Darcy froze for a moment. "Max? Right?" She laughed. "Your sister wants to kill you? Take your power? My brother and sisters are hard to deal with, but you need to come up with a better story. No wonder no one wants to sit next to you on the bus."

"They can't see me. You shouldn't be able to." Max smiled slightly. "You're not one of us. It happens sometimes."

"Everyone can see you," Darcy said. "No, they can't." She rubbed her temple.

Max shook his head slowly. "No, I use magic to go unnoticed by ordinaries."

"Invisible?"

"Not invisible. Waste of magic. Just...unnoticed, not memorable. Except for someone like you, who picked up a little magic somehow." He looked her over, as though the magic had marked her.

"I gotta go to lunch. Max? Right? " She started to stand up. "Have a good day."

"I'll prove it." Max went to a display and started knocking the books on the floor. Mrs. Ross, the librarian, old, gray and stocky, looked at the display, then at Darcy.

"Darcy, what happened? What did you do?"

Darcy gasped. "I didn't do anything. It was him." She pointed to Max.

The librarian marched over. "You're the only one here." She picked up a book. She looked at the distance between the display and Darcy. "I guess you weren't near the books."

Max crossed his eyes and thumbed his nose at the librarian. When she put the books back in their places and turned to walk away, he knocked them off again.

Mrs. Ross turned around and watched the books falling on the floor one by one. "Whaaaaat?"

Darcy jumped up and started putting books back in place. She grabbed Max's hands, and he smirked at her. "It was maybe a wind from the rain, or something. I'm sure it won't happen again." Max nodded and sat back down at their table.

Darcy sat down, too. "I don't know how you did that."

"There's more." He opened the book, seemed to read, although the page was blank. "First, the other kids on the bus didn't notice me. Second, your friend, Addie, said I wasn't here. Third, Mrs. Ross couldn't see me knocking the books to the floor."

Darcy nodded.

"How did you read the book? This book can't be read in daylight by an ordinary."

"An ordinary what?"

"An ordinary is someone who can't use magic, powers, where I come from. They can pay for the services of a magician, like me, or use an enchanted charm or amulet. Well, they used to be able to, but because magic is dying out, a person would need a very expensive license."

"So, you're a magician." Darcy snorted and started thinking of ways to get help, but then, how would she get help when no one could see him but her.

"More. I'm a magic finder, too. Rare ability. Where I'm from, magic is almost used up."

"Used up? How?"

"Dunno. It just is. A finite resource. After all these millennia, very little is left. Magic is beyond price. My family was one of the three mage lines left. My mom and dad were only children and were asked to marry to join the magic. They did, making two families into one, and inheriting all their parents' power. There were three of us kids. Olga, the eldest, me, and our younger brother, Conrad. Our generation would be the last of the mages."

"You're not making any sense."

"I'll try again. In these end days of magic, only two families have magic abilities. Mine is one. The laws restrict use of magic, to make it last. The Council doesn't want our world to become ordinary."

"And?

"A mage's children inherit their store of power. My parents combined the power of two families. Children get a little power when they're born. When the parents die, their magic is divided amongst their children. The eldest gets a half, the other children share the other half. If there are only two children, the eldest gets two-thirds. An only child gets all the magic. Usually. Sometimes a younger gets a larger than usual share of power."

"Like you?"

"No." He looked at her and his face fell. "Like Conrad." He stopped, running his hands over the blue book. "I'm also a magic finder. I can recognize and claim power that's hidden in amulets, rocks, books, or wherever, and it can be given to a magician." His eyes widened. "Valuable skill. I recovered some magic for my parents, so we became the more powerful family. We answer to the Council."

"Why? What power do they have over you?"

He looked puzzled, as if he didn't understand the question. "None, really, except custom and following the laws that keep Avalon peaceful."

He looked at the prisms hanging in the window, casting colored shadows on the table. "Olga gave me Merlin's staff--family heirloom. In return, I was to come here and hunt for power our magicians had left. Bring that back for our parents. I was excited. My family would have more magic. She warned me the staff was dangerous and not to use it since I didn't have the experience to control it. She also insisted I say nothing to anyone, especially our parents, because the Council would have our parents take the magic. I was naive and believed her."

"Oh."

Max rubbed his eyes. Willow clambered down his arm and Max scratched her chin. "I was supposed to go immediately but I wanted to say goodbye to my girlfriend first."

He's taken, Darcy thought. I don't know why I'm crushing on him, besides he's cute. And weird.

"I snuck off to Enid's school and found her behind the bleachers kissing another guy. She told me she was going back to her secret boyfriend, no matter what the Council wanted."

Yeah? Darcy thought, or do I run away from him? Fast.

"I was so angry, I hid in the school's chapel, feeling sorry for myself, instead of coming here. I realized I was a fool. Our relationship was arranged by the Council. It was certainly not chosen by Enid and me. She is," his face softened as he remembered, "one of my best friends, for one thing. I really wanted her family connections to the Council."

His eyes widened. "Hiding saved me. Can't have magics in chapels. I'd left the staff hidden in my bedroom. Olga meant for me to use the staff. Conrad found it. He is--was, only 10 and tried to use it. A curse Olga put on the staff was triggered, killing all my family and the other magic family. Everyone but Olga and me. She thought I was dead, too, and she'd have all the magic.

"I left the chapel, and on the way home heard laments for the deaths. I panicked when I knew Tara had tricked me. She has all the known power but mine. The Council can do nothing against her."

"She sensed I'd been spared and sent her sea dragon to kill me. My dragon, Willow, distracted it, then killed it, while I snuck home, took the magic from Merlin's staff and hid it where she'll never find it. I summoned Willow, took some magic I'd found and came here."

"That's my story. Olga is my sister. She murdered all our family except me and means to kill me. Her magic is the elements: weather spells, power spells, and so on. She can't find magic or make a path to this world like I can, and she killed everyone else who can. There's another way to use the Gate. She can't use it, but she'll probably send someone who'll take me back."