The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

her passenger at risk. As Vroomie moved effortlessly, its cherry and walnut blades spreading and retracting as she moved the levers, Rachel grinned. She had not been boasting when she told the blonde girls that hers was the better broom.
    • • •
    Ahead, trees grew so close together that they formed a vast bark wall that marked the wards of the school. Rachel veered to the west and flew along the coast. As she rounded the rocky point, approaching the ruined castle, a flash appeared on the docks—a bright, narrow pillar of light that went up as far as the eye could see. It swirled, quicker than the eye could track, forming bones, organs, and then flesh, all made of glowing whiteness. Color flooded in, and a man stood there. He walked toward the stairs and the path to the school.
    He was dressed in an Inverness cloak. The half-cape along the back billowed in the breeze. His dark hair was drawn into a pony-tail. Around his neck, he wore a medallion showing a lantern surrounded by stars.
    “An Agent!” Rachel cried, delighted. She urged the broom forward. “My father is an Agent. I wonder what…”
    The man turned toward them. He had a pleasant face with eyes of mild blue. There was nothing wrong with his face—except that Rachel had never seen it before— which meant …
    A feeling like a thousand spiders crawled along her spine.
    “Excuse me, children,” the man called to them. “I am looking for a student. Her name is Valerie Hunt. Can you tell me where to find her?”
    Like the decision of which lever to pull when flying at an oak at thirty-five miles an hour, a choice lay before her, and she had less time to choose than it took flame to flicker.
    Leaning forward, she let her eyes become wide and innocent. She was good at that. It was one of the few advantages of being so little. “Is that the girl with the short blond hair and the Norwegian Elk Hound? She came yesterday, but she was an Unwary. She did not like it here. She went home.”
    The man scowled, muttered his thanks, and disappeared, turning into a narrow, tall pillar of light.
    “Wow! That looked incredible!” Sigfried cried, “You could see his skeleton! And his liver? Or was that his spleen? If I grabbed some part of him while he was like that, would he arrive all twisted? What was that, anyhow? The flashy-disappeary thing?”
    “It’s called jumping,” Rachel replied, only barely paying attention. She shot through the arch and barreled down the green wooded way, pushing her broom as fast as it could go. The trees whipped by. Wind streamed through her hair, pulling out her barrettes.
    “That’s weird…” Siggy shouted to be heard over the winds. “That Victory Flunt, or whatever her name was, would go home without even staying the night, I mean.”
    “Valerie Hunt. She didn’t. I lied.”
    “Do you lie a lot?”
    Rachel shook her head and shouted back over the rush of air. “No.”
    “You did it very well for an amateur.” Siggy sounded impressed. “If you like, I can give you some tips.”
    “Er…thanks?” Her broom picked up speed. “Now we have to go find Valerie Hunt! She was on the ferry with me yesterday. We have to warn her.”
    “Why?” he shouted back.
    “Because that man was pretending to be an Agent.”
    “An Agent of what?”
    “Of the Wisecraft.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It’s the law enforcement branch of the Parliament of the Wise, our governing body. The Wisecraft is responsible for stopping rogue sorcerers and for hiding the World of the Wise from the mundane world.”
    “Why does this Kraftcheese do that—hide the magical world?”
    “To keep us safe. And to keep the Unwary safe from us. Real witch hunts tend to leave a lot of dead in their wake,” Rachel explained loudly. “The important thing is that Agents are our law enforcement guys. So don’t cross ’em.”
    “You mean…they are the Coppers? The rozzers? Old Bill? The police?”
    “In part. They also keep the supernatural world from