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"Oh yes, it’s a better plan to spread the shocks out so I can embarrass round, after putting ood black trousers The big dog lay down in front ofhis belly to ie, because it worked I felt hed happily and shut his gray eyes

"I thought you were just a hellhound, but you’re obviously not So what are you?"

"Barghest," he ru his eyes closed "Do you knohat that is?"

My scratching stopped and I looked at hiht I’d been obsessed with Roald Dahl as a child and had read The Witches about a hundred tio I read Dahl the way other people snuggle up to their old baby blanket

In The Witches, the narrator’s Norwegian grandhests are always male and that they are worse than witches And the witches are bad because they make children disappear--

"Do you make children disappear?" I blurted out

He opened one eye to stare at me curiously fro," IAnyan’s belly, but warily this time

At thatthe backseat door of the car when it fell off with a loud crack He grinned at me as he went to open the trunk, but narrowed his eyes when he sahat I was doing

Before he could say whatever he was about to say, his expression grew startled He looked at the trunk like it had bit him

"There’s a seal on this trunk," he said

Trill and Nell both snapped to attention The two had looked like they were napping, but they were obviously just resting

Trill raised her head so that Nell could stand up, and then the pony lurched to her feet Anyan, too, got up to go toward the car, so I went ahead and followed

I stood behind theht transforon at any second "Whoever placed that seal is strong," Nella chubby little hand like an antenna at the car "I can barely feel it is there

"This will take aher arms, a look of intense concentration crossed her face The others backed away to join e of power I felt was real If Ryu’s gla a waft of air past ht up in a tempest Pohipped around ly as I did I shivered, and Ryu took ly

Nell was focused on the trunk, edging forward inch by inch until her hands were hovering right above the ap between her and the car, and the flux of power had become so powerful that it actually felt like a real wind My hair whipped around my face and Ryu put his arm around my shoulder to help steady me as I nearly lost my balance Even he looked strained by the effects of the energy unleashed around us

Finally, just as the lashings of poere almost too htest bit to breach the gap She stood there, her hands against the trunk, gasping

Trill went to her, nudging Nell with her slick little muzzle Nell allowed the pony to support her as she went to collapse back under her tree

Ryu let go of me and he and Anyan both stepped forward Ryu put a hand on the trunk while Anyan crouched in readiness, hackles raised, a ferocious growl ripping through the grove He was back to looking like a hellhound

Ryu nodded at Anyan, and I saw that Ryu’s fangs were extended They glittered in the cold light and I realized that, at thisbeast beside him

I backed away another step, just as Ryu threw open the door of the trunk and then sprang back