by Tawny Stokes
I could see the bridge in front of me. I was almost back at the dorms, but something moved in the nearby bushes. Freezing on the spot, I stared into the darkness. I knew I should be making a run for it, but fear was a funny thing. I waited and listened, but when I didn’t hear anything else, I started moving again, thinking it was probably just a possum or porcupine digging for grubs in the dirt.
Head down, I willed my legs to move faster. I thought about running, but then I realized I was probably just being paranoid and silly. There wasn’t anything out here that could harm me. Then my thoughts strayed to the night I’d been out in the woods with Cai. I remembered the ominous feeling I’d had. The overwhelming certainty that something had been watching me, stalking me even, from the tall grass beyond the iron fence.
I had the urge to look behind me but didn’t want to see if something or someone was within grabbing distance. I increased my walking speed, although my knees felt like they were going to lock up at any minute.
I was almost at the bridge when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. It was an impossible image that didn’t quite register, so I stopped and turned to fully look. My breath hitched in my throat. That’s when I saw a tiger sitting on the edge of the stream staring at me. Its eyes shone like two iridescent stones in the darkness.
I slapped my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. I didn’t think it would do me any good to make so much noise. Thoughts of what to do when encountering a wild animal crossed my mind, but I couldn’t sort them out. Was it back away slowly if you see a bear? Or was it make as much noise as possible? Was that for a cougar? Were there even any cougars in Oregon? I didn’t think I’d ever come across what to do if confronted by a tiger.
Before I could make any decision, the tiger strode to the water’s edge and started to lap at the stream. It seemed uninterested in me, or at least uninterested in charging and eating me at the moment. I lowered my hands, tried to control my breathing, and took a slow, measured step toward the bridge. Its head came up, but it didn’t make any aggressive moves toward me.
I stepped onto the bridge slowly and carefully, as I was closer to the animal than before. I risked a look at it and saw that it was watching me. But I didn’t sense any danger from it; it was a trained animal after all. This was Ozzy, wasn’t it? Had to be. I didn’t recall the school having two tigers. Although this one looked a little different; bigger, stronger, with a slightly different stripe pattern, but maybe that was just how the moonlight played across its coat.
It seemed to be interested in what I was doing, and almost looked…amused? I don’t know if that was the right word, but it had this slight tilt to its big head like it was entertained by how I was reacting. Being closer to the animal made me realize that its eyes weren’t really yellow but had a slight blue sheen to them, which was strange, because I was sure I had read that only white albino tigers had blue eyes.
“You’re not so scary, are you?” I murmured under my breath, more to appease myself than it.
The tiger lifted his head and chuffed. It was like a blowing sound through its nostrils mixed with a gurgling in its throat. It was loud and startled me, and I twisted my right ankle a little. That put me off balance, and unfortunately there were no rails on the bridge.
I went over and into the cold water with a splash.
“Oh Jesus, that’s cold!” I sputtered water out of my mouth as I tried to get to my feet. I was sure I was going to have bruises all over my legs and arms. Pain shot up from my elbow—I must’ve hit it on a rock when I went in.
I was sure I had scared the tiger off, so when it splashed into the water and came at me, I screamed. I closed my eyes as its powerful jaws neared my head.
This was how I died. Eaten by a tiger in the middle of the Oregon forest. But it didn’t bite me. It didn’t swallow my face whole. Instead, it pulled me out of the water by the back of my cardigan.
When I was safely on the shore, it unlatched its teeth and stepped back. Then it shook its whole body, trying to dry off. Water droplets hit my face, and I started to laugh. I think I lost my mind. I was now insane. Perfect.
The tiger chuffed again, as if it was laughing with me. I heard voices in the distance, a rush of them. I imagined everyone probably heard me scream even over the loud music at the party. The tiger glanced that way, then in two giant leaps disappeared into the nearby trees. Anna, followed by Wesley and a few others, ran over the bridge to my side.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” She grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet. “What happened? Did someone attack you?”
I shook my head. “No, I just…I just fell.”
That’s when I saw Maggie and her crew laughing on the bridge.
Anna put her arm around me. “C’mon, let’s head inside and get you warm.”
“I ruined the Belle costume,” I said between sniffles from the cold.
“Whatever. It only cost me like ten bucks at that dollar store in town.”
Wesley came around to my other side and put his arm around me, so I was a wet Dani sandwich between them. I didn’t mind though. I knew I was going to be sore tomorrow, and that the rumors about me would be flying like Olympic freestyle Frisbees, but I didn’t care. Not this time.
Because I had seen a tiger. And in some weird way, I felt like I had made a new friend.
Chapter Fourteen
Cai
I was just putting on a clean pair of sweatpants when Leander burst into our dorm room, his face freshly washed of his face paint. “What did you do?”
I ran a towel over my wet hair. “Not sure what you mean.”
“Cai.” He walked over and sat on his bed. “Don’t play coy with me, bro. I saw the damage.”
“She’s not hurt, is she?” The sudden thought that Dani had been injured freaked me out. I hadn’t meant to scare her, just wanted to say hello.
