Yet the library called his name. Maybe he could get Jess to come along. Classes didn’t start until Monday, but he wanted to get a head start on learning his way around the library.
Roger knocked on his half-opened door. “Blackfox called a meeting. We’re supposed to meet downstairs in the basement in thirty minutes. Better eat.”
“Is that weird?” Rase shifted his alarm clock on the side table.
Roger leaned on the doorframe. “Nothing’s weird around here. Last year, we had a flock of birds inside. He ran it like a fire drill. Said how fast we got the birds out would be proportionate to how fast we were able to clean up the aftermath.” He laughed. “We were cleaning bird poop out of the dining room for weeks.”
Rase smoothed his cover again, pulling the last tiny wrinkles out of it. “How ‘made’ does the bed have to be? It didn’t specify in the rules.”
“That’s good enough.”
Rase straightened. “When’s my roommate supposed to be here again?”
“Two weeks.”
He sighed and met Roger at the threshold. “What’s for breakfast?”
“It’s cold, self-serve on the weekends. Yogurt, healthy cereal. Blackfox likes this kind that has loads of fiber in it. I can’t stand the stuff.” His face lit up. “Instant waffles. You can heat those up. Syrup makes everything better.”
“Have you seen Jess?”
Roger rubbed his eyes. “Nah, but maybe she’s not up yet. Most of us don’t wake this early.”
“Early riser?”
“Not exactly. Somebody in our wing kept moving furniture around.”
Rase froze. “Sorry.”
“It’s whatever,” Roger said.
Downstairs, they each hurried through a big bowl of cereal. Then they hurried on to the basement. At the end of the portrait corridor, Roger tapped the floor and said the code word. The hidden wall slid to the side. He scanned his eye.
The hatch rolled to the side, and they stepped inside the metal corridors that reminded him of what futuristic spaceships might be like.
Blackfox stood inside, wearing a military-styled uniform. He stood with his arms crossed behind his back. “Welcome to your first lesson of the semester as students of the Creature Caretaker Academy.”
Roger nodded. “Sir.”
“Morning,” Rase added.
Blackfox made the appropriate interactions between the staff and all the students. “Please take a seat, and we’ll begin.”
Rase followed Roger into the glass-walled, brightly lit room.
Freya and Kumiko sat at a large conference table. Each held a mug of coffee in their hands. Freya’s showed black, and Kumiko’s looked to be more creamer than coffee. Roger amused himself by spinning in the largest chair at the end. The quiet girl sat in the seat farthest from the other two girls. Jess wasn’t anywhere.
Rase took a seat at the far end of the table. “Did Jess come down this morning?”
Kumiko shook her head.
“Have you seen her at all?”
Kumiko gave another shake, but Freya’s eyes widened.
Rase frowned. “You know something, Freya?”
“I saw her last night. She was headed toward the atrium, but I don’t know anything else.”
“Do you think she knows about the basement?”
“Why would she? She’s not a student.” Freya’s gaze narrowed. “Did you tell her?”
“Of course not.”
Rase turned to Winnie. “Do you know?”
Winnie tugged her slider phone from her pocket. She typed into it and then held it up. “I know something, but I must tell you later.”
Freya scowled. “What you have to say can be said to us all.”
Winnie shrugged.
Rase leaned forward, his palms pressed to the cold table. “Tell me later? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Winnie shoved her gadget back into her pocket with a shrug.
The lights flickered, and Blackfox’s voice echoed throughout the level. “Let’s begin, students. Your goal is to get the Puzzle-Phant to reassemble and then return it to its realm.” He paused. “Please suit up and proceed to testing room number five.”
Roger groaned. “I hate Puzzle-Phants.”
Rase crossed his hands in front of him on the table. “How do you all know what all these weird animals are? Is there a book or something? I’ve only ever seen the Jekyll-Hyde dragon.”
