Conjured

by Sarah Beth Durst

  “Do you know how to get to other worlds?” he asked.

  I glanced at Patti. “Level five?”

  “Level five,” she confirmed.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Patti raised the shade in her library office and then opened the window. Outside, the parking lot was half-full. A woman in a rose-colored raincoat yanked a toddler onto the sidewalk. A man tossed books into the backseat of his car. Another man pulled out of his parking spot.

  The black car with the tinted windows was in its familiar spot under a tree.

  “I’ll try to buy you time,” Patti whispered. “Good luck. Be safe. And if you can’t be safe … be yourself.” She squeezed my shoulder as I climbed out the window and dropped down to the ground behind a bush. Zach followed after me.

  Above us, Patti closed the window and shut the shade.

  “Fly?” Zach suggested.

  I shook my head. “They’ll expect that.” Through the branches, I studied the black car. I didn’t see any movement, but from here, I couldn’t even tell if the engine was on or off, much less if anyone was inside.

  “But they don’t know …” His eyes bulged as he realized what I’d implied. “You think Patti will tell them we’re here?” His voice was incredulous, as if such a betrayal were inconceivable instead of logical.

  “I know she will,” I said.

  “But …”

  “Her safety depends on cooperating with them,” I said. “She’ll tell them everything. But I have an idea. See that car?” I pointed toward the black car. “I think we should use it.”

  His cheek next to my cheek, he peeked out at the parking lot in the direction that I’d pointed. “You mean, steal a car?”

  “Stealing isn’t the same as lying.”

  “True, but …”

  “It’s an agency car. We can drive it to the agency.”

  “Oh. Then that’s not even stealing,” Zach said. “That’s returning it.”

  Grabbing his face, I brought his lips to mine. I breathed into him as his arms wrapped around my waist. We broke away, and I felt slightly dizzy.

  “Ready?” I said.

  “Uh, yeah. That was … wow.”

  “On three? One, two, three …” Hand in hand, we burst out of the bushes and ran across the parking lot toward the car. The car door flung open, and an agent stepped out. He had his gun in his hand.

  And then the gun transformed into a flower. Petals fell from the agent’s hand, and the stem drooped. Zach stole another quick breath of magic, and the agent was swept forward—up, up, up onto the roof of the library.

  We ran to the car. Zach dove into the driver’s seat, and I hopped into the passenger seat. The key was still in the ignition, and the radio was playing. Zach shifted the car into reverse and then stepped on the gas. The car lurched backward, and we careened out of the parking lot. I clutched the glove compartment and wondered if this one had a gun in it like Malcolm’s did.

  “Left,” I told him. I continued to give him directions until a block from the agency. I pointed to the parking lot of a convenience store. “Stop there.”

  He swung into one of the parking spots, facing the Dumpsters. “Now what?”

  Twisting in my seat to face him, I said, “Last chance to change your mind. You can go home, be with your parents, and live your normal life, and I won’t blame you.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “You saw my home. You met my parents. You saw my normal life. Just tell me how to leave this world. Please.”

  I nodded. And he exhaled, his face relaxing into an almost-smile. “The offices are level three, the hospital is level four, and the silver room—the way out—is level five.”

  “What about one and two?” Zach asked.

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “It might matter. I bet it matters to the people on one and two. You know it’s going to bother me, not knowing what’s on one and two. I like to know things.”

  “Zach, focus. We need level five. I thought we could transform—”

  “Cats?” He sounded eager, as if he were about to start bouncing like a puppy. “Birds? Or mice. Mice could work. Mice can drop twelve feet without injury and can jump twelve inches straight up.”

  “Zach. You know this isn’t a game.”

  He calmed instantly, and in his eyes I saw a hint of … fear? “I know. But if I think of only the magic, it makes the rest of it less terrifying. Leaving home? Stealing a car? Breaking into a government facility? Searching for a potential serial killer? Let me focus on the flying and the shapeshifting and kissing you.”

  I nodded. We sat in silence for a long moment. I spoke again, softly, calmly. “I think we need to change into people—specifically Malcolm and Aunt Nicki.” Unclipping my seat belt, I faced Zach. “You can do me first. She has an angular face with a chin that juts out farther than her lips. Her nose is narrower than mine, nearly to a point, with a prominent bridge. Her eyes … brown with thin eyebrows, dark brown and plucked.”

  Zach held up both hands to stop me. “It’s okay. I’ve seen her before.”

  “You have?”

  “At the library. She dropped you off once.”

  I didn’t remember that. It must have happened during the days I lost. But for the first time, my memory didn’t matter. Only his did. “Can you do this?” In response, he leaned forward and breathed in my magic, then furrowed his forehead and concentrated. I felt my face begin to itch, and then my skin bubbled and stretched. I described her typical all-black pantsuit with the fake knuckle-size pearls that Aunt Nicki liked. Sweat beaded on Zach’s forehead as he changed my clothes. When he finished, I flipped the visor down and looked at myself in the mirror.

  For a brief instant, I expected to see the antlered girl.

  Aunt Nicki stared back. Or almost Aunt Nicki.

