Magisterium Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes.
    “He said he had made some sort of breakthrough?” Dr. Kapoor said in his well-modulated whisper after Glenn told him her story.
    “Yes,” Glenn answered, twisting in her chair. “On his project.”
    “That he’s been working on ever since your mother left.”
    Glenn met his gentle but probing eyes, then looked down at the arm of the chair and picked at the brass rivets that held it together.
    Dr. Kapoor shuffled the papers in front of him. “And he says this project will allow him to pass into this other world while bringing a piece of our reality with him. And in this way he’ll be able to rescue your mother from the other side of the border, where she’s trapped, presumably against her will.”
    Something caught in Glenn’s throat, but she pushed it aside and nodded.
    “Did you see any evidence that this was true?”
    Glenn knew he was testing her. Seeing if she had been sucked in by her father’s delusion.
    “No,” Glenn said. “Of course not.”
    Dr. Kapoor leaned back from his desk and studied her, holding a silvery pen like a bridge between his two hands. “And how are you feeling, Glenn?”
    In her mind, she saw a bird slowly turn its head until its black eyes rested on her. The shadow that moved through the trees was so close she could reach out and touch it.
    “Glenn?”
    “We’re not here to talk about me,” she said. “My dad needs help.
    I want to know what you can do for him.”
    Dr. Kapoor stared at her from across the desk, then dropped his pen on the table and sighed. “I’ll make a few calls,” he said. “But, Glenn —”
    Glenn didn’t wait for him to finish. She pulled herself out of her chair and made for the door. Unfortunately, Kevin was just outside. He popped up off the couch the second she opened the door.
    “Glenn. Wait.”
    “I’m going home, Kevin.”
    Kevin shuffled along, trying to keep up. “Just a second.
    Seriously.”
    “I’ve got to go!”
    Glenn threw the front door open. Her breath was coming fast and she could feel tears mounting. She didn’t want anyone, least of all Kevin, seeing her like that. She crossed their wide yard toward the train, and the next thing she knew, she was back in her bedroom.
    It was dusk. Hopkins sat at the foot of her bed, staring at the closed door. Her little general. She hadn’t seen Dad when she’d gotten home, having slipped back into the house as carefully and quietly as she had done when leaving that morning on the way to school. Glenn guessed he was either in the workshop or his computer lab, though there were none of the usual sounds to confirm it. Part of Glenn ached to go out and see him. It’s what she always did when something was upsetting her, but she knew she couldn’t. Not this time. What would she say? What could she say?
    Glenn dropped into bed and wrapped the blanket around her.
    Hopkins abandoned his post and curled up next to her. Glenn ran her hand along his side until he turned over and she scratched at the white patch on his throat.
    Glenn’s tablet pulsed blue. She scrambled for it in case it was Dr.
    Kapoor but found Kevin’s smiling picture hovering in the corner of the screen instead. Glenn touched the image and declined the call, then lay back on the bed. She strained to hear a whisper of Dad working out in the shop, but it was as silent as could be. Did he know that she had gone to Dr. Kapoor? Surely it was impossible, but she couldn’t shake the belief that he knew his own daughter had just betrayed him.
    Glenn tried to bury herself in homework, tried to sleep, but it was no use. Even her stars brought her no comfort. Hopkins sniffed around her, curious. Glenn rubbed him under his chin.
    “We’ll get this fixed,” Glenn said, pressing her forehead against his. “And then we’ll go. Just you and me. We’ll go and we’ll never come back.”
    Hopkins slipped his forehead out from under hers and looked deeply into her eyes. Glenn stroked his forehead, then ran her thumb along the