The Crimson Brand by Brian Knight Page A

firmly.  “I won’t tell you that.  No good could come from you knowing.”
    Penny shot to her feet.  “Why not?  You can tell me the rest of it, but not that?”
    “Penny, you needed to know the rest of it.”  He paced back and forth in front of her.  “Those others know about you now.  They know the Phoenix Girls are back, and they’ll try to stop you, which is why you three need to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can.  You have to be ready!”
    Penny’s agitation grew. 
    “How?  How are we supposed to fight off people who have been doing this their whole lives?”
    “You did okay against Tovar.” 
    “That was luck,” Penny said.  She hated to admit it, probably because she knew how true it was. 
    “Some of it was,” Ronan conceded, but he remained unperturbed.  “Most of it was courage and intuition.”
    “He underestimated us.  He thought we were a couple of silly little girls, and he underestimated us.”
    “Well,” Ronan said, his hackles rising, “the others won’t.  They will come, and they will not underestimate you.  They take you seriously.  If you don’t start taking yourselves seriously, then they will beat you, easily.  You three need to learn.”
    “Then we might as well snap our wands and just give up!”  Penny told Ronan what had happened at the party and that Katie was banned from her house.
    “Well, that certainly complicates things,” Ronan said, sounding only mildly concerned.
    “ Complicates ?”  Penny nearly shouted.  “She’ll never be able to come here again.”
    “Never say never ,” Ronan advised.  “The situation with her father may work itself out sooner than you think.”
    “But ….”
    “And in the meantime ….”  He rose and sprinted to the door wedged between two scrawny willows.  “Bring that wand of yours over here.”
    Her irritation turned to excitement as she realized what he was about to do.  It was one of the things he had always steadfastly refused to help them with in the past.  Today, however, things seemed to have changed.
    “This is risky,” he warned her.  “You can never know who might be standing on the other side of a distant door, so you must promise me never to take unnecessary chances.”
    “Okay,” Penny said, nearly breathless with anticipation.  “I promise.”
    “I’m not sure if this is a good idea.  The temptation to use tools like this might prove too much some day.”
    “We’ll be good,” Penny assured him. 
    Ronan nodded in the direction of the door.
    “Come here then.”
    It was so simple that Penny felt stupid for not having figured it out herself. 
     
    *   *   *
     
    By Sunday night things at home were pretty much back to routine, Susan curled up in her favorite living room chair with a book before making dinner, Penny helping in the kitchen when Susan would allow, homework, and finally some time playing on the internet.  Penny had had internet in her apartment in the city and had spent much of her days back then either playing online or watching television.  After almost a year of small-town life, with the freedom to go just about anywhere she wanted without constant adult supervision, she didn’t particularly enjoy idle time spent in front of a screen.
    Sunday night routine was all about mental preparation, Penny thought.  For the coming school week, or work week in Susan’s case.  It was an early-to-bed night.
    But not that night.
    She already had it planned out.  First Zoe, then together, they would surprise Katie and maybe give her one thing to be happy about.
    “Bedtime, kiddo,” Susan said on her way past the kitchen to the stairs.
    “Okay.”  She closed the laptop and slid it into the recently emptied top drawer of the kitchen buffet.
    Better not to have the temptation of the internet in her bedroom on school nights, Susan had explained.  Penny was fine with that, since the internet wasn’t high on her list of temptations