Kumiko frowned at Roger. “Roger was supposed to show you your mailbox. It’s near the communal bathrooms. Your intake paperwork for C.C.A. will be there. Since Agon isn’t here yet, Roger was supposed to do it.”
Rase sighed. “I read the Preparatory Academy for the Remarkable rules, but nothing else. Only the stuff that my parents got in the mail. That didn’t have anything about Puzzle-Phants.”
“We’ll sort that out later,” Blackfox interrupted. “Let’s focus on the task at hand. Early extra credit opportunity begins in 10… 9… 8…”
Freya, Kumiko, and Roger stood up. Winnie did, too. They trooped out of the conference room, and Rase followed. They stopped at a bank of lockers, five across by five down. Twenty-five metal doors, but only ten of them labeled.
Rase scowled at the others. “What do we do first?”
Roger grinned and placed his hand on a locker door that bore his name. It lit up and the front popped forward. He grabbed an armful of items and hustled to the changing stalls across the room. “Everything you need to complete this mission is in there. Find yours, Flannigan,” he called over his shoulder. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
The girls – Freya, Kumiko, and Winnie – all did the same.
Rase read the labels until he came to his: R. Flannigan. He placed his palm against it. The locker fluoresced and then opened. Inside, a dark blue uniform waited. He drew everything out and took the changing stall on the end. A headband rested on top of the pile. When he finished, Winnie was the only one that waited for him. She wore the stretchy headband across her forehead.
She waved for him to hurry. She typed into her gadget. “Put the headband on.”
Rase did as he was told.
They approached a large opening that resembled a sliding glass door. She didn’t open it but stepped through.
Rase did the same. A sensation slid across his skin, like his whole body moved evenly through the surface tension at the top of a pond, but there wasn’t any water anywhere in sight.
An urban setting surrounded them. It resembled downtown New Haven City. Apartment buildings pierced the graying sky. They weren’t in the bowels of the school anymore. The others milled about the local, neighborhood playground. The paint on the metal toys, chipped and peeling. A lonely oak tree cast a shadow that missed the playground entirely.
Kumiko swung back and forth, pumping her legs with a gleeful smile plastered on her face. Roger threw himself down a shiny slide, hissing about the hot surface. Winnie waited beside Rase, and Freya stood beside her.
“Where are we?” he breathed.
“Simulation,” Freya said. “It mimics real-to-life places, though. I think this is supposed to be New Haven, but I’ve never been there.”
Rase scratched his head. “So, this is like… a hologram? I didn’t know those were real yet.”
“Something like that,” she said. “It’s more sophisticated. It’s not just light. It gives the illusion of matter. The headband links to your brain. It triggers all the receptors that go off while you’re dreaming. It’s so our training seems more real than usual.”
“Ah,” Rase said. “Where’s the creature we’re supposed to save? Is it a hologram, too?”
Roger nodded. “Usually. We don’t get to go through the gate most of the time, though.”
“The gate?”
“The description is in your paperwork.”
Rase snorted. “Paperwork? Why is the answer always paperwork?”
“Never mind.”
“Where is the Puzzle-Phant?”
R
oger sighed. “Give it a minute. I’m sure it’ll be along—”
The ground rumbled the way it did when a herd of cows stampeded by.
“Speak of the devil,” Roger said.
Rase focused on the sensation in the soles of his feet. The pavement wasn’t quite the same as the prairie. “Is it a herd?”
Freya shook her head. “Not exactly.” She jogged to the slide and climbed to the top, using it like a lookout. Roger joined her.
Kumiko leapt out of the swing and pressed her palm against the ground. “They’re not far.”
“I see them,” Freya said. “Two blocks over and running hard.”
Roger took a deep breath and settled into a warrior stance. “You’re about to see some weird stuff, Rase.”
Winnie flashed a thumbs-up, and the rumbling grew louder. Bits of gravel danced across the cracked street. The chain-link fence rattled.
Rase cleared his throat. Were they the size of bison? He turned to Winnie. “Your first time?”
