They said their goodbyes, and then Christopher went up to Matthew’s room, which looked oddly bare since Matthew had taken many of his books and belongings with him when he moved. Something tickled the back of Christopher’s scientific mind—something about Matthew, something he’d forgotten to tell him, perhaps? But he was too exhausted to think much on it. There would be plenty of time to sort things out tomorrow.

22 HEART OF IRON

And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea’s broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods.

—Hesiod, Theogony

“Concentrate on what, precisely?” James said. He felt slightly nervous: Magnus’s gaze was focused and intent, as if he were staring into James and through him.

“You truly have your grandfather’s blood in you,” Magnus murmured, still staring at James with a curious expression.

James stiffened. He knew Magnus meant nothing by it: it was a statement of fact and nothing more. Still, not pleasant words to James’s ears. “There are doors in your mind that lead to other worlds,” said Magnus. “A mind forever voyaging, as they say. I have never seen anything like it. I understand that Jem has taught you how to close them, but your control is not yet perfect.” He dropped his hands with a smile. “Well, never mind, we shall voyage together.”

Not entirely sure he wanted the answer, James said, “Are you not at all concerned what my parents will say when they find out we have risked this? And they will find out.”

“Oh, undoubtedly.” Magnus waved a breezy hand. James shot a look at Cordelia, who stood by the study door with her sword drawn, looking like a statue of Joan of Arc. She shrugged as if to say, Well, it’s Magnus.

“James, I believe your parents will understand, once they have a grasp of the gravity of the situation,” said Magnus. “Nor, considering their own past activities, do they have much of a leg to stand on.” He laid a long-fingered hand over James’s chest, atop his heart. “Now, no more of this trying to shock or upset you to bring you into the shadow realm. It isn’t necessary.”

James looked at him in surprise, but the world was already sliding away to grayness. The familiar walls of the study turned to monochromatic dust; the books and couches and chairs crumbled and vanished. James was rising, spinning into the void.