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“On three,” he shouted.
“One,” I said, readying my pair.
“Two,” he said.
“Three,” we said in unison, and touched the open cuff to the tree trunk-sized leg of the sheep.
The sheep’s legs shrank to fit inside the cuffs. Its whole body shrank with it.
I ran over to Silas and dove at him, hugging his neck and lifting up onto my tiptoes. “We did it.”
“We did.” He wrapped his arms around me, and held me, but his expression wasn’t the mirror of my happiness that I expected. He set me down, instead. “We need to send her to the library for analysis.”
He pulled out the portal chain from his pocket and created a shimmering entry for the sheep, then nudged her through.
The portal closed.
I stared at Silas, trying to figure out what I’d done wrong. Something was off.
“It’s time to get back to the castle,” he said.
“What do you mean,it’s time to go to the castle?I was right. Noah is the bad guy. I bet the amulet is in one of the boxes in the barn. That’s where we need to focus our attention.”
“You go ahead if you want,” he said without looking at me. “Noah isn’t here. I have to return to the castle.”
This didn’t make any sense. How did we go from breakfast cake to this? “Are you mad at me because I found the clue to this address earlier?”
“I’m not mad at you.”
“You’re acting strange,” I said. “Distant.”
He sucked in a deep breath and held it in his chest.
“Are you miffed that I was right?” I asked. “You can’t handle that Cornelius Kurnbottom is not the villain?”
“He’s evil, Lily.”
“You just can’t admit I was right.”
“I congratulated you on the giant sheep. Isn’t that enough?”
“No.”
We stared at each other. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would be enough until I had my old life back.
“I’ll come back for you if you’d like a ride when I’m done,” he said.
“After I’ve found the amulet and you’ve wasted your time?”
“I hope you do find the amulet here. Then you’ll finally be safely out of Inorog.”
As I watched him walk away, all of the excitement and satisfaction I felt turned to ash in my mouth. Something was definitely going on with Silas. A big part of me wanted to chase after him. But whatever we had been building between us—itwas too fragile. I’d already broken it, if in fact there had been anything there at all.
CHAPTER 20
If Silas didn’t want to stay and help me find the amulet, then it would be me who got all the creditandthe glory when I inevitably uncovered it. Sure, searching might take me a little longer without him, but that was fine. Who even cared if Silas ditched me? Not me. Never.
I sifted through the boxes, one after another, while Fernando swam between them as if the whole barn was a giant ball pit. Each box contained one type of garbage—empty orange juice bottles, packing peanuts, broken dollhouse furniture. If only I could find the box for stolen magical relics, I’d be all set.
