The Pyramid of Souls Read Online Free PDF

force impressed."
       "The law of inertia," said the assistant.
       "Followed, of course, by the ideas of mass and velocity…and movement," Newton lifted a finger, "and reciprocal actions."
       "The world will never be the same."
       "Let us hope," muttered Newton, adjusting his whitepowdered wig.
       "May I bring you your supper? I see, by the papers on your desk, that you are hard at work."
       A thick wax candle burned, and the room was cast in gray. Newton stood and looked out the window. "No. I haven't even touched my pot of tea from the afternoon." He casually waved to a silver tray laden with biscuits, jam, and a silver teapot perched next to a porcelain teacup. "My tea is quite cold now, I'm afraid."
       "I can bring you a fresh pot!" his assistant said brightly. "Sir…I have never understood how so wise a man could forget to eat. This is the third untouched tray this week."
       "No, no—don't bother. When I am hard at work, it seems I can scarcely remember to eat or drink. I am perfectly all right."
       "If you change your mind, sir, I shall have the cook prepare you some cheese and meat, perhaps with a pudding."
       "I will let you know if I require sustenance."
       "Excellent, sir." Newton's assistant bowed. "I will leave you to your most important work." He turned and left Newton's library.
       The famed mathematician waited until the door was shut. Then he turned from the window and the darkening sky. Smiling to himself, he lifted the paper where he had been writing. Though he had dipped his quill into the black ink, the words he scribbled disappeared, the letters seeming to melt away. And now, new words formed.
       "My fourth law," Newton whispered. "If the third law is that for every action, there exists an equal and opposite reaction, the fourth law is that for every magical action, there exists, in the magical realm, an equal and opposite reaction."
       Newton shut his eyes. In an instant, he disappeared, only to reappear several minutes later on the other side of the room. He laughed. Then he slapped his knee. "Ah, if the world only knew!"
       He strode over to his desk and blew on the paper. Once again, the words rearranged themselves into black letters in formulas and scratched-out equations. The magical words were gone.

    CHAPTER
4

    ELEPHANTS NEVER FORGET

    Theo's little history lesson did nothing to help Nick understand how to make an elephant disappear. It only confused him more. Sir Isaac Newton even had a magical formula for making something disappear:

    Nick studied the intricate combination of figures, numbers, and symbols that had been written by Isaac Newton in magic ink. He stared at the formula. He tried to memorize it, but that just gave him a massive headache—the kind he used to get in math class, when he would feel like he was swimming under murky water. Nick didn't think learning magic was simply memorizing formulas or spells or magic words. He wished it were that simple, but he knew from his very first attempts at magic that it was more complicated than that.
       Magic was emotional. Theo said it was rooted in the heart of a Magickeeper. It was in his blood, in what he believed, in what made him happy, and in what made him grieve. If Nick was angry, sometimes his magic worked more quickly, more powerfully. But if he was too angry, the opposite happened . Or his magic got sloppy. And if there was one thing Damian hated, it was sloppy magic.
       Nick knew for sure that he was never going to be able to make an elephant disappear by studying Sir Isaac Newton's formula.
       He would just have to find another way to make Penelope disappear.

    ***

    The stage lights shone on him so brightly that he had to squint. Nick's heart pounded. It was only a rehearsal, but just walking on the stage always made his pulse quicken.
       Isabella rode in on Sascha, arms in the air, bareback. She grinned, looking as if she were riding a bicycle