The Wicked Passage (A Blake Wyatt Adventure) by N.M. Singel

ash.
    “Give me that book, you filthy little roach.”
    All this superpower stuff was new to Blake, but he knew what the pros did. So why not? Nothing else was working. Winding up his right arm, Blake shot his open hand squarely at the giant. “Think again, Dragonbreath. You’re going to find out what I can do.”
    Nothing happened except for a deafening, jeering laugh from whatever stood before him, ready for murder.
    “Terrific,” Blake muttered. “Superpower that doesn’t work.” He retreated to the corner.
    “Knowledge is your power,” the book whispered.
    “Whatever. Some help you are,” Blake said to the book. He tried to contain the violent waves of vibrations coming from the book’s bound pages. He felt like there was going to be an all-out war between this book and the giant, and he was caught in the middle. He struggled to hold the book close to his body, but it wiggled from his grip, shooting streaks of colored light in every direction. Maybe he should just hand over the stupid thing and get the heck out of there.
    “All right, you win,” he told the monster. “Say I give you this book. You’ll let me out of here? No zaps, no microwaves, none of that flame-throwing stuff?”
    “I give you my word.” The creature twisted together both sides of the weird, shiny black ball.
    As light slowly returned to the room, Blake loosened his grip on the chronicle. The book was sweet, but no way was it worth any of this. No one was going to believe him anyhow. Touching the brilliant stones one more time, he carefully set the Chronicle of the Rellium on a desk and stepped back. “There! Ya happy?”
    The giant moved quickly to the glowing book, smothering the radiating jewels with its huge, thick fingers, blotting out the brilliance. “Now you’re mine forever,” the creature said, shoving the book under its arm.
    Blake backed up a few more steps and tried to squirm around the creature, but the giant moved in front of him. “Going somewhere?”
    “We had a deal!”
    “I don’t make deals.”
    Blake looked around at what used to be his history classroom. Quietly he moved his hand into his pocket and slid out his cell phone. Pressing 911 without looking at the display, he waited briefly before quickly smashing the phone to his ear. “Hello! Hello! Come on . . . answer! I need help!”
    The giant hissed. “If I weren’t in such a rush, I’d find your pranks humorous.”
    Blake looked at the display on the phone. A text message was buzzing: You’re mine! Then the giant’s laughing face appeared on the screen of the phone just before it burst into flames. Blake threw the burning phone to the floor.
    Why couldn’t he make his so-called power work? Glancing at the clock, he saw the hands were stuck--just like him. And he had given away the only thing that could’ve saved him: the Chronicle of the Rellium.
    “You’re a sapphire traveler, Blakemore Wyatt. Use your powers,” the book urged weakly from under the arm of the giant. “Strength comes from within.”
    Blake glared at the book. “What powers? You give them to me, then they don’t work.”
    “How enchanting,” said the creature. “The great Chronicle of the Rellium speaks to the boy Wyatt, but it’s useless.”
    Blake hung his head. Now he knew why Hugo Price had told him not to open the dumb thing. He was totally clueless about this good-for-nothing strength. Even superheroes knew what they could do, but he was defenseless, and the silence outside the classroom destroyed any hope that someone would come to his rescue. Maybe he could talk his way out of it--the only ability he definitely knew how to use.
    “Okay,” Blake said, smiling. “You really got me. You’re obviously smarter than me, so I’m sure you see that if we put our powers together, then we really got something. If you knew my father’s strength, then you know what I can do. Whatta ya say?”
    The creature bombarded the remaining desks in the room with fireballs and