mouths.
       "Dixon." One of the robed men pointed his gun at the big man. "Where is it?"
       "I don't have it," Dixon said calmly. "And if I did, I wouldn't give it to you lads."
       "We don't have time for this," the other robed man said. "The police will be coming -"
       "You can't kill me in Centerville. You know the rules as well as I do." Dixon folded his arms, looking down at the two men and smiling. His arms bulged the sleeves of his dirty coat. The second robed man shook his head and raised the black gun.
       "We won't kill you, Dixon. We just want to talk." There was a sharp puffing sound, like a balloon popping, and Dixon swayed and put a hand to his neck. He pulled away a red dart. There was a smear of blood on his neck, bright against his dirty skin.
       "What -" Dixon looked confused. He fell over with a crash that shook the ground. He lay still on the path, unmoving.
       The robed men bent over him and searched inside his coat. They searched more frantically, and then one stood up and looked around. Ray's heart pounded as he waited for the man to spot them. The glints behind his mask looked like human eyes, but they could be anything.
       "He must have dropped it, or hid it somewhere, Salvatore. It has to be close." He took a step directly towards them, the blank panel inside his hood showing nothing but a faint glitter. The man was just steps away from them.
       "Stop, Yakim. We can't keep searching now." Salvatore rose from Dixon's body and gestured sharply. "We have to take him away and come back to look for it later. The police will be along any minute."
       "The police are at the school. We have to keep looking." Yakim sounded desperate. "We have to find it!"
       "We'll find it. But we must leave. Now. We can't let the police see us."
       "He hid it in the woods." Yakim yanked at his hood, pulling it lower over his unseen face.
       "He'll tell us where it is. And no one knows where it is but him." Salvatore tugged at Dixon's arm and the man came to, shaking his head and mumbling something Ray couldn't catch. The smaller man handled him easily, guiding him to his feet where Dixon stood, swaying back and forth, blinking as though he had no idea where he was. The two men hurried him down the path, leaving nothing behind but a smear of blood on the ground where Dixon fell.
       The bees buzzed happily and the mint nodded in the hot afternoon sun. Ray turned to Clancy just as she turned to him.
       "So that just happened," she whispered.
       "Yeah," Ray whispered back. His face grew hot. "Um, I'm Ray Sebastian-"
       "I know you. We used to play at the park near my house when we were little, remember?" Clancy drew her eyebrows down in a frown. Her eyes were a startling light blue color, the pupils tiny in the sunlight. "You remember, back in preschool?"
       "Uh, yeah, I guess," Ray said. "I didn't know if you remembered. It was about a million years ago."
       "Eight years ago. And I remember everything." Clancy sighed as though she didn't like remembering everything. "What was that all about?"
       "I don't know." Ray still felt dazed. Then he remembered Mrs. Halford, and the alarm, and the ice cream truck. "Oh, hey. We have to get back. We're not supposed to leave the school grounds."
       Clancy huffed out a laugh. "Seriously? That's what you're worried about?"
       "Well, we're not supposed to leave. It's a suspension if you do." Ray's face grew hotter. He stood up out of the hollow and peered down the path. "They're gone. Let's circle back to the school. Everyone meets at the soccer field when there's a drill and it's always crazy until the teachers sort things out. Nobody will know we were gone."
       "But what about that?" Clancy pointed at the raspberry bush.
       "That package? What about it?" Ray looked at the lumpy pile of leaves.
       "The only way to find out what's going on is to take that package and see what's in it."
       Ray's eyebrows climbed high. "Are you serious?"
       "Yeah. How else are we going to figure out -"
       A shout echoed through the trees. Ray crouched back down again. Clancy ducked down too. Ray looked at the package poking through the leaves. The heroes of his secret stories wouldn't leave a mysterious package behind, would they? He didn't have to think for long about that.
       "Okay. I'll grab it and we'll run," Ray said. He slipped both straps of his backpack over his shoulders. Beside him, Clancy shifted to a runner's stance.
       "Go!" Clancy said. They leaped up and ran.