Jess tipped up on her toes. “So, it’s a real place?”
Mara grasped Woe’s forearm. “You know we can’t.”
Woe nodded. “Sure. I know.”
“What?” Jess glanced from one to the other. “It’s the only clue I have. You can’t do this to me. I have to find my parents.”
Woe tapped her chin. “Mara, would you see if Lev has any goodies we can send with her?”
Mara didn’t go immediately. She shook her head. “You know we can’t.”
“I know. I know.” Woe jerked her head toward Jess and leaned close to the older woman. “We can’t send her away empty-handed.”
“True, true,” Mara said before rushing into the belly of the church.
Woe stepped out onto the stoop and pulled the door mostly closed behind her. “You have a smart phone?”
Jess scowled. “Sure. Who doesn’t?”
Woe chuckled. “I don’t. That’s why I ask.”
Jess studied her cracked screen. She’d been horsing around with Rase when she flung the thing across the room. Her parents hadn’t bothered replacing it. “Oh,” she said.
Woe tapped the edge of the Jess’s smart phone. “In thirty minutes, I’ll send you a location. It’ll get you to the entrance, but then you have to figure out how to get in. It’s not obvious. That’s the best I can do.” She gave a slight shake to her head. “I probably shouldn’t do that much, but I’m a sucker for the underdog.”
Jess wasn’t sure how she felt about being termed the underdog. What was Unseen Street really like? She kicked a small pebble off of the stoop. “Is it dangerous?”
“It’s be filled with more creatures and danger than you’ve ever seen in your life.”
Jess tipped her chin up. “My parents were probably kidnapped, and my house burned down last night.”
Woe’s shoulders dropped an inch, and she draped her arm around Jess’s shoulders. “You’re right. It’s been a hell of a day for you already.”
“Do you need my number?” Jess whispered, her voice almost completely muffled by Woe’s hair and clothes. She moved away.
“The Librarian will look it up.”
“It’s unlisted.” Her mom always said it like that ended the discussion.
Woe wiggled her fingers. “He has his ways.”
Jess nodded. The knot in her middle unraveled slightly. Thirty minutes. That’s all. Then she could do something. She wouldn’t be stuck doing nothing.
Footsteps echoed in the hall inside, and Woe stepped backward over the threshold and into the church. “I know. Straight A’s are so hard to do. Good job,” Woe said, nodding her head.
Mara appeared beside her with a basket in her hand. She pulled back the fabric, stirring the scent of freshly baked bread. Buns, rolls, bagels, and croissants waited.
Jess took a deep breath. “They smell amazing.”
Woe elbowed Mara. “Her husband bakes them.”
Mara pressed the goodies toward Jess. “We want you to have them.”
Jess lifted the basket. “I’ll bring it back.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Mara said.
“She means it,” Woe added. “Eat all the bread. Keep the linen and the basket.”
They stepped back, and Mara eased the door closed.
Before it latched, Woe winked.
Jess knew the winged woman wouldn’t let her down. She spun on the sidewalk. How should she waste a half-hour? Chewing her fingernails, a habit she hadn’t leaned on since her elementary years, she hurried toward the New Haven City park down the street. She entered the park through the main gate and took a seat on the nearest bench to wait.
Park-goers played. Dogs barked at their owners. Stray cats peered out from beneath bushes. A normal day to all… except her. Her parents had gone missing, and it was up to her to find them.
Jess shifted on the park bench to follow the flight of a white peacock as it left a copse of trees to her right and dove low over a pond. When it reached the other side, it stretched its neck out and screamed, making Jess shiver.
As promised, Jess’s phone buzzed thirty minutes later. A location pin arrived via a text message alert from an unknown five-digit number. A text from the same unknown number followed.
Between the two columns.
She tapped her thigh to keep from chewing on her fingernails. The entrance to Unseen Street wasn’t far… within walking distance. Jess highlighted the address and forwarded it to Winnie. Then she sent the word-text. If something happened to Jess, they had to know where to start looking for her.
