The Secret Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

gravity the same? Did they have the same oxygen-to-carbon ratio we had here? Were there odd diseases that Tyler hadn’t been immunized against?
    â€œDone,” Tyler announced. Then he shoved his phone into his pocket. It was dinnertime and Tyler hadn’t mentioned food, which was unusual. His stomach was like a black hole. “Aren’t you hungry?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDon’t you want a burger or something?”
    â€œNope.”
    I was stalling. “Shouldn’t we talk about this more?” I pleaded. Both my palms were sweating soI set the urn on my lap. “Shouldn’t we try texting Ricardo again, just in case?”
    Okay, Tyler typed, Do not hurt Jax. We’re going to get your urns. But, just like last time, the text went undelivered. “Ricardo doesn’t want to give us any power,” he said. “We have to wait for him to contact us.” Tyler looked at the urn and his expression turned stormy. “We will save Jax.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œI don’t know. You can’t always have a plan, Ethan. Sometimes you just have to go for it.” He opened the door.
    I didn’t like not having a plan.

5
TYLER
    Welcome to the Game.
    You are logged in as Tyler. You are seventeen years old, in excellent health aside from a few hunger pangs. Aside from the urn of Love, which you should not open under any circumstances, you are unarmed and there are no weapons currently available. Your strength resides in your superior intellect.
    Your objectives: Deliver the urn of Love to Zeus so that it can be destroyed. Convince Zeus to help free your cousin, Jax, from the clutches of the archvillain Ricardo, aka Epimetheus.
    And finally, save Pyrrha, the girl of your dreams.
    This is a solo mission.
    Your location is a portal through which you will enter the Realm of the Gods.
    You have until eight a.m. tomorrow morning to complete your mission.
    Start Game.

6
Ethan
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  FACT: We exist in three-dimensional space. We can move up and down, sideways, we can step in and out. The space we move in can be measured. But the English philosopher, John G. Bennett, thought that there were three more dimensions that we couldn’t see and one of these was called eternity. Eternity was a timeless time, immeasurable, and that’s where Tyler was going.
    B oston Common was a large public park in the middle of Boston. Even though it was dinnertime,the park was filled with people. A group of Peruvians were performing on their flutes and selling CDs. A professional dog walker nearly ran us over as her pack of mutts spotted a squirrel. A family walked past. The little boy was carrying a plastic sword and attacking the bushes. I thought of Tyler’s sword collection. Tyler, who was walking quickly, didn’t seem to notice the kid. I guess I was looking for distractions—anything to keep my mind from focusing on the facts.
    I followed Tyler down a path to a fountain. It was called Brewer Fountain. Four large bronze statues sat at the base, water spouting past their shoulders. Tyler had told us their stories. The young man and woman had been in love, but a jealous Cyclops had killed the man, smashing him with a boulder. So much blood ran from his dead body that it formed a river, which was named after him. The Acis River. The older pair was the god of the sea, Poseidon, and his sea-nymph wife. Yesterday we’d watched Pyrrha stand in front of Poseidon and disappear into thin air. She’d reappeared a few hours later, her hair in a different style and dressed in new clothes. I know this is a cliché but I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes.
    The Poseidon statue was a portal of some sort, leading to the Realm of the Gods. Pyrrha told us that she’d traveled through the portal and that she’d given the urn of Hope to Zeus and that it had been destroyed. It was great news, especially for Tyler,