Of course, other reasons tried to pop into Fort’s head, just as they always did, but he forced himself to ignore them. He had to believe his father was okay out there. Even his subconscious seemed to think it, if his dreams were any indication.

Assuming they were just dreams.

Unfortunately, there was only one way to go after his father, and that was by opening a portal to the monsters’ dimension using Summoning magic. And only one person on earth knew how to do it.

Sierra had run it by Damian, of course, but he’d immediately refused, saying that the Old Ones were waiting for him to use his Summoning magic again, so they could use it to return to this dimension. It annoyed Fort to no end that the boy was probably right, so he couldn’t exactly argue.

Plan B had been asking Sierra if she’d copy the spell he needed from Damian’s head, just like she’d done by accident with some of Jia’s spells, back when she’d been in a coma at the old school. But even the suggestion had offended her.

“I am not going to just steal a spell from somebody’s mind!” she’d yelled at him, and the intensity of her repulsion that traveled through their telepathic connection overpowered him to the point he’d never asked again.

But that meant he had no other choice, if he wanted to rescue his father. He’d need the book of Summoning, one of two books of magic that Dr. Opps had kept secret and hidden beneath the old Oppenheimer School. Cyrus had reported that the books had been brought to their new school at some point in the last ten days but were being kept under close watch by Colonel Charles.

But tonight they’d be on the move again, probably to be taken to some special room and locked up. It was hard to say exactly, as Cyrus had trouble with his future visions around the books themselves; they always seemed to create a blind spot for him. But if that happened, Fort might lose access to Summoning magic forever, meaning his father would stay lost.

Fortunately, they’d had plenty of time to come up with a plan to steal the books while waiting for them to emerge again. But Fort needed each of his friends to do their part if the plan was going to work. And that meant making sure everybody was in the right place at the right time.

What he didn’t need was Gabriel, a total stranger, finding out what they intended to do. Who knew what he’d do? The worst thing was, telling Colonel Charles about it wasn’t even the most terrible thing that could happen. For all Fort knew, Gabriel would take the book of Summoning himself and accidentally bring the Old Ones back.