The Eternal Hourglass by Erica Kirov

Author:Erica Kirov
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2010-03-12T17:00:00+00:00

GRANDPA'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN

AFTER HE HAD REHEARSED EVERYTHING BUT CHANGING Isabella into Sascha, and after he had done it a hundred times, until his legs were sore and his butt was numb in the saddle, Nick dismounted, his growling stomach reminding him it was time to eat.

He was about to head with the family to the elevators up to the top floor when, in the back of the theater, he saw his grandfather. Nick waved wildly and, sore legs aside, ran down the stage steps and up the aisle, bear-hugging his mother's father.

“Man, it's good to see you,” he smiled at Grandpa.

His grandfather ruffled his hair and hugged him back fiercely, his voice choked off. “Good to see you, too.”

Nick looked up at his grandfather. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Come on, my boy,” his grandfather said. “Let's go for a walk.”

Nick nodded, glancing over his shoulder. He saw Damian staring at him. The heck with him. This was his grandfather.

The two of them strolled out into the lobby. Tourists were marveling at the snow-topped onion domes.

“How do they do it?” said one man with so many cameras slung around his neck, Nick was surprised he wasn’t hunchbacked.

“I hear it's soap powder. Like Disney does,” offered a woman, obviously his wife, with dyed red hair that matched the lobster red of her sunburned skin, and wearing a Hawaiian-themed dress with hula dancers on it.

Nick and Grandpa moved through the lobby. Nick looked all around for Shadowkeepers but didn’t see any.

“They’re not here, if that's what you’re worried about,” his grandfather said.

Nick's eyes widened. “You know about them?”

His grandfather nodded.

“What else do you know?”

The old man exhaled. “I know, Kolya, that you are better off here.”

“How? How can I be better off here? Don’t you miss me? Don’t you want me? They have me riding some crazy horse, eating food that would make you throw up.”

“That food is your heritage. But I did bring you something.” His grandfather reached into his pocket and pulled out a fast-food cheeseburger, still warm, wrapped in brightly hued paper.

“All right!” Nick unwrapped it and took a huge bite, savoring the smell, the pickle, the ketchup—all of it. With a mouth full of cheeseburger, he tried to swallow as he kept talking. “Their food is gross. And I don’t have a TV. I don’t have video games. I don’t have my skateboard. I don’t have anything but this crazy family I didn’t even know I had, who all talk in spells and riddles. And Russian! And last night, a Shadowkeeper tried to kill me, and I almost drowned.”

As he said that, his ribs reminded him just how close he had come to drowning.

Grandpa looked at him, fear registering in his eyes. “They came here? They got past Damian's security?”

Nick nodded. “I’m not safe here.”

“Kolya, you aren’t safe anywhere else but here.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“Come sit down.”

Grandpa led him to a small velvet couch by a huge potted plant with blue flowers. Nick finished scarfing down his burger and crumpled the paper into a ball.

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