Twisted Sister of Mine (Overworld Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF

looked like an undulating jellyfish circling the parking lot. I'd seen such a creature before in Bogota, Colombia at the Obsidian Arch way station at La Casona.
    "Minders," I said, with a shudder. "What the heck are those doing here?" The creatures looked like something out of a nightmare and, considering they fed on people's thoughts and could make people see whatever they wanted, maybe that was true. I'd never seen them on guard duty in the Grotto before.
    "No idea," Shelton said, walking up to the ticket booth. A surly man with heavy jowls sat in the small square building behind a window made of the same liquid glass utilized by buildings inside the Grotto. He looked the two of us up and down. "Yeah?"
    "Service with a smile," Shelton said, rolling his eyes. "Two tickets for Queens Gate with return."
    "That'll be four hundred tinsel," the man said, gazing steadily at Shelton.
    "I'm a Triple-A member." Shelton slid a card through the seamless glass, though I noted it stopped his fingers from passing through. The card bore the logo of a staff with a fireball coalesced on the end and the words "Arcane Academics Association" imprinted on it.
    The man shoved it back without looking. "No discounts."
    "What the hell do you mean, no discounts?" Shelton said, his eyes going hard.
    "Conclave ruled it was unfair the Arcanes got discounts while others paid full price." A grunt. "Take it up with them if you don't like it."
    "Four hundred tinsel is a rip-off!"
    The man shrugged. Picked up an arctablet—the Arcane equivalent of touch-screen tablet—and resumed playing a puzzle game.
    "Uh, how much is that in dollars?" I asked Shelton.
    Shelton fumed for a moment before answering. "The exchange rate sucks right now. One tinsel is worth about two bucks." He glowered at the ticket agent. "Son of a bull-licking ba—"
    "We have money," I said, pulling Shelton away from the ticket booth before he said something to piss off the ticket agent. My father had apparently left Shelton with access to one of his secret bank accounts. It wasn't a million bucks, but it definitely took care of the basics.
    "It ain't the money, man; it's the principle of the matter. I've always gotten an Arcane discount, and now some stupid Conclave law comes along and ruins it!"
    I shrugged. "Well, it's definitely a rip-off, but I don't think we have a choice." I checked the time, wondering when the assessments started. "Let's just buy the tickets and go."
    He narrowed his eyes at me. "You realize you'll have to use this arch pretty regularly if you want to see your girlfriend, right? You'll be halfway across the world while she's over here earning her ninja merit badge. Four hundred tinsel a pop ain't gonna be cheap, and the money your dad gave us isn't gonna stretch that far."
    I imagined not seeing Elyssa for weeks at a time. She was one of the few people who'd kept me sane and alive since discovering I was more than a mild-mannered nerd with a penchant for live-action role playing. We'd work something out. Shelton and Bella were right—unlocking my angel powers would not only heal me, but give us a fighting chance to beat Daelissa.
    "Can't I earn frequent flyer miles?" I said in a plaintive voice. "How about a student discount?"
    Shelton's gaze softened, and he made a grumbling noise. "I know it's tough. Damned women, falling in love and all that crap." He swatted the air. "That's why I don't get involved."
    "Not even with Bella?"
    He squirmed under my question, tugging at the collar of his T-shirt as if it had grown too tight. "You gotta be kidding. She's like hundreds of years older than me. That woman would—"
    "Be more than you can handle?" I smiled.
    Shelton grinned. "Ain't that the truth about all women?" His grin faltered, and a look of pure disgust twisted his lips. "Women are poison."
    My eyebrows pinched at that statement. When he didn't elaborate, I said, "I think the right woman is just enough to handle. Enough to keep you interested and coming back for