  “Shorten the hair.” I mimed where it should be cut. I watched it shrink and flatten. “And her skin has more olive in it. I think that’s … yes, that’s it.” He flopped back into his seat as I touched my face. Its shape felt wrong under my fingertips, and I had to suppress the urge to yank and tug my skin back into its familiar shape.

  “I am going to have to close my eyes when I kiss you,” he said.

  “Your turn. Do you remember Malcolm?”

  “No one could ever forget Malcolm,” Zach said. His skin and bones shifted and moved as I watched. He then changed his height and the width of his shoulders, as well as his hair, skin, and eye color. Lastly, he added muscles and darkened his clothes to a black suit.

  “Perfect.” Staring at him, I felt marginally better. Safer. As if Malcolm himself approved this insane plan. Opening the glove compartment, I found a pair of sunglasses and handed them to him. There wasn’t a gun, but there were insurance and registration cards for the car. “Can we change these into agency IDs?”

  “Sure. Can you describe them?” His lungs, nose, and vocal cords were a different size, so his voice had deepened with the new body, but the inflections were pure Zach.

  I’d seen the IDs, but I hadn’t memorized them. I tried to picture the position and size of the photo, the words and the logo. Zach transformed the cards to match my directions. “I wish I could remember them better,” I said.

  “Just … wave them fast or something.”

  I couldn’t remember if Aunt Nicki and Malcolm handed the IDs to the guard or just displayed them. I hoped the latter. I tucked the IDs into the cup holder between us and wondered if we’d be caught before we’d even begun. I wished there were time to make a better plan. But the longer we waited, the more likely we were to be found. And the more likely I was to lose my nerve. “Are you ready?” I asked.

  “I think this is where I’m supposed to say I was born ready.” Zach flashed me a smile. “But I was born ordinary.”

  “Don’t,” I said.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Disparage yourself.” I twisted in my seat to face him fully, and I tried to see Zach behind Malcolm’s face. “You think just anyon
e would come with me like this? You say you dream of the extraordinary, but you’re extraordinary. I say I’m broken, and you try to fix me. I say I’m lost, and you try to find me. I say I’m empty, and you fill me. You’re … like a knight in shining armor, but from one of the nice stories.” I took a deep breath. I hadn’t meant to make a speech. I felt my face, Aunt Nicki’s face, flush pink.

  He stared at me for a moment, then blinked. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m awesome. Let’s go.” Driving out of the parking lot, he ran over the curb. The car jolted up and down. I braced myself on the glove compartment again.

  “Look calm,” I instructed Zach. “Malcolm always looks calm.”

  As we drove closer, I pointed to the agency’s garage doors. Gray and plain, the doors looked like they belonged to a nondescript office building. Zach hit the brakes too hard at the guard station—the car jerked as if we’d hit a pole. Taking a deep breath, he rolled down the window.

  The guard leaned in. “Car trouble?”

  Zach nodded.

  I waved our IDs from the passenger seat. The guard glanced briefly at them, but he frowned at me. I wondered if we’d gotten Aunt Nicki’s face wrong. Maybe her nose was flatter, or her eyes smaller, or her hair darker. “I could’ve sworn you’d … Never mind. Go ahead, Agent Gallo, Agent Harrington.” He hit a button, and the garage door rumbled up.

  “Have a nice day!” Zach called out the window. He stepped on the gas before the guard could change his mind. We shot into the garage. “Probably shouldn’t have said that.”

  I looked behind us, but the guard wasn’t following us. The garage door was closing. Daylight disappeared with it. “I think we’re all right.”

  Pulling into a parking spot, Zach stopped the car. “At least he didn’t shoot us on sight. I’d call that a win.” He tried to smile, but it disappeared quickly.

  “Zach … If things turn bad, I want you to take a breath of magic and run.”

  Zach opened his mouth, and I knew he was going to say something flippant or brave.

  “Please, Zach. I don’t want to have visions of your death haunting my memories. Promise me that you’ll run. Or I tell that guard who I am and let them capture me right now.”

  “Fine,” he said. “But you run too.”

  “Or fly.”

  “Definitely fly.” He kissed me, and I wasn’t sure if it was for the magic or just to kiss me. It didn’t matter. I kissed him back, and his lips felt different, broader and softer. He tasted the same, though—like Zach, sweet and minty.

  He broke off.

  He looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what. I opened the car door and stepped out into the garage. He did too. “Eve …”

  “Gallo,” I corrected. “He calls her by her last name.” I headed for the door. Taking the ID cards from Zach, I held them up to the scanner. Nothing happened.

  “I doubt we accurately replicated the magnetic strip,” Zach said. “Is there another—”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the surveillance camera trained on the door. If anyone was watching the feed … but we didn’t have much choice. “Quick. Walk us through the door.”

  He hesitated.

  “I walked through a wall before.”

  He grinned suddenly, stretching Malcolm’s cheeks abnormally wide. His expressions weren’t the same as Malcolm’s, even using the same face. “You’re always full of surprises.”

  Zach put his hand up, and it melted into the door. He drew it back, took my hand with his other hand, and then we walked forward. Using the magic from the kiss in the car, we passed through the door. The cool metal sank into my skin and deep into my bones. I felt myself shiver and then shudder as we emerged on the other side, inside the hallway.

  There were cameras in this hallway too.

  Releasing Zach’s hand—Aunt