The Council of Mirrors Read Online Free PDF

groaned.
    “I’m serious. Don’t get involved no matter what. If somethingbad happens, run for the mirror. All right, fairy, let’s do this,” their father said, taking off at a sprint toward Grendel. Henry roared like a barbarian berserker.
    “Your dad rules,” Puck said, circling in the air and mimicking Henry’s wail.
    “I thought it was stupid to run headfirst into a fight,” Sabrina grumbled.
    Puck tossed his disgusting bombs at the creature, nailing Grendel in the face. Enraged, the brute snatched at the boy’s leg, but Puck was too fast and darted away from his deadly claws again and again. While Puck kept him busy, Henry snuck up until he was standing within arm’s length of the monster.
    “Lesson number two!” Henry shouted to the girls. “The first thing you do when you are about to fight someone—or something, for that matter—is take them off guard. Screaming like a maniac startles your opponent. The confusion will allow you to observe his weaknesses. While Puck was freaking him out, I was looking for a place to attack. Look at his left knee. See? It’s bigger than the right one. It’s bulging and red and the skin is pulled tight around it. It means he has an infection, which also means that if I kick it . . .”
    Henry delivered a vicious kick with his boot heel. Grendel shrieked and bent over to protect his injury.
    “Your grandpa Basil taught us to have careful eyes,” Henry continued, circling around the creature until they were nearly face-to-face. “Now, while Grendel is bent over we can get a closer look. Notice his left eye. The pupil is milkier than the right eye, which means he’s going blind in it, which also means he can’t see me as well when I’m standing on this side of his body. Which also means he can’t see this!”
    Henry punched Grendel in his left temple. The monster fell to the ground and lay there silently.
    “Whoa,” Daphne said.
    Sabrina was just as surprised. What happened to her super-careful father? Henry was a man who refused to step off the curb to hail a cab. He wouldn’t eat hot dogs from the carts in Times Square because he was afraid of food poisoning. He never left the house without antibacterial spray. Who was this . . . man of danger?
    “You knocked him out? Awww, man! Who am I supposed to throw the rest of these balloons at?” Puck complained when he landed next to the fallen monster. “It’s no fun to pelt someone when they are unconscious.”
    He threw one of his balloons at Grendel and it exploded on his cheek.
    “OK, it’s still fun, but not as much fun! If I don’t hit someonewith the rest of these, they’ll go to waste.” He turned to Sabrina and grinned.
    “Don’t even think about it, dog-breath,” Sabrina warned.
    “Geez, he’s big,” Henry said as he knelt down to get a closer look at Grendel. “He’s gotta be nine feet tall and mostly muscle. Your uncle and I used to peek through the window in his door but this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to him. Some say his father was a dragon, and his mother . . .”
    “What about his mother?” Sabrina asked, unsure if she really wanted an answer.
    “Forget it. That will give you nightmares,” Henry said, standing upright again. “All right, we need to get him back to the Hall of Wonders. He’s too dangerous to be running loose—” But Henry didn’t get to finish his sentence. Grendel was up in a flash.
    “DAD!” Sabrina screamed. Henry somersaulted out of the way just as the brute’s hulking fist shattered the ground where he’d been standing. A wicked backhand followed, but Henry’s fast action avoided the blow. The tree behind him was not so lucky. It cracked in half and exploded all over the forest floor in a shower of sawdust.
    “Puck!” Henry shouted. “A little help, please.”
    The fairy blasted the creature with more of his gag bombswhile buzzing around his head. Grendel swatted and roared, nearly blind from the sickly syrup, but still