Timothy uses his powers for peacemaking in book two of the fantastical Magic Zero series from two New York Times bestselling authors. Timothy now knows that possessing no magical powers makes him very powerful indeed. Having defeated Nicodemus, Timothy travels to a war-torn dimension to help the Wurm—fierce magicians and warriors descended from an ancient dragon race. There is an age-old feud between the Wurm and the Parliament of Mages, and as Timothy investigates, he uncovers a deadly conspiracy. Further complicating matters is a mysterious girl who challenges the leadership of the Order of Alhazred, and the disconcerting fact that not only do mages continue to disappear…but someone is targeting Timothy as the villain. This second book in the Magic Zero quartet, originally known as the Outcast series, features a refreshed cover and an unforgettable adventure. Thomas E. Sniegoski is the author of more than two dozen novels for adults, teens, and children. His books for teens include Legacy , Sleeper Code , Sleeper Agenda , and Force Majeure , as well as the series The Brimstone Network. As a comic book writer, Sniegoski’s work includes Stupid , Stupid Rat Tails , a prequel miniseries to international hit, Bone . Sniegoski collaborated with Bone creator Jeff Smith on the project, making him the only writer Smith has ever asked to work on those characters. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his wife LeeAnne and their French Bulldog, Kirby. Visit him on the web at Sniegoski.com. Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as The House of Last Resort , All Hallows , Road of Bones , and the Stoker Award-winning Ararat , among many others. Golden cocreated (with Mike Mignola) the fan-favorite comic book series Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective . He has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson). His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. He has been nominated eleven times in eight different categories for the Bram Stoker Award, and has won twice. In 2023, Golden and Amber Benson cowrote and codirected the Audible Original podcast Slayers: A Buffyverse Story . Please visit him at ChristopherGolden.com. Dragon Secrets CHAPTER ONE Timothy Cade stood on the ocean floor, rocked by the rhythm of the water, and he gazed around at the wondrous undersea landscape. It was so peaceful beneath the waves. He had always found a cool serenity there, as though it were a dream. Reeds flapped like banners, pushed and pulled by the deep tide. Dozens of breeds of fish swam in these waters, a kaleidoscope of colors in motion. Burrow crabs skittered from beneath clumps of prickly plants into the warrens of coral that jutted from the ocean bottom, pale castles that looked as though they had been carved of bone. He wore a tunic into which he had sewn pockets that were filled with enough sand to weigh him down. In his hands, Timothy carried a speargun, a device that had been simple for him to construct. All he needed to do was pump the barrel several times to increase pressure inside the chamber and then pull the trigger, and the short spear would fire, its flint-rock tip slicing the water. In his first excursions below the waves, he had quickly learned that though some fish were good to eat and some served other purposes, none of them was easy to catch. And some of them were truly dangerous. Timothy breathed slowly, hearing his inhalations inside his head, and he was careful not to disrupt the air tube that trailed behind him, leading up to the surface and then to the shore. At his end the tube had a mouthpiece he fastened to his face with Yaquis tree sap and straps that tied behind his head. On the other end, back on the shore, was the air pump, a device that used the crash of the waves, the pull of the tide, to drive the bellows that sent air down the tube. As a young boy, Timothy had been single-minded when an idea for a new invention struck him. At the age of eight he had discovered that a hollowed-out length of Lemboo plant was pliant, durable, and waterproof. Weeks later, he had laid enough of it end to end—connections wrapped in an elastic sheath of boar skin—that he could walk a full minute straight out from the shore into the water and still have air. The combination of his speargun and the air tube made it simple to catch fish or to scavenge other things off the ocean floor. Yet it was not fishing that had drawn him beneath the waves to begin with. He still preferred the calming, almost meditative experience of fishing off the jetty to submerging himself in search of dinner. No, what he loved best about the underwater world was the sense of discovery. Until recently, Timothy had spent his entire youth on the tiny Island of Patience, which sat in the vast oc