Story Thieves by James Riley
Or maybe saying good-bye in the middle of a crowd, the least Kiel Gnomenfoot thing he could ever do.
She smiled, then shook her head and straightened herself, ready to continue bringing together science and magic into one, whole world.
With that, Bethany and Owen slowly pulled themselves out of the book. Bethany closed the cover and looked at Owen. “Well?”
“She’s okay,” Owen said to himself with a goofy grin, then noticed Bethany smiling at him. “Uh, I mean, I’m glad it ended happily. You know, for, uh, everyone. Charm. And the rest. Like, everyone else. Kiel. You know.” He stopped, realizing something. “So where is Kiel? Isn’t it a little strange that after seven of these books we don’t even get a concrete answer as to what happened to him? I mean, maybe Charm thought that I was him. . . .” He couldn’t stop himself from grinning wider. “But that was me, not him. Shouldn’t the real Kiel have turned up somewhere?”
“I guess,” Bethany said, smiling with him. “Listen. Owen. I’ve been thinking about things.”
Owen nodded, his grin fading. “Me too. You go first.”
“Okay,” she said, then paused, taking a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking. I might try looking for my father in some Sherlock Holmes books next, since I used up my magic spell on finding Jonathan Porterhouse. It’s been a while since I tried anything from the early twentieth century, so maybe he ended up there somehow.” She looked up at him almost shyly. “And I was also thinking, maybe, um, that it might be nice to, I don’t know, have some company. Might be more, you know, fun that way.”
Owen’s eyes widened. “You want me to go with you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. If you want. I’m just saying.”
He smiled, then shook his head sadly. “I really appreciate the offer, Bethany. You have no idea. But I . . . I think I’m done with all of this.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You are? But why?”
“The idea of an adventure just seemed so exciting from this side of the book,” he told her, looking at the ground. “But people get hurt. It’s dangerous in there. And everything you do can put other people in danger too. I almost . . . Charm almost . . . It was too much. I think I’m ready for some regular, boring, quiet life right now. To just read books the normal way, you know?”
She nodded, then reached out and hugged him. He hugged her back, a little surprised, then got up to leave.
“You saved them,” Bethany told him as he reached the door. “You know that, right? You saved both Kiel and the Magister. Jonathan Porterhouse told me that originally the Magister did get killed by Dr. Verity, and Kiel died in the end, giving up his heart. Charm never even thought about giving him a robot heart, since he never let on that sacrificing himself even bothered him. All that arrogance, you know.”
Owen just looked at her. “It wasn’t right, how I did it. Even if it ended well.”
“I just wanted you to know that,” she said, smiling slightly. “You and I changed the story, together, and saved Kiel’s life. No matter what else, don’t forget that.”
He paused, then nodded, returning her smile. Then, turning to go, Owen said good-bye, leaving Bethany with her books. He was ready for a real, boring, completely safe life again.
CHAPTER 46
Multiplying fractions is one thing,” Mr. Barberry said. “But dividing fractions is where life just gets crazy !”
It’d been a week since Kiel Gnomenfoot and the Source of Magic had come out, and the library’s two copies hadn’t been in stock once. Owen’s mother had surprised him with a copy she’d bought, and Owen had smiled and thanked her, keeping secret the fact that Jonathan Porterhouse had signed a copy to him a few days earlier. Owen had brought the signed copy to school, planning on showing everyone, but for some reason hadn’t ever taken it out of his locker.
Just like he hadn’t mentioned anything about Nobody to Bethany. How did Nobody know about her? Could he actually be her father? If he wasn’t, and Owen told Bethany about him, what would that do to her? Was that just cruel? Maybe Owen could just keep an eye out for Nobody in books, and see what he found. The last thing he wanted to do was get Bethany’s hopes up, after everything that’d happened.
“It’s really not that different from multiplying, honestly,” Mr. Barberry said, turning to the board. “Just the opposite, in fact!”
On Owen’s right, Mari sighed, dropping her head into her arms. Owen smiled slightly at this, remembering the feeling. Still, right now, boring just wasn’t that bad.
On his left, something hit his arm. He looked down to find a folded note on the floor. He reached down slowly to pick it up as Mr. Barberry continued.
Okay, no Holmes. How about Narnia?
—B
Owen grinned and threw a glance back at Bethany, who was pretending to pay attention to the lesson. It meant a lot that she asked, and really did want him to come. She’d changed so much since he’d caught her in the library, popping out of Willy Wonka. So had he, if he was being honest. But right now, there was no way he could go into another book. It was just too much. Not with how things had ended, with Charm almost dying, with him almost dying, with a robotic heart in his chest now. All just too much!
Still. NARNIA.
He tossed the note back.
I’m in.
—O
You couldn’t just say no to Narnia.
A few minutes later, something else tapped his arm.
We might have another friend coming too.
—B
Huh? Another friend? Who was she talking about?
“Mr. Barberry?” said the principal, Mr. Wilcox, from the door. Mr. Barberry looked up from the board. “Class?” Mr. Wilcox continued. “I want to introduce you to a new student. He’s going to be joining your class today. Everyone say hello to Kyle!”
Mr. Wilcox stepped aside, and Kiel Gnomenfoot walked into the classroom, a half smile on his face.
