"Uh. Wait. That's not how this was supposed to work," Miles said as he stared at the extremely confused stranger he'd just summoned into the basement. "I was supposed to be the one traveling, not... Okay. Hold up, lemme check this real quick."

He flipped through the pages of his grimoire, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. "Dude, yeah, no, see? It says so right here," he said, pointing at runes on the book that the stranger wouldn't understand. "Inter-dimensional travel circle. That's what that magic circle is for. Look, see these? This one's 'between.' This one means 'dimensions,' this is 'magic,' this one's 'circle,' and this one's 'summoning'—"

Miles's eyes widened and he brought the book to his face. "Wait. Wait, no, no, that said travel. It was travel, not summoning. Why's it say summoning? I swear it said travel a second ago!"

He looked at the stranger, then back at the grimoire, then at the stranger again.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Miles said, gesturing between the book and the person. "I was supposed to travel to another dimension and ask a wizard about my dad's curse, not yoink someone from another dimension!" He shook the book, practically yelling at it. "You can't do this to me, book! I've been studying for months! Do you know how much energy it took to charge the crystal and open the portal and activate the circle?!"

Frustrated, he tossed the grimoire aside and brought his hands to his hair. "What am I supposed to do now?! Dad's still cursed, and now the school's gonna know I stole their supplies and did a whole bunch of illegal cr*p! What am I gonna do, dude? What are we gonna do?!" he asked the stranger, as though a person from another dimension would have any idea. "My dad's gonna kill me! If he doesn't die first!"

Miles's dad had worked very hard as a knight to earn him a place at the Royal Academy of Magicks, after all. And Miles's plan to find a cure for his dad's death curse had just failed spectacularly. And now some stranger was staring at him. This was the worst.