Several blocks later, Jess faced a nondescript subway station. She’d never been in one before. The address matched the one she’d been sent. Nothing special about it. No twinkly lights or sparkly bits anywhere.
She hurried down the stairs. Her skin prickled, and her blood pulsed in her ear, but the platform looked only like she expected a subway platform to look. She stopped at the fare kiosk to buy a pass. She typed in one use and cringed as she swiped her debit card. Would it still work like it always had before? She hadn’t thought of it until just then… Would the bank turn everything off? Were her parents still using theirs?
The kiosk spit out a metro card, and Jess hiccupped as she swiped it at the turnstile. She moved out onto the platform. Travelers meandered from one side to the other. Train wheels squealed against the track somewhere down the line, and a light flashed to warn of an impending arrival.
At the corner, a spindly man strummed a ukulele, singing songs Jess didn’t recognize in a language the reminded her of the Gaelic she’d heard on last year’s Renaissance Faire fieldtrip. The tip of his pointed red beard quivered with each word.
Two columns rested in the center of the platform. They were the only two anywhere in the station. The text had said between them. She double-checked to be certain.
She faced them, contemplating them. They looked like she expected two tiled columns in a subway station to look. She took a breath and tipped her head to the side, easing closer. She stepped onto a square, slightly darker than the rest.
The world in front of her shimmered and split in two, sliding apart like opposite sides of an automatic door. The sun shined on the other side of the portal, illuminating a neighborhood unlike any she’d ever seen before.
An Egyptian jackal, taller than a one-story house, stepped into view, crossed its arms, and appraised her. Jess bit back a scream and fell back, breathing hard. The alternate world disappeared.
What was that creature? What city had been on the other side of the portal?
New Haven City inhabitants poured out of an open car. They hurried around Jess without stopping. She snagged the elbow of a passing elderly woman. “Did you see that?”
The woman frowned at her. “Now you get off me, child, or I’ll report you to the authorities for harassment. I won’t give another dime to a beggar such as you.” She yanked her arm away.
Jess turned in place, shrieking when she found the ukulele man directly behind her. A blue light rested on his left shoulder. It beamed at Jess as though happy to see her.
The man cleared his throat and bowed. “My name is Lep.” A dark tentacle slipped out of his mouth and gestured to a blue flame on his shoulder. “Sorry about that, mon.” Despite the earlier Gaelic, his accent sounded Jamaican.
Another caught her before she hit the tile floor. “What are you?”
“Like you, I skew a bit paranormal,” he said.
She stared at the tentacle tip, resting at the corner of his mouth.
If he noticed, he ignored it. He pointed to the flame. “This is Wisp. She’s glad you can see her.” Two more tentacles appeared from behind his back.
Jess’s knees shook. “Why wouldn’t I see her? She’s right there.”
Using his ukulele, he pointed to a passing family. “Oh, not all see all things. Not all, not all. Time for you to go in.”
She chewed her bottom lip.
He tapped the back of her closest hand. “You’re not cr
azy. They don’t have the eyes to see it,” he whispered. “Never do they do.” He spoke in a song, bobbing his head from side to side as though he heard a tune no one else could. “Never, they do.”
Jess sighed. “I’ve seen it as long as I’ve been alive. How do I get through?”
He bowed. When he popped up, he smiled so big, his mouth was the only thing Jess could see. His eyes twinkled, his teeth sparkled. “None of the mortals have eyes to see the door between our worlds, miss. Only those with cells, paranormal.” With one hand in the middle of her back, he pushed her toward the columns once more.
She squinted at the man. “Who are you?”
He scanned the station, moving closer to her. “A friendly neighborhood leprechaun, mon. Hurry, miss. Strange things walk the streets.”
“I thought leprechauns were short and green.” She paused. “Not tall… and Jamaican.”
But he had returned to the corner of the platform, already back to strumming and singing in Gaelic. His gaze fixed on somewhere beyond the platform.
