Read The Magic Book series, book 1 for Free Online Page B

she
struggled to ask through a descending veil of fatigue, her voice
little more than a whisper. Her eyelids felt impossibly heavy as
she glanced over to her sister who had lolled sleepily back in her
chair.
    “Shhh,” came
Queen Tara’s soothing reply.
     
     
A Race Against
Time!

    Felicity woke
with a jump. She turned to Sophie and shook her. “Wake up!” she
urged.
    “Mmmmm? Is it
morning already?” Sophie mumbled woozily.
    “We’re back at
school, Sophie, under the oak tree.”
    Sophie sat up.
“Oh! I had the strangest dream.” Then she felt her side. There was
the book, tucked into her blouse.

    Felicity felt
something cold and hard touch her knee and turned the hem of her
skirt over to find the gold button Queen Tara had given them. It
had been sewn neatly into it, invisible from the outside. She
turned so Sophie could see it. Sophie felt for hers too.
    A small group
of children were approaching, laughing, with a teacher running
behind and catching them up fast.
    “You ran into
the tree and knocked yourselves silly!” giggled Nikki, one of the
older girls.
    It was then
that Sophie and Felicity realised they were wet, but there was
absolutely no sign of the storm clouds now.
    “Sophie,
Felicity, are you alright?” fretted Mrs Shaw, their classroom
assistant.
    “Yes.”
    “I think so,”
they answered in turn.
    “Come on, let’s
get you up. Go and find some dry jumpers in the school office -
there should be some in the lost property box,” she said whilst
turning them on the spot by the shoulders one by one, checking them
over for any bumps and bruises.
    As they made
their way to the office Sophie glanced at her watch, anxious to
find out how long they had been gone. It said 1pm still. She tapped
her watch, suspecting that it must have stopped, but the hour hand
remained stubbornly on the one. So no time had passed? She had read
of this happening in fairy books, but hadn’t really believed it
possible that time itself could stand still!
    Having changed
out of their wet things they remembered they had a job to do; they
checked their gold buttons, - not glowing, good, and rushed back
out to start collecting signatures from non-believers.
    Felicity
briskly walked over to the first person she saw and asked; “Excuse
me, we are doing a project on fairies called “Do they exist or
not?” and we want to do a survey to see what people think.” As the
boy shook his head “no”, she extended the book and pen out to him.
“If you could sign our book then, please?” Great, they were off to
a good start!
    By the end of
the day they had collected about 50 names, but it left them with
mixed feelings; sad that so many didn’t believe, but hopeful that
it would give them enough energy to overpower Nightshade.
    That night,
whilst they waited for their mother to come upstairs to read them a
bedtime story, Felicity whispered to Sophie;
    “Do you think
we have enough signatures?”
    “I hope so. We
could ask the book,” Sophie whispered back.
    So, in the dim
light filtering in from the landing, they wrote the question…..but
nothing happened. By this time they were too worn out to wonder
why, and were already sound asleep moments later when their mother
came in to read.
    “Funny little
things,” she said to herself, smiling as she watched them in their
sleep. “School must have been too exciting again. I don’t remember
it being that way in my time. In turn she bent down, smoothed their
hair away from their brows and gently placed a goodnight kiss on
each child, taking in their lovely sweet smell whilst whispering,
“Love you most,” into their ears. They didn’t even stir.

    Next morning,
the girls dressed quickly. Sophie stowed the book in her blouse as
before. They virtually gulped their breakfast down and raced to
school.
    Their mother
couldn’t believe how different the girls were from just last week.
Now she was finding herself having to rush to keep up with
them!
    Felicity
checked her magic