She nodded and then bounded away. She grabbed a low-hanging branch of the oak tree and swung herself into the branches and out of view.
How had Winnie known what to do? Was that in the paperwork, too?
Rase tapped his foot. “Should I do something?”
“Too late,” Freya yelled. “Here they come.”
A wave of bright pink, miniature elephants came around the corner like a tsunami. They poured through the street toward them.
“They’re cute,” Rase yelled over the thunder of their feet.
“If you like piranhas.”
“What?” Rase shrieked, spinning around and running away from the wave. He leapt over the merry-go-round and shimmied up a monkey-bar arch.
“They have teeth on their trunks,” Freya called.
As if to give weight to her words, the guinea-pig-sized pachyderms slammed into the tree where Winnie hid. Bark and bits of tree flew everywhere.
Winnie’s gadget repeated, “Help me, help me, help me,” over and over.
Rase had never seen anything like them. They were exactly like land-based piranha. “How do we calm them down?”
“Send them calming thoughts,” Kumiko yelled, trying to climb the chains that held her swing. “With your brain. You know how to do that, don’t you?”
Rase scowled. Did he? Had he done it with the Jekyll-Hyde Dragon? Maybe these were a bit like that. He raised his hand, his fingers splayed wide.
Freya poofed from the top of the slide down to the ground. “Lalalalalala,” she screamed, flapping her arms. “This way.”
The pinkish flood darted away from Winnie, and Freya teleported back to the top of the slide. Roger shook his head, but put two fingers on each hand to his temples. He squeezed his eyes closed. Freya did, too.
Rase couldn’t see Winnie, but he imagined she was doing the same thing. The small beasties circled every place a student stood. Kumiko tried to rope-climb the chains that held the swing while the Puzzle-Phants leapt at her feet.
“Ten seconds left,” Blackfox’s voice echoed over a loudspeaker.
Rase tipped his head to the side. Calming thoughts. He did that once. He slipped between the monkey bars and landed on the ground, his hands outstretched. If he could touch one of them, maybe it would work better…
“What are you doing?” Roger bellowed.
Kumiko screamed.
Freya poofed next to him. “Get back up there, Rase. Don’t be stupid.”
“I’ll be fine,” Rase said.
Freya disappeared.
One of the stampeding creatures noticed Rase. It pointed its toothed trunk at the sky and trumpeted an alarm. As one, the group turned toward him, swarming like killer bees.
Rase bent down and caught one of the beasts in his hand. The Puzzle-Phant stabbed at his hand, but Rase placed his thumb on the top of his head.
The stabbing motion stopped, and the throng slowed. In a rolling motion, they piled onto one another, morphing from many to one.
Rase placed the single Puzzle-Phant on the ground, and it loped toward the congealing mass in the center of the playground.
An alarm blared. A moment later, the city and the creature disappeared.
Blackfox approached from the side. “That was ridiculously risky, Mr. Flannigan.”
“It worked, though.”
Blackfox’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing else. He marched out of the testing room. “Meet me in the library,” he bellowed and then disappeared around the corner.
Winnie dropped out of the tree. “I was useless today,” she said, shoving her device in her pocket, her mouth turned in a frown.
Rase touched her shoulder, and she glanced up. “That’s not true,” he said. “It takes a little while to learn how to put the panic aside.”
Winnie darted away, her hand over her mouth.
Rase gave chase. “What do you have to tell me?”
Winnie stopped short, her mouth in the shape of an “oh.” She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket, handed it to him, and continued out of the testing room.
Rase had been scrawled across the front of it. He recognized the handwriting.
Once the other students left the testing room, he unfolded the note.
Rase,
I can’t keep doing nothing. I found my mom’s portrait downstairs and a clue beside it. I’ve gone to hunt for my parents. If you want to help, find me on Unseen Street.
Love Always,
Jess
His heart in the back of his throat, Rase shoved the note in his pocket and took off at a run. Why did it sound like she was saying goodbye?
