by James Riley
“Hey!” Kid Twilight shouted as Bethany and Gwen both started laughing. “You can’t just give away my secret identity!”
“Like the constellation?” Bethany asked as soon as she could breathe.
“My parents were astronomers, okay?” Kid Twilight said. “They told me I’d shine as brightly as the stars!”
“And so you have,” Bethany’s dad said as now even her mom joined in on the laughter. “But come down. We’re going to make s’mores.”
“Nice!” Kid Twilight said, and landed on the ground right beside Bethany, then pushed past her parents into the house.
Gwen stood up and held her hand out to Bethany to help her up. “You were so nice to read the story to us!” she said. “Are you coming in?”
“In a minute,” Bethany said, staring at the cover of Worlds Apart. “You go. I’ll be right behind you.”
Gwen patted her on the shoulder, then left with Bethany’s mom as her father sat down beside her.
“I’m really impressed that you let that author release Nobody’s books in the nonfictional world too,” he said, tapping the cover. “You didn’t need to.”
She shrugged. “I was just so tired of hiding. Besides, there are so many portals now into the fictional world, it’ll be nice for people to know why. Not that any of them will believe it’s true anyway, unless they happen to find one.”
“Is Owen coming over later?” he asked.
Bethany shook her head. “Now that we’ve freed all the Quanterians from their books and returned them to the fictional world, he, Kara, and Charm are back in the library, trying to restore all the worlds I missed. He thinks that reading their books will recreate the worlds. He might be right . . . it’s worth trying, at least.”
“Charm is reading . . . fiction?” her father asked.
Bethany grinned. “I think she might be there more for the company, honestly. She won’t admit it yet, but she forgave Owen, and now she barely lets him out of her sight.”
Her dad laughed, then patted her shoulder. “I haven’t said this enough, but Bethany, I’m so very proud of you. Everything you’ve done, saving me, saving the fictional world, all of it . . . it’s all down to you and Owen.”
“Mostly me,” she said, winking.
He snorted. “And there are thousands of portals now into the fictional world. People will find their way across in both directions, just like I did. Maybe you won’t be the only half-fictional person in a few years, even.”
She gasped. “Don’t even joke. Could you imagine the destruction another me could cause?”
He grinned. “There have already been two of you, but I prefer the whole you best. I think you made the right call on that one.” He stood up and offered his hand. “Ready for s’mores?”
“Just another second,” she said. “I just want to look at the stars. Tell Orion I can see his belt.”
Her dad chuckled and walked back into the house. Bethany heard the door into the house close behind him, then waited for another minute before glancing around, making sure she was alone.
“Did you bring it?” she whispered into the darkness.
“You’re going to get us both in trouble, you know,” Kiel Gnomenfoot said, stepping out of the shadows. “I want your dad to like me!”
“What he doesn’t know won’t kill him,” Bethany said. “Now give.”
“First, I want you to look at something,” he said, and handed her a copy of Kiel Gnomenfoot and the Source of Magic. “Turn to the epilogue.”
“You know I’ve read this one,” she said, then paused, looking over the pages. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she read more quickly, then slammed the book shut. “Are you kidding me? Do you think Owen knows about this?”
“I doubt it,” Kiel said, shrugging. “It’s a new printing of the book. Jonathan Porterhouse sent me a copy to show me the change. Should we tell Owen?”
“I think he’ll find out in his own time,” Bethany said, then held out her hand again. “Now give me what I asked you to bring.”
Kiel broke into a grin and handed over a new wand-knife, one that had been formed from two others: a simple, straightforward black wand-knife wrapped with a spiral wand that had tiny stars glowing from within it. “Now, magic isn’t for everyone. Some people take a little while to get the hang of it—”
Bethany swung the wand around and concentrated, sending a huge spray of fireworks up into the sky. She shrieked in joy and embarrassment, then ran down the street to avoid her father, who was already on his way out.
“And some just come to it naturally,” Kiel said, watching the fireworks, then turning and running off after her.