She approached the space between the two columns once more. The space between shimmered. She didn’t wait for the jackal face to show up again. Her skin prickled, and she shivered. She squeezed her eyes closed and stepped into the unseen.
Chapter Fourteen
Birds of a Feather
Rase slammed his hand against the wall and then resumed pacing at the top of the stairs. Jess had gone without him. Despite everything, she’d gone running into danger. She hadn’t even given him a chance to go along.
How could he get to Unseen Street? Where was Unseen Street? He’d never heard of one in Bayburgh. He hadn’t even heard of one in New Haven City. He typed the name into the Google app on his phone. It brought up nothing. It was like the place didn’t exist.
Even if he could figure out the location of Unseen Street, he couldn’t afford another Uber. That last one had eaten up his savings. He didn’t have an endless supply of funds or access to emergency funds. He couldn’t even call his parents to ask. He couldn’t ask for money so he could save Jess from whatever she’d gotten herself into on Unseen Street. He hadn’t talked to his parents at all since the fire at Jess’s place.
Rase jogged to his bedroom and scooped his backpack from the floor. He didn’t have a lot in it, but he had a toolset and a flashlight. The things might come in handy. He slung it over his shoulder and hurried back out into the corridor.
At the end of the hall, he paused at the top of the stairs. He had to get to Jess.
“We could take Blackfox’s car to rescue Jess.”
Winnie’s mechanical voice nearly startled Rase right off the top stair, and he spun around. “Do you have another talent besides sneaking?” he bellowed.
He hadn’t heard her footsteps or anything, and he was already wound about as tight as he could be. His best friend had run off to God knows where, and it was up to him to save her. But, in the process of saving her, he was probably giving up his place at the Creature Caretaker Academy.
She grinned. “I shapeshift. What’s your other talent?”
Rase shook his head. “Never mind.”
She pressed a button on her handheld device. “We should take Blackfox’s car,” the tinny voice repeated.
Rase smoothed a hand over the back of his neck. “I don’t even know what to say to that. Grand theft auto isn’t my idea of a solution.”
She typed into her device. It spoke a moment later. “It’s only grand theft auto when you mean to keep the stolen vehicle. We’ll return it.”
“Do you have money for a taxi or an Uber?”
She gave him a look. “Do you?”
“The bus?”
“We have to get to one first. They don’t come out here.”
“There has to be another way.”
Wiinnie raised a hand and darted down the corridor in the girls’ side of the mansion. When she came back, she held up her device. “How about this?”
Rase scowled at her. “What?”
She waved at the empty space in the air. Then she stamped her foot. A moment later, the gryphon Jess had flown to the fire appeared. It snorted at Winnie and danced in place.
“We can fly on it,” she said.
“I’m not ready for that. I need to keep my feet on the ground.” It was the truth. How could I ride a lion eagle?
A crease formed between Winnie’s eyebrows. “You wanted something else?”
“No, not at all.”
“Then what is it?”
“I can’t fly. I’m afraid of heights.” It all came gushing out of Rase’s mouth.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course.”
“Then we have to drive.”
“No cash. No car.”
She tapped her chin. “Blackfox has an older car. Can you drive a manual? I can’t. I haven’t learned how.”
Rase made another lap across the landing, running his hands over the polished wooden paneling that made up the rear wall. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “He won’t be mad enough to expel me. He’s my uncle, and he made a promise to my mom. I’ll explain what happened. I bet he won’t expel you.”
He froze. “You bet he won’t…” His voice trailed away.
She wanted him to take a giant risk. He had to gamble with his future. After meeting Blackfox and helping the Jekyll-Hyde dragon, Rase believed he’d found his purpose. He needed this school to be his tribe. It was the thing that had been missing.
“Can you drive a manual?” she repeated.
His thoughts stopped there, and he scowled at Winnie. “He’s your what?”
Her mouth twisted to the side. “He’s my uncle. My mother’s brother.”
