Last of the Mighty by Phineas Foxx Page A

Dad.”
    Mandinka’s Safari Adventure was a drive-through wild animal park. From the safety of your car, you could experience the pseudo-African savannah. On good days, lions, zebras, leopards, and giraffes crowded around your windows. More often, you caught a glimpse what might be a pony’s hoof.
    I did the quick shower/breakfast thing and was ready when they arrived. I dropped into the backseat of the Cherokee next to Merryn. And all was right with the world.
    She instantly began flipping through the open book of my face, as usual, reading between the lines, suspecting that I was hiding something. “What’s up?” That reporter gleam in her eye.
    â€œN-nothin’.” I smiled. A kid with a secret. May have even winked. I often found myself acting like a moron around Merryn. It was embarrassing.
    â€œYeah right,” she said.
    My idiot’s grin validated her hunch that I had news. She stared at me expectantly, folded her arms and waited for me to spill it about the whole Tucker/Fourth Nail/Shemja-za/Phaeus ordeal.
    Of course, I wanted to tell her everything. I bounced my eyes off Uncle Will then back to her—Can’t say it in front of him, can I?
    She glared at me, screwed up her mouth, and let out an exasperated breath. “Fine. Whatev.” She faced forward and stared out the windshield. “You’re ridorkulous.”
    Next came the silent treatment. With her arms still crossed and her eyes on the road ahead, she soundlessly attacked me.
    â€œSo I had this dream the other night.” I shot Merryn with the happy now? face.
    She grinned. A murmur of satisfaction.
    I began to recite the Hobbs Hill experience, trying to make it sound as outlandish as possible so Uncle Will would believe it was a dream and not real life.
    When I got to Phaeus, Uncle Will jumped in. “Hold on.” He was all excited. “So he had a breastplate, a belt, a dagger, and a sword? In addition to the forearm guard?”
    â€œYup.” I resumed, spurred by Merryn’s eyes.
    â€œAnd you say he was in the Fifth Choir, this…Phaeus.”
    â€œYes, Dad!” That was Ms. Patience.
    â€œSorry.” Uncle Will whispered something to himself, like he was working on a math problem out loud.
    â€œSo Phaeus goes to Tucker.” Merryn’s eyes glued to me. “And puts his sword up to—”
    â€œYou know”—Uncle Will again—“that is not an unfeasible premise.”
    Merryn’s face fell.
    â€œIf one can identify the rank of an angel by the weapons they carry, then…wow…that’s—”
    â€œDaaad!”
    â€œNo, hear me out. Og you—wow!—just might have stumbled onto something like…man!” He paused, considering the possibilities, mumbling to himself.
    On Merryn’s signal, I resumed.
    â€œBut Smiler pushed the sword away and said, ‘You have no power to Pit me.’”
    â€œI’d be published…” muttered Uncle Will. “Time and Newsweek…Christian Science Monitor…the Journal for sure…”
    Merryn put a finger near her head and drew cuckoo circles in the air.
    I got as far as Vero’s offer before Uncle Will interjected, “Hang on.”
    â€œDad!”
    â€œSo Phaeus’s sword”—Uncle Will had blanked out Merryn—“couldn’t harm Smiler because the demon’s rank in the Choir was higher?”
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œOH…MY…” Uncle Will could barely keep the car on the road, “It’s GENIUS!” More smiting of the steering wheel.
    I continued while Uncle Will eventually calmed himself…until the exorcism of Smiler and Knock.
    Uncle Will whooped and jounced up and down in the driver’s seat, blathering professorial things that neither Merryn nor I understood.
    Merryn, on the other hand, had gone tranquil, silent, a blanket of peace wrapping itself around her. She was relieved that