The Heart of the Phoenix by Brian Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

what you want.”
    Susan grunted a response and pushed the door open, letting Penny inside before she retrieved the big plastic bin and followed. They dragged the containers up to Susan’s second floor office, and Susan plopped down into the chair facing her computer.
    “Pizza for dinner,” she said. “I don’t have the energy to cook.”
    Penny grunted her assent, and Susan picked up her phone to order as Penny retreated out into the hall. She unfolded the lift stairs to her attic bedroom and trudged upward, thinking a nap before dinner would be the best thing in the world.
    She saw the note outside her window, flapping around like an origami bat and butting its head against the glass. When it saw her, it turned around and showed her its back. The words Read Me were etched across the top of its wings in a black script. It turned to face her again and hovered, waiting.
    Penny paused for a second, then went to the window and let it inside. She’d seen and experienced too many weird things in the past year to let a flying origami bat freak her out.
    It whizzed inside, past her head and up to the ceiling, then circled the room like a hyperactive hummingbird. Its thin rice paper wings crackled with each beat. It finally landed on her writing desk. With a sigh and a look of longing toward her bed, Penny settled herself down in her chair.
    When she reached for the paper bat, it fluttered toward her and landed on her open palm, then quickly unfolded itself on her hand.
     
    Dear Penny.
    Meet me at Aurora Hollow at midnight tonight. Bring Zoe, and don’t be late.
     
    Penny reread the note, as if hoping to glean more information from the terse message. It was an unfamiliar scrawl, unsigned, and enchanted with a spell she’d never seen before. She wondered briefly if one of the old Phoenix Girls had returned, but put the hopeful notion away at once. The previous generation no longer had any memory of their old magic. Susan herself had been in that group and had no recollection of her past exploits, only a gaping hole in her memory that sometimes troubled her. If the old Phoenix Girls ever got their memories back Penny was sure Susan would have given her a sign by now. She would have to know what Penny and her friends had been up to.
    A stranger and a magic user, and one who knew who she was.
    Penny didn’t like it, but thought that if it were a new enemy, they would hardly reveal themselves by invitation.
    The note began to refold itself, not into its previous bat shape, but into an ever-diminishing square. Smaller, smaller, and smaller, then it was gone and she was left staring at her empty palm.
    Penny plopped down on her bed and closed her eyes. If she was going to be spending another late night at the hollow she definitely needed a nap first.
     
    * * *
     
    Penny stepped through her wardrobe door into the hollow with ten minutes to spare, lit a fire in the pit and searched the trees at the perimeter. Next she searched the granite wall and the mouth of Ronan’s cave and spotted Rocky’s blinking eyes in the stone just above it. She put a finger to her lips, and the eyes blinked closed. There was no sign of Ronan, if he was back in his cave he would have heard her arrival and come up to investigate.
    The door creaked open again as she settled down to wait, and Katie stepped through. She seemed not at all surprised to see Penny waiting.
    “You got one too?” Katie closed the door softly behind herself and sat close to Penny, her wand out and ready.
    “If you mean a flying note, then yes.” Penny looked back at the door and smiled. “Is Ellen coming?”
    “No idea,” Katie said. “I didn’t know what it was about and I didn’t want to drag you and Ellen into it if there was going to be trouble.”
    Penny was about to point out how stupid that was, but decided not to. She had decided not to tell Katie or Ellen for that very reason. She had contacted Zoe, since the note asked for her by name, but she and Zoe had