The Void of Mist and Thunder (The 13th Reality #4) Read Online Free PDF

it. Jane is willing to take some risks. You should be too. We’re all getting a little crazier with every passing day. We need to do something!” The man’s voice had risen with each word until he was shouting.
    Tick stood up and faced him. “I know. We’ll do it when I’m ready. I trust my instincts a lot more than I do your mad desire to get back and stomp on people. Chill. Please.”
    Chu looked utterly stunned, and it was a beautiful thing to see. Tick had to hold back the smile that wanted to leap across his face. He almost felt sorry for Chu, and decided to throw him a bone, out of guilt.
    “Tomorrow,” he said, sitting back down. “We’ll try something tomorrow.”

Chapter 7

    Tricks on the Beach
     
    Things had changed for Tick when he battled Mistress Jane outside the Factory in the Thirteenth Reality. They’d changed drastically.
    He’d been driven by pure and absolute desperation. He’d done what he needed to do for the Haunce, healing the damage done by Jane that would’ve ended Reality and the universe. And when he’d had to fight Jane afterwards, he’d known more than ever that death was his reward if he messed up. Though maybe he’d learned some things from the Haunce that he hadn’t realized.
    When he and Mistress Jane were going at each other like two wizards settling a centuries-old spat, Tick’s mind had been focused on his Chi’karda like never before, channeling it, funneling it, understanding it. He didn’t really know how he knew—he could never sit down and write a book about it or explain it to someone—it was like walking or running or breathing. Things just clicked, and suddenly he knew how to do it. His body and instincts and mind all worked together to use the Chi’karda and manipulate the world of quantum physics. He felt like a magician. A magician of science.
    And it was fun.
    Now it was early the next day, when he’d promised Chu they’d try to get out of the Nonex, and Tick had spent the morning out on the beach, practicing his new abilities. He had stacked three logs vertically, end to end, pointing toward the sky. He used his mind and pushed out with his senses, touching the strings and pulleys of the unseen particles of science. Carefully, he moved one, and then another one. The tower stood thirty or forty feet in the air.
    “Impressive,” Chu said. “Really. Can we get on with it and do something that actually matters now?”
    Tick suddenly had an image pop in his head of Chu’s giant mountain palace, and how bad things had gone there. That was where Tick had hurt Jane, where he had almost died. Sofia had risked her life to save him. Remembering it again made Tick angry.
    He shifted his thoughts and pushed his Chi’karda. The stacked logs flew through the air and shot toward Chu like spears. He cried out and started to run, but Tick was one step ahead of him, turning the logs vertical again and slamming them into the ground in a circle around Chu. He was in a prison, the logs thick enough and close enough together that he couldn’t squeeze between them.
    “Stop acting like a child!” Chu screamed, facing Tick with rage burned into his expression. “Take these things down! Now!”
    Tick looked over at Jane, whose red mask had tilted up slightly in a smile. Her yellow robe and hood stirred in the slight breeze of the day, and images of her past deeds popped into Tick’s mind as well. He almost used his Chi’karda to throw some things at her, too, but remembered that she could fight back.
    Maybe it was time for Tick to quit acting like a brat. He didn’t feel like himself lately. They needed to get out of the Nonex. Not just for his own life, but so he could see what was going on back at home. His family and friends could be in danger, maybe even dead. The thought made his heart sink. He’d already tried winking a message to them, but it didn’t work.
    “Atticus,” Chu said, obviously trying to remain calm. “Please. I don’t want to interfere with