Rase sighed. “I don’t know if that makes it better or worse, but it doesn’t make this plan any less crazy.”
She smirked. “We either take the car or we fly. So, can you?”
“Drive a stick?” he squeaked, his voice cracking the way it used to.
She raised her eyebrows. She wasn’t going to let it go. She was almost as bad as Jess when mortals weren’t around. Who knew quiet Winnie was hiding an out-loud personality?
“Yes, I can,” he growled. One of the odd benefits of coming from broke parents, manual transmissions were usually cheaper on the pocketbook. So he had to learn.
She ran her hands along the fur on the gryphon’s back. It sat down, and she climbed on. “So, we either take the car or we fly. Which is it?”
“Neither,” Rase bit out.
Winnie shook her head. “I don’t believe you. Jess is worth whatever we have to do to get to her.”
Rase sagged. He’d be expelled for sure. It might be hard to give up his future at the C.C.A., but he agreed with Winnie. Jess was worth every bit of whatever it took to help her.
Winnie gestured, her brows lifted in question.
Rase squared his shoulders and straightened his spine. “Let’s take your uncle’s car.”
Winnie caught his arm. “Don’t tell anyone about Blackfox. They already treat me differently because this.” She held up the little black rectangle.
Rase considered the quiet girl. “I won’t tell anyone, but I think they treat you differently because they don’t know how you want to be treated. That wouldn’t be hard to fix.”
Winnie beamed. “Someday.”
Rase gestured to her. “Are you ready?”
She flashed two thumbs up. “I know where he keeps the keys. Wait here.”
Then she disappeared down the corridor.
Rase returned to pacing. Winnie might be as crazy as Jess. Ten minutes later, she reappeared, dangling keys from her fingers. She smiled bigger than Rase had ever seen her grin.
Rase stopped short, frowning. “We have a problem.”
She paused and pulled her device from her pocket. “What is it?”
“I don’t know where we’re going.”
Winnie shook her gadget. “I do.” She grabbed Rase’s hand and led him down the girls
’ hall. Their carpet was slightly less worn than the boys’ wing. Otherwise, it was pretty much identical. Doors lined the corridor on either side.
“I’m not supposed to be in here.”
She rolled her eyes but kept tugging him down the hall.
“Where are we going?”
She stopped, typed into her communicator, and held it out to him. “Trust me,” it whispered.
“I didn’t know you could control the volume on that thing.”
She snorted and yanked him behind her down the hall. At the corridor, she pressed her ear to the wall, knocking softly as she moved down the wall.
Rase tipped his head to the side. The third panel sounded different… hollow, almost. Winnie nodded, put her hands together, and then jabbed her elbow into the center of the third panel.
“No, what are you doing?” Rase jumped toward her.
Too late. She jammed her elbow into the panel, and the thin piece of wood fell inward. She held her hands up, gesturing toward the opening.
“Can we sneak without destroying property?” He had to save Jess, but, if he could avoid destroying things, maybe he wouldn’t get kicked out of the Academy before real classes even began.
“Have to do that. It was nailed shut. Don’t worry. We’ll put it back.” She pointed to the opening. “Look inside. That’s our way into the garage.”
Trying to avoid the cobwebs, Rase stuck his head in. The panel had landed on a small platform, suspended on four corners. It was like a tiny elevator without any walls. He pulled his head back out. “Are we supposed to get on that?”
She nodded and scrambled through the opening. She rocked back and forth in the narrow shaft. She waved at him.
It’s like she forgot why he didn’t want to fly. Heights. Heights. A closed-in elevator was one thing. He could forget he hated heights. He swallowed the bile the churned in his stomach. He placed one hand on the dusty platform. It rocked back and forth, the edges bumping against the elevator shaft.
He pulled back. “There’s room for both of us?”
She nodded.
“And this gets us to the car without any problems?”
She nodded again.
He grimaced. “There’s not another way?”
Academy of Magic Collection Page 13