Chapter Thirteen
Unseen Street
Jess pulled her hoodie a little tighter and knocked on the side entrance to the church. The winged woman told her if she ever needed anything, she could come ask, right? She had to know things. Secret things about the world around them.
Jess had to figure out where Unseen Street was. Then she was going. Winnie made Jess promise to send her all the information. Locations. Instructions. Anything and everything. Once Jess did that, she had to find her parents.
“Hello?” She waited a moment and then knocked hard. Come on. Come on. She pounded again, and the door creaked open.
A middle-aged woman appeared at the crack, light gray streaked her darker gray locks. Starfish earrings dangled from her earlobes, and a crease showed between her eyebrows. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Woe.”
Her eye widened slightly. “She’s resting.”
“May I speak with her?”
“What business could you possibly have with her?”
Jess considered the woman. How much could she tell the stranger?
A woman called from inside. “Who is it, Mara?”
Jess offered a timid smile.
The woman—Mara, Jess decided—turned to glance over her shoulder. “A young woman is here to see you.”
Woe appeared behind Mara. “Oh, Jess, I wasn’t sure we’d see you again after you took off on the gryphon.”
Mara leaned close to Woe. “We can’t adopt anymore hard luck cases.”
Woe made a face. “I’d like to see him stop me.”
Mara tried to look stern, but the corners of her mouth twitched.
Jess looked from Woe to Mara and back again. “I don’t need to be adopted.”
Mara gestured. “Come in. I have some soup and some fresh bread.”
“Is it safe?” Jess asked.
Woe snort-laughed. “It’s safe. Come in.”
Jess followed the two women inside. Their footsteps echoed on the hard floor. They led Jess across the sanctuary, down a short hallway, and into a meeting room. A folding card table sat in the middle of the room with four chairs around it.
Woe took one seat and offered another to Jess.
“I’ll grab the refreshments.” Mara hurried away.
Jess raised a hand. “You don’t have to do—”
“She doesn’t have to, b
ut she wants to,” Woe said. “What do you need?”
“My parents are gone.”
“Gone?”
Jess blinked tears away. “They’ve disappeared.”
Woe studied her fingertips. When she looked up, her eyes glowed green. “Why would I know where they are?”
Jess scowled. “No. That’s not why I’m here.”
Woe tipped her head to the side as hurried footsteps approached. “Then why would you come here?”
“I need to know how to get to Unseen Street.”
A gasp cut through the quiet, and Woe raised a brow.
Jess twisted to find Mara, waiting on the threshold. Mara must have been the one to gasp. The middle-aged woman carried the Dutch oven to the table, tossed one of the ragged-edged potholders down on the table, and set the cast-iron pot on top of it.
Mara placed three bowls around the small table with three spoons, then she put her hands on her hips. She frowned down at Jess. “Unseen Street? Why would you want to go there?”
Jess leaned forward. “So, it’s a real place?”
Woe raised an eyebrow.
“Please tell me,” Jess whispered.
Neither woman spoke. Mara ladled soup into a bowl.
Jess tried to keep her chin from quivering, but she couldn’t, and tears welled in her eyes. “I think my parents were taken there. They’re either hiding or they’ve been…”
Mara stopped before filling the third bowl. “Been what?”
“Kidnapped.”
Woe drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “But why would you think that?”
“It’s the only clue I have.”
Woe scooped a potato from the beefy broth. She pointed at Jess with her spoon. “How did you get that clue?”
Ten minutes later, both women studied Jess, their eyes narrowed.
“I know it sounds weird,” Jess said. “But somebody scratched Unseen Street into the frame around my mother’s portrait. What if it was my mom? She knows Rase and I are best friends. She knows Rase would be there to help if… especially…” She swallowed. “If something happened to them.”
Mara crossed her arms, shaking her head. “We can’t send a kid over there. It’s crazy.”
Academy of Magic Collection Page 12