The Power (The Magnificent 12 4)

Mack saw, then, just how serious this was going to be. First, Paddy “Nine Iron” Trout was standing with his sword-cane in sword mode.

And second, there were some exceedingly large creatures with stabby razor-wire hands standing all around the village.

“I see you’ve noticed my Brembles,” Valin said. “Brembles! Seize him!”

Which was how Mack ended up stretched out in the sun later that day with ants stinging him to death.

See how that came full circle?

And now Mack gets stung to death.

Thirteen

From a distance—they were “shopping” at the village’s only store, Fleas, Dung, and Beyond—Xiao and Stefan saw Valin and Nine Iron and the Brembles take Mack away.

Stefan started to charge in recklessly, but Xiao put a restraining hand on his arm. (She wasn’t attracted to humans, being a dragon, but Stefan did have impressive biceps.)

“No,” Xiao said. “This may be an opportunity.”

“What?” Stefan scowled at her suspiciously. “He’s under my wing!”

“You will not prevail against the Brembles. I know this species. They are mentioned in some of my father’s books. Once, long ago, they troubled China and were driven off only by deploying vast armies. If you attack, you will die. And Mack along with you.”

Stefan hesitated. The whole “fear” thing was foreign to him. But he understood the part about not being able to save Mack anyway. His job wasn’t to act all brave, it was to actually keep Mack safe.

Boguslawa was also left behind by an angry, contemptuous Valin, who called her “a faithless strumpet.” Boguslawa spotted Xiao and Stefan and made her way toward them, weeping and wailing.

“Quickly, before that annoying girl gets here. We must find Sean Patrick. It is the only way to change the course of history and unite him with Boguslawa. I will fly!”

“What? You’re going to leave me with that girl?” Stefan was fearless, absolutely fearless. And yet he wasn’t sounding fearless.

“Just don’t let anything happen to her. The fate of the world may rest on it!” Xiao cried. Then, hesitating, she added in a whisper, “Don’t be brave. You must seem to be cowardly.”

“Why?”

“She admires courage. Do you want her to admire you?”

She slipped easily back into dragon form.

Boguslawa freaked out. Stefan had gotten used to seeing Xiao suddenly revealed as a Chinese dragon, but it was all new to Boguslawa. Stefan was about to tell her it was no big deal, but Xiao was right: Boguslawa seemed to have a thing for strong, fearless men. And Stefan knew what he looked like: he was a very good-looking guy. If you liked the tall, blond, icy blue eyes, chiseled features, rippling muscles type of guy.36

It was time for some acting. But pretending to be afraid did not come naturally to Stefan since he’d never really been afraid. However: he’d been with Mack during at least a dozen phobia meltdowns.

“Oh!” Stefan cried. “Oh that’s like scary! Ah. Ah. That creeps me out when she does that.”

“It was disturbing, but . . . ,” Boguslawa said.

“Uh. Uh uh uh uh!” cried Stefan, getting into it a little bit. “Gagagagagagaga!”

“She is gone away, so no more gagagagaga, yes?”

“I have dragon phobia,” Stefan said, having now exhausted his sound effects. “It’s . . . kind of rare.”

Boguslawa rolled her eyes. “You are having big muscles not big heart like a lion.”

“Yeah,” Stefan said, feeling a bit of shame even though it was all an act. He sighed. “Let’s keep riding, huh?”

And they did keep riding.