"So you see, Molly, it's like this." Timothy Hunter took a deep breath and launched into his speech. "I am the greatest, most powerful magician of all time. At least"--he ducked his head modestly--"that's what they tell me." Tim paused and then groaned. You sound like a head-swollen, egomaniacal loon, he scolded himself.

Timothy Hunter, the boy with the potential to wield extraordinary magic, skate-boarded back and forth in front of Molly O'Reilly's dilapidated house. He'd been doing it for about half an hour. He and Molly had planned to meet later, and he was determined to have this conversation today. He tried out different speeches as he carefully avoided the many cracks that spread like veins in the pavement. In this part of London, a bloke was lucky if the traffic lights worked and the garbage was picked up regularly. Asking for smooth asphalt was a bit much. Tim didn't mind--he developed his awesome boarding skills by learning not to let such obstacles trip him up.

He arrived at the end of the street and rolled to a stop. "Try again," he told himself, picking up the board and turning it around. "Version number three hundred and twelve." He kicked himself along until he picked up speed, then balanced expertly as he dodged cracks, litter, and a mangy stray dog.

"Okay, Molly, you're probably not going to believe me, but I swear on anything you like it's true," he declared. "I didn't believe it at first either. But these guys--I call them the Trenchcoat Brigade--came and gave me the heads up on being magic."

He flipped up onto the sidewalk as a car drove past him, spraying some gray slush--the last bit of slush from the winter. "I've been to other worlds," he continued. "I even saved a few."

He frowned. Every time he tried telling even imaginary Molly about some of the truly stupendous things he'd done, he had to stop. It sounded impossible and worse--it sounded like bragging. Then he wound up feeling like a total fake, because he wasn't always certain how he had done the things he had done.

Take Free Country for instance, he thought. The kids there had kind of kidnapped him, wanting to use his power to save the place. But instead, he'd short-circuited everything. Literally--major power eruptions. The weirdest thing was, that was what ultimately saved them. Tim had protected that world by accident. He was glad he had--he just didn't know how he'd done it.

What if Molly asked him to prove that he was magic? She was definitely an I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it kind of girl. Her down-to-earth, no-nonsense attitude was one of the qualities he liked best about her. That and the fact that she was super tough, really brave, and awfully funny. He liked her soft-looking hair and sparkling brown eyes. Even more important, she was someone he could talk to. Like when he found out that the man who raised him wasn't really his father. She'd come through aces when he'd told her. High marks in all categories.

Only, even then, he had held something back. Something big. He didn't let her in on the fact that he had also found out who his real father was: a man named Tamlin, who lived in a completely different world called Faerie and could turn himself into a bird. Tim had left out that little feathered detail when he talked to Molly.