“Hey,” Kiel said, and waved.
Owen’s mouth dropped open, and he slowly turned to look back over his shoulder.
Bethany looked at him for a second, then winked.
Mr. Wilcox started to leave, then turned to give Owen a look. Owen might have imagined it, but just for the briefest of moments, it almost looked like the principal’s face melted into nothing, like a mannequin’s face, or the face of Nobody.
Owen blinked, and Mr. Wilcox stared back at him, a hint of a grin on his face. The principal’s eyes shifted to Bethany quickly, then back to Owen, and the man slowly shook his head. Not just yet, the look seemed to say. Then Mr. Wilcox held up an old-looking math book and tapped it twice. Study hard, probably.
With that, the principal left the classroom, and Owen turned back to welcome Kiel Gnomenfoot to reality with the rest of the class. Even after everything, he couldn’t help but smile as “Kyle” gave him a wink.
Sure, this was the fictional former hero of a series of children’s books, now joining the class of a real school in the nonfictional world. But it’s not like that automatically meant things were going to get all crazy.
After all, how much damage could one boy do?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I never know who to thank, James thought, then paused. Or why I narrate my own life like this. He sighed, tapping his pen against his cheek as he thought.
Obviously, he needed to thank Liesa Abrams Mignogna, who from the beginning had asked, “Why can’t this James character be an author?” Then, “And can he be wearing a Batman shirt?”
And of course James couldn’t thank Michael Bourret enough, given that Michael was his agent, and maybe, dare he say . . . friend?
No, he daren’t. So just “agent” it was.
Then there was everyone else at Aladdin: Annie, Mara, Fiona, Carolyn, Katherine, Adam, Laura, Mary, Christina, and everyone who shepherded the book from its start as just a tiny sheep baby (Lamb? James wondered) to its current incarnation as full-grown, curly-haired Mr. Sheep. James furrowed his brow. A shepherd analogy?
Not that he ever really worried about consistent creative choices.
Then there were those who personally supported James. Your Thaphnes, your Dan and Saras, your Shannons, your Brandons, your Everyone Elses. “Maybe it’s not as bad as you think,” they’d say, and James would shrug. Anything was possible, he supposed. They definitely needed to be acknowledged for that.
But what about all the fans? Out of everyone, they were the most important people to say “Thank you!” to! But how to do it? There was no possible way to thank all of them, even with the time machine James’s future self had just gifted him. Oh, horrible irony! Was it irony? James frowned, not sure. Twitter would know . . . but that way lay madness.
And then there were the teachers, the librarians, and the booksellers. The magical, selfless geniuses who changed children’s lives on a daily basis, and who every so often would push James’s books into the hands of a reader who wasn’t quite done with fairy tales just yet. Thanking all those people would take months, or years if James were lazy about it! Even if he just started with, say, Kim and Katie Laird—
OOOH, NEW CAT VIDEO ON THE INTERNETS!
. . . Ha! Classic, that cat. Now, where was he? Something about thanking people. Right!
Except that thanking people made James wonder what would happen if he left someone’s name off by mistake. Would people get offended? Doubt their contribution? Not thank him in their books?! That would be horrible! Sure, his family would know he loved them, since James was always incredibly thankful for their support, but everyone else? And even worse, what about those who didn’t contribute anything, but just assumed James was referring to them when thanking “everyone else”? It made him shudder with horror.
Nope. There was just no good way to do this. James crumpled up the paper he’d been doodling on instead of writing down names like he was supposed to have been doing. And if there was no good way to do something, that meant he shouldn’t do it. After all, not everyone had acknowledgments pages, right?
All people really had to know was how honored James was by anyone reading his work, and how much he hoped they enjoyed it. And what better way to show that . . . than by SENDING EVERY READER A THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CASH! That was a much better idea than some clichéd acknowledgments page! If readers finished the book, all they’d have to do was [You’re not putting this in. No.—Liesa] and James would send them a thousand dollars in cash!
Perfect. This would be the best acknowledgments page ever.
Strangely enough, JAMES RILEY, author of the Half Upon a Time series, doesn’t actually exist. There’s no record of “James Riley” before his fairy tale series came out, and sources say that the man in his author photos is just an actor. It’s almost as if someone made up this fictional “James Riley” identity solely to hide his true identity. But why? And who would go to such lengths? Certainly Nobody comes to mind.
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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ALSO BY JAMES RILEY
Half Upon a Time
Twice Upon a Time
Once Upon the End
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Aladdin hardcover edition January 2015
Text copyright © 2015 by James Riley
Jacket illustration copyright © 2015 by Vivienne To
Author photograph by Maarten de Boer
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Jacket designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena
Interior designed by Gabe Levine and Laura Lyn DiSiena
The text of this book was set in Adobe Garamond.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Riley, James, 1977–
Story thieves / James Riley. — First Aladdin hardcover edition.
p. cm.
Summary: Except for reading the Kiel Gnomenfoot magic adventure series, Owen’s life is boring until he sees his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the library and he learns that Bethany is half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character.
[1. Books and reading—Fiction. 2. Characters in literature—Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 4. Magic—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.1.R55St 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014028133
ISBN 978-1-4814-0919-3 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-0921-6 (eBook)
James Riley, Story Thieves