“Aha! I was right.” He tossed a pillow at me.
“She’s okay, right?”
“A couple of bruises, not much else. I bet her pride’s more damaged than her body. Maggie will never let her live this down.” He shook his head. “Poor girl. What happened? I thought you were just going for a run.”
“I did, but then I stopped at the stream to drink, and she was there. She’s pretty quiet when she wants to be.”
“Did you attack her or something?”
I tossed his pillow back at him. “No, of course not. I just said hello, kind of.”
Leander laughed. “Dude, you better hope Marvel doesn’t find out. He’ll flip if he knows you revealed yourself to one of the humdrums.”
Humdrum is what Leander called non-magical people. As if they were boring for not having abilities.
“I didn’t reveal myself.” I went to the window and looked out into the night, my body still itching for another run, since technically I was interrupted. “Dani thinks she saw Ozzy out on the loose, not some magical shape-shifter.”
“Either way, it’s not going to be good for the school if she spouts off about seeing some huge, hungry predator roaming freely on school property. I think parents would start freaking about something like that. We don’t want to get Ozzy and Loki in trouble.”
“She won’t. She’s not like that.”
“She better not be, or she’ll find herself in big trouble, either from Marvel or from the dean. You know she’ll do anything to protect the integrity of the school.”
I turned from the window. “You almost sound like you care what happens to Dani.”
He shrugged. “I don’t.” Then he grabbed the hamburger and fries he’d been eating earlier and shoved a few into his mouth, chewing loudly. I knew he was doing it to annoy me. It was working well. “She’s certainly cute and has a stellar body.” He wriggled his eyebrows. “I mean, did you see her in that dress? Damn.”
“Yeah, I saw her.” She had stunned me, to be honest. I didn’t want to tell Leander that was the reason I didn’t run into the woods when I heard her coming. I was too stupefied t
o move. She was just something else coming down that path. The way her leg muscles moved so fluidly when she walked. Her hair had been this sexy mass of waves that I had a sudden urge to run my hands through to see if it was as silky as it looked. Of course I couldn’t have done that as a tiger, but that didn’t stop me from watching her stride toward me like a runway model. And the fact that she was completely oblivious to her allure made her that much more attractive.
“Who knew she had that princess inside her? She could definitely give Maggie a run for her money if she wanted to.”
“I don’t think Dani has any interest in all that. She’s pretty grounded.”
“Yeah, which is too bad. She could’ve been one of my pride.” He chuckled, knowing I hated when he referred to the girls he liked as part of a harem that he could control and manipulate. He was mostly harmless, but I had seen him break a heart or two.
My hackles went up, and Leander knew it.
“Don’t get all hissy at me about it.”
“I thought you liked her roommate, Anna?”
He grinned. “I do. But you know me, I like a lot of girls.” He finished his last French fry, then clicked off his lamp and flopped over onto his side and was out. His snores were instant. It had always amazed me how easily and quickly Leander could fall asleep.
I, on the other hand, found it difficult. Especially when I had something or someone in particular on my mind. This night, as it was for the past I don’t know how many nights, Dani occupied most of my thoughts.
I crawled in under the covers, and laid there, hands behind my head, staring up at the ceiling, willing myself to sleep. Except the image of Dani gazing at me—okay, tiger me—with a look of absolute astonishment and joy kept playing over and over again. When she first spotted me on the stream’s edge, she was afraid. I could smell her fear easily. It was a sickly sweet smell, almost like maple syrup. But as she walked toward me, and up onto the bridge, I sensed a change. She was no longer afraid. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, fear still lingered in the air, but I could smell her wonderment at my existence. That look had made my heart thump a little faster, a little harder. I wanted to reveal myself to her then. Because I desperately wanted her to look at me, as a human, as a person, like that, the way she had looked at me as a wild beast.
Shoving the blanket aside, I sat up. I was too restless to sleep. I put on my hoodie and shoes and left the room. Once outside, I looked around to make sure I was alone—I was, since it was past curfew—then jogged over to Dorm C. I wanted to see if Dani was awake and looking out the window. Maybe she was searching for me again. If she was, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about it.
I reached the edge of the woods and turned to find her window. Disappointment filled me when I didn’t see her face staring down at me from beyond the glass. It was probably just as well. I knew logically I should be keeping an emotional distance from her, but I couldn’t.
I didn’t want to.
From down the path, I heard the snap of a twig on the ground. Someone was walking this way. I ducked into the nearby bushes that were out of the lamplight that lined the grounds around the dorms. I peered through the thick leaves and prickly branches as Professor Marvel and Dean Vasilev came into view on the pathway.
“We still don’t know who donated the slippers to the museum?” the dean asked.
“No. My sources can’t find a trail leading to the anonymous source.”
“You’re aware it’s a trap.”
“I know,” Marvel said, “but we will never have another opportunity to retrieve the shoes. I’ve waited over ten years to find Glinda. I won’t wait any longer. The show literally must go on.”
“Will my students be in any danger?”
