Chapter 2

Chapter Two IN WHICH an Old Friend Returns Stop gawping, snail-heads!" Hogsqueal yelled. "Help me!" He was backed against a chimney, one hand holding his coat closed over a largish object, the other brandishing an empty slingshot menacingly. "Hogsqueal?" Jared grinned at the sight of the hobgoblin, then stopped with a scowl. "What are you doing here?" Simon was holding the griffin back, mostly by standing between him and Hogsqueal and yelling

loudly. Byron turned his hawk head to the side and blinked, then pawed the ground with his talons as though he were more feline than bird. Jared suspected that Byron thought they were playing a new game. Hogsqueal hesitated, seeing Jared's face. "I didn't know this was your house until the griffin showed up." "You helped catch our mother?" Jared could feel his face growing warm. "Trash our house? Kill Simon's pets?" He took two steps toward Hogsqueal, hands fisting. He'd trusted Hogsqueal. He'd liked him. And the hobgoblin had betrayed them. Jared could barely think with the roaring in his ears. "I didn't kill anything." Hogsqueal opened his coat a little, revealing a marmalade ball of fur. "Kitty!" Simon said, distracted by the sight of the kitten. In that moment Byron lunged past Simon, catching the hobgoblin's arm in his beak. "Aaaaaaahhhhh!" Hogsqueal screamed. The cat yowled, jumping onto the roof. "Byron, no!" Simon yelled. "Drop him!" The griffin shook his head, whipping Hogsqueal

back and forth. The hobgoblin's shouts became louder. "Do something!" Jared called, panicked. Simon stepped up to the griffin and hit him hard on the beak with his hand. "NO!" he shouted. "Oh crap, don't do that!" Mallory said, reaching for the sword at her waist. But instead of attacking, the griffin stopped shaking Hogsqueal and looked at Simon with something like alarm. "Drop him!" Simon repeated, pointing to the slate roof.

"I''m sorry, gobstoppers."

Hogsqueal struggled ineffectually, pushing his fingers into Byron's nose slits and trying to bite the feathery neck with his baby teeth. The griffin ignored the hobgoblin but didn't make a move to put him down either. "Be careful," Jared told his brother. "Better he eats Hogsqueal than us." "Noooo! I'm sorry, gobstoppers," Hogsqueal said, still writhing. "I didn't mean it! Honest. Get me out of here! Heeeeeelp!" "Jared," Simon said. "Grab Hogsqueal, okay?" Jared nodded, edging nearer. This close, he could smell the griffin—it had a feral scent, like a cat's fur. Simon put one hand on the top of Byron's beak, the other on the bottom, and started to lever them apart, repeating, "Be a gooooood boy. Yes. Drop the goblin." "Hobgoblin!" Hogsqueal yelped. "Are you crazy?" Mallory hollered at her brother. The griffin turned his head abruptly in her direction, almost knocking Simon sprawling. "Sorry," Mallory said in a much smaller voice.

Jared gripped Hogsqueal around the legs. "Got him." "Hey, yaffner, we're not going to be playing tug-ofwar with my body, right? Right?" Jared just smiled grimly. Simon tried again to push Byron's beak open. "Mallory, come and help me. Grab the bottom of the beak, and I'll get the top." She stepped carefully across the slanted roof. The griffin eyed her nervously. "When I say pull," Simon said, "pull." Together they tried to pry the griffin's jaws apart. Mallory's fingers slid into Byron's mouth as she strained, nearly hanging from the griffin, trying to use her weight against him. Byron struggled and then suddenly gave in, opening his mouth and dropping Hogsqueal's full weight into Jared's arms. Losing his balance, Jared slid backward on the shingles, letting go of Hogsqueal and scrabbling for a handhold. The hobgoblin slid as well, knocking loose the shingle Jared was gripping on to. Jared slipped and grabbed hold of the gutter moments before he would have