KIEL GNOMENFOOT AND THE SOURCE OF MAGIC
EPILOGUE
Five Years Later
As you know, the tyrant Dr. Verity caused an accident six years ago that almost killed my parents and sisters,” Charm told the crowd before her. “That accident took my eye, arm, and leg. Science saved me, giving me robotic parts to take the place of flesh and bone. But it took a friend with a time machine to save my family, and magic to truly make me whole.”
She pointed at her now-human eye and held up both nonrobotic arms. “This is what magic and science accomplished together,” Charm said. “But it won’t stop there. Together, Quanterium and Magisteria will become one and whole, like science and magic healed me. We shall move forward together as one planet once more, with one people of both science and magic!” The assembled Magisterians and Quanterians below her broke into cheers. She grinned and waved as she started to step offstage.
For just a moment someone in the crowd caught her eye. While most of the assembled people were cheering or clapping, one boy just stood silently, wearing what looked like an orange jumpsuit with some kind of writing on it. He flashed her a strangely satisfied grin, then waved mockingly and disappeared right in front of her eyes.
“Oh, come on,” she whispered to herself, shaking her head, then rushed offstage.
“That seemed to go well!” her assistant said, a Magisterian boy just a couple of years younger than her.
“You’d be surprised,” she told him. “Where’s my minister of magic and science integration?”
“Here,” said a voice, and Charm turned around to find Owen smiling at her. “It really was a good speech.”
“You know I hate talking,” she told him, grinning back.
“To crowds?” he asked.
“Or anyone else,” she said. “Present company excepted. But I need to tell you something in private.”
Her assistant quickly got the point and backed out of the room, bowing hastily.
“You don’t need to do that!” she shouted at him, then turned back to Owen with a sigh. “You have no idea how many times I’ve told him not to bow.”
“I actually do,” he told her. “What’s wrong?”
She looked him right in the eye. “I think I saw Fowen in the crowd.”
Owen’s eyebrows shot up. “Fowen? After all this time? Are you sure?”
She rolled her eyes. “You think I’d forget what you looked like five years ago? Even an alternate evil twin version?”
He started to blush, which she loved. “Um, right,” he said. “But what does he want? What . . .” He trailed off, then looked at her strangely. “Was he wearing something odd?”
“Yeah, an orange jumpsuit. Not exactly a great look for blending in here.”
“He doesn’t want to blend in,” Owen said. “He’s sending a message. That’s the TSA prison uniform. He came to tell us he broke out.” He paused. “Was there anyone standing near him?”
Charm replayed the crowd scene in her mind, trying not to think about how much easier it’d be if she still had her robotic eye to record things. “I don’t think so. There was a bald woman next to him, and a woman with white hair?”
Owen broke into a grin. “Oh, this is going to be fun. We’re going to need Kara, though. If we can drag her away from Jupiter City.”
Charm sighed. “I
really hate Orion, and we’ll never get Kara without him following her like some puppy. Do we really need her help?”
“Trust me,” Owen said. “She’s sort of the expert on this stuff.”
“You haven’t told me what the problem is yet,” Charm said, glaring at him.
“I wouldn’t call it a problem,” Owen said, glancing down at his hand as he rewrote it into holding a ray gun. “More of . . . an adventure.” He grinned at her, ripped open a page right there in midair, then held out his hand to her. “Ready, President Mentum?”
She sighed, thinking about her list of upcoming meetings. It wasn’t easy, bringing the entire population of Magisteria back to Quanterium where they belonged, then convincing two planets full of people who hated one another that they needed one another, that one side had grown complacent and unimaginative, while the other was nothing but imagination. Two sides of a whole, and neither complete without the other.
But all of that could wait.
“I suppose I’ve earned a few days off,” she said, and winked at him, then took his hand, and together they leaped through the portal to another reality, the page closing behind them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So let me see if I’m following,” Liesa Mignogna said, staring across her Batman-covered desk at James Riley. “You’re telling me that you were . . . absorbed—”
“He basically swallowed me whole!” James said.
