So many of the words in the ulexite were unfamiliar to him, it was as if the stone were translating the words from one foreign language to another. The more he tried to read, the more confused he became. In a spiral-bound X-Men notebook he copied the words as they appeared on the ulexite. In many instances, the words were jumbled out of order and a sentence would read the way Yoda in Star Wars speaks—backward and twisted.

He left plenty of room in the margins to write short definitions of words he didn’t know. There were so many, though, that he started writing the definitions in parentheses following the word. He was becoming frustrated. He had thought reading the books would be easy once he had the stone. But at this rate it would take years to read them all!

Henry lay down on the bed, exhausted. That was when he heard it. A single squeak.

He knew that squeak. It was the rear screen door. And it was just loud enough in the midnight silence of the sleeping household to get his attention.

Someone was coming into the house. He could hear footsteps. He turned off his flashlight and crept toward the door, giving himself two inches of an opening to look and listen.

The footsteps moved past the staircase. They walked to his father’s office and stopped. There was a nearly silent click as the office door closed.

Henry rubbed his head, thinking desperately about what to do. He could use his baseball bat as a weapon, but he realized how hopeless that would be—he’d never hit anything with that bat. His eyes fell upon the black wand Coralis had sent to him, lying in a perfect patch of moonlight on the bed. It was a sign—he hoped. He would take the wand as protection and sneak up on the intruder while remaining undetected—he hoped.

If it was anyone other than his father, he would wake his mother and call the police.

By the time he got downstairs, fear had sucked all the moisture from his mouth and beads of sweat glistened at his hairline. He paused to gather his wits and plan his next move.

Am I nuts? he thought. I don’t have a next move!

One of the beads started its descent, rolling past his right ear.

Blam!

Heavy objects were being slammed inside the office. He flattened against a wall. Another bead of sweat rolled past his left ear.

Blam!

Why would a thief be making so much noise?