“No, like I said before, they are the distraction. All the risks will be taken by my team behind the illusion.”
“And Maggie West will for sure be your high-wire performer? Her grandfather is one of our biggest benefactors. We can’t disappoint him.”
“She will be. I’ve made sure of it,” Marvel said.
“Because I’ve heard Dani Gale is on the committee’s radar,” the dean said. “She can’t be in that show, Marvel. I told Dottie we would keep her as far away from The Wizard as possible. If he knew her lineage, she would be in terrible danger.”
“I know. I have it under control. Cai is going to make sure Dani doesn’t succeed.”
“Are you sure he’s up for that task?”
“He’ll do it. He knows what’s at stake. He’s suffered as much if not more than the rest of us.”
They continued walking along the path, back to the main school building. I waited until they were out of sight before coming out of my hiding spot. I had known that they didn’t want Dani involved, but now I had to wonder why. Who was Dottie, and what did they mean by Dani’s “lineage”? Why would The Wizard be interested in her? Obviously there was more to Dani then she probably even knew. And I didn’t know what to do with that knowledge.
Chapter Fifteen
Dani
Monday morning I was summoned to the dean’s office. I didn’t have to guess what it was about. Word of my embarrassing plunge into the stream had spread rapidly across campus. And I didn’t have to guess who had the loud mouth. Maggie was practically preening like the cat that killed the canary when my name was announced over the loudspeaker during math class.
I’d done a pretty good job of hiding out over the weekend so I didn’t have to face her or any of her crew or pretty much anyone. I went to the studio early in the morning before anyone else and got my workout in. After, I went for a long run through the campus grounds, then basically sequestered myself in my dorm room, worked ahead in math, and watched shows on Netflix on my iPad. Anna was a trooper and got me fed.
No longer able to avoid the inevitable, I sat outside the office in the uncomfortable visitor chair next to the receptionist desk picking at the frayed skin around my nails. It was a bad habit of mine, especially when I was stressed, and I knew I’d be bleeding by the day’s end. Perky Marta smiled at me over the top of her computer screen. Her eyes told me she was sorry.
“You can go in now, Dani.”
I nodded to her, then opened the door and walked into the lion’s den. Dean Vasilev sat in a high-backed black leather chair behind a massive oak desk. She looked more like the president of a powerful country than a dean of a circus arts school.
“Sit.” She pointed to the chair in front of her desk, then opened a file on her desk, that I could only assume belonged to me.
I slid into the chair and tried to look casual, but it didn’t work. I crossed then uncrossed my legs three times, before settling on uncrossed and tucked to the side like a lady.
“Do you know why you are here?”
I shrugged. “Maybe about falling into the stream Friday night.”
She leaned forward and put her hands on the desk. “Firstly, were you hurt?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Just a few bumps and bruises is all.”
“Good.” She sat back in her chair. “Now, how did this happen? What were you doing to cause such a silly thing?”
“I didn’t do anything. I, ah, saw…”
“Yes? What did you see?”
“I saw a tiger. Ozzy must’ve gotten out of his enclosure, and he was roaming around.”
“You saw a tiger and that made you fall into the stream?”
I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes. That’s what happened.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a cougar? They are in the area and in the past have gotten through our fences around the campus.”
“It wasn’t a cougar. It was a tiger. I know what a tiger looks like.”
“Even in the dark?”
I thought for a minute, but I knew what I had seen. I nodded.
“I see.” She picked up the phone and pressed a button. “You may send in Frank now.” Then she placed the phone back into its cradle. She regarded me over the steeple of her fingers.
“I—”
She put her hand up to stop me from talking. A second later there was a sharp rap at the door, then it opened, and the animal handler Frank Coppersmith walked in. I thought that was awfully quick. Had he been waiting outside? And if so, why? How could the dean have known I was going to tell her that I saw a tiger near the stream?
“I know everything, Danielle.” Then she looked at Frank. “Frank, this student is under the impression that one of your animals escaped its cage Friday night and went about terrorizing the students.”
“That’s technically not what I said—”
She gave me a look that silenced anything else I was about to stammer in my defense.
Frank rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “Not possible. Our enclosures are impossible to escape from.”
“Well, I saw—”
Again the withering look was upon me, and I quickly shut my mouth.
The dean clicked something with her mouse, then showed the screen to Frank. “Is this surveillance footage from the enclosures?” He nodded. “And can we wind it back to Friday night?”
Frank took over the controls of the computer, his fingers tapping this and that, until satisfied, he nodded. “There.”
The dean swiveled the computer screen around so I could see it. On the screen were recorded images of the animal enclosure. Both the lion and the tiger were happily munching on lamb legs or something equally as bloody and disgusting.
“You see the time stamp, Danielle?” She pointed to the bottom of the screen where it had the date and time running. “This is from Friday evening, around the time you had your little accident.”
I looked, watching as Ozzy tore into his late evening meal just around the time I had tripped over my own two feet and landed hard on my butt in the cold water. I sat back in the chair, unsure of what to say, or what to think.