“By this faceless monster you call Nobody, which isn’t the least confusing name I’ve ever heard—”
“I’m with you there.”
“And then he, what, siphoned your writing ability out of you?”
“YES!” James shouted, leaping to his feet. “Like the Parasite in Superman comics!”
Liesa’s look turned cold. “Don’t mention that kind of blasphemy in this office. Batman or get out.”
“Fair,” James said, slowly sitting back down. “He used my author-y skills to write this series of books about these kids, right? Except they really happened! And I met the kids, when they freed me, and they said I could publish those books here, in the nonfictional world, ’cause Nobody only put them out in the fictional one.”
“You know, there’s no reason to pretend this really happened,” Liesa said, frowning. “It doesn’t really add anything to the books.” She flipped through the copies James had brought from the fictional world. “I like the covers, though!”
“Those were by a fictional artist named Vivienne To,” James pointed out. “Look! A dinosaur on that one!”
“Yes, I see,” Liesa said, rolling her eyes. “Well, let me take a look at the books, and I’ll let you know. I’ll have to run them by a bunch of people first. Sarah McCabe would be editing these with me, so we can start with her. We can’t go any further without senior managing editor Katherine Devendorf or copy editor Adam Smith. Mara Anastas and Chriscynethia Floyd, the publishers; Caitlin Sweeny, Catherine Hayden, Amy Hendricks, and Lauren Hoffman in marketing; Faye Bi and Jodie Hockensmith, who’d be your publicists; Sara Berko in production and Laura Lyn DiSiena, our book designer; Michelle Leo and the education/library team; Stephanie Voros and the subrights group, and Gary Urda, Jerry Jensen, Christina Pecorale, Victor Iannone, Christine Foye, and everyone else in sales. They’d all need to get behind it or there’s no point.”
“That’s a lot of people,” James said, standing up. “Hopefully, they’ll go for it. I mean, my agent, Michael Bourret, liked it okay, and he’s impossible to please.”
“He does have good taste,” Liesa said, standing up as well. “Well, I liked those Half Upon a Time books you wrote, so I’ll give these a shot too.”
“Right,” James said, looking at the ceiling. “Those books that . . . I wrote.”
Liesa sighed. “Just . . . just go. And next time I hear from you, come up with your own, original series!”
“I will!” James said, walking quickly to the door before she could change her mind. “I’ve got this idea for a seven-book series, and—”
“Bye!” Liesa waved, then slowly sat down as he finally left. “Story Thieves,” she said, touching the cover of the first book. “Well, as long as they don’t get too meta, maybe they’ll be fine.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Strangely enough, JAMES RILEY, bestselling 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.
JAMESRILEYAUTHOR.COM
ALADDIN
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
VISIT US AT SIMONANDSCHUSTER.COM/KIDS
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/James-Riley
ALSO BY JAMES RILEY
The Half Upon a Time series
Half Upon a Time
Twice Upon a Time
Once Upon the End
The Story Thieves series
Story Thieves
The Stolen Chapters
Secret Origins
Pick the Plot
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, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Aladdin hardcover edition March 2018
Text copyright © 2018 by James Riley
Jacket illustration copyright © 2018 by Vivienne To
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Jacket designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena
Interior designed by Tom Daly
The text of this book was set in Adobe Garamond.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Riley, James, 1977- author.
Title: Worlds apart / by James Riley.
Description: First Simon Pulse hardcover edition. | New York : Simon Pulse, 2018. |
Series: Story thieves ; [5]
Identifiers: LCCN 2017049435 (print) | LCCN 2017060324 (eBook) |
ISBN 9781481485760 (eBook) | ISBN 9781481485746 (hc)
Subjects: | CYAC: Books and reading—Fiction. | Characters in literature—Fiction. |
Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Imagination—Fiction. |
BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. | JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.R55 (eBook) | LCC PZ7.1.R55 Wor 2018 (print) |
DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017049435
