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When their spell didn’t work, our pursuers kept up the chase "Earl!" I warned, but he didn’t seem too worried He e burst of light He then shouted, "This way!" and pulled us into a narrow passage between buildings We ran down a set of stairs leading to a basement door and huddled at the foot of the stairwell

"What’s going on here?" Owen asked, looking truly alarmed

"I’ll explain in a moment, e’re safe," I said

He reached for the handle of the basement door "Wouldn’t it be better to hide inside?"

Earl slapped his hand away "Not now"

I hardly dared breathe while aited for discovery I thought I heard footsteps Had they followed us into the passage? Finally, Earl cautiously raised hih to peer out of the stairwell When he was satisfied that the gray guys were gone, he opened the baseestured for us to enter

Earl had forht after the door closed behind us Owen juht, startled, then asked, "What is that? And why didn’t we open the door earlier?"

"I didn’t kno long my blast would obscure their vision They wouldn’t see us in the stairwell fro"

"There was no one there," Owen protested Then he looked around the eoing on?" He sounded less alarht under the circu from Owen

It would have been pleasant if I could have snapped him out of it with a kiss, but that hadn’t worked on me the last tito explain anything "Check your pockets," I said I suspected that under the circu to believe himself than me

"What do my pockets have to do with this?"

"Just check Please"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded square of paper I held my breath while he unfolded it and read it If it didn’t work, I wasn’t sure what to do I had a lot ofthe one that was a surefire hit would be a challenge As he read, he blinked, and I couldn’t tell what had happened

Because I couldn’t bear to wait for the outco him, I said shakily, "On our first real date, the restaurant caught fire Then there was the tih the ice in the Central Park rink Oh, and you had pet dragons" That had to either jolt him back to hiave me a funny look, then his eyes focused and I could tell he was ain He swayed, and I rushed forward to catch him