Nine stands in the doorway laughing. ‘So sorry, dude. I totally forgot to tell you I rigged that up.’

Furious, I jump to my feet. Bernie Kosar skids in and growls at Nine. While he berates Nine for his stupidity, I focus on pulling the sticks out of the walls. I will them to hover in the air, aimed at Nine. ‘You don’t sound sorry.’

I’m seriously considering launching the little spears at him when he uses telekinesis to break the sticks into two, four and then eight pieces and they fall to the floor.

‘Hey, I really did forget,’ he says, shrugging. He turns around to head into the other room. ‘Anyway, grab your Chest and get in here. We have to jet, so start pulling your stuff together.’

My Lumen lights up the moldy cupboard and I carefully stick my head under the sink. At first I don’t see anything and think Nine is messing with me. I’m about to march into the living room to demand he return my Chest to me when I notice something. The left side of the cupboard goes deeper than the right. I feel my way around and pull away the false plywood wall. Jackpot. There it is. I grab the Chest and carry it out of the kitchen.

In the living room Nine’s digging in his own Chest, the Chest we rescued from the Mog cave. ‘Good to see you, old friend,’ he says when he pulls out a short silver staff. Next he grabs a round yellow thing covered with small bumps. It looks like a strange fruit and I half expect him to squeeze it to produce juice. He sets it in his palm, and before I can ask what it is, he whips it down at the floor and quickly backs himself up against the wall. It bounces high after hitting the carpet and changes from yellow to black, expanding to the size of a grapefruit. When it reaches shoulder height the small bumps explode, turning into razor-sharp spikes. I duck and roll in BK ’s direction to avoid getting impaled.

‘What the hell?’ I shout. ‘You could have warned me! This is the second time in less than five minutes that you’ve almost killed me.’

Nine doesn’t flinch when the spikes retract violently back into the ball just before it returns to his palm.

‘Hey, hey, hey, would you please relax?’ Nine says. He holds the ball close to his eye, causing me to hold my breath. ‘I knew nothing would hit you. I can control it with my mind. Well, I can control it partly. Usually.’

‘Partly? Are you kidding me? I didn’t see a lot of control just now. I had to jump out of the way.’

Nine takes the ball away from his eye, looking a little chagrined. Not enough, though. ‘Right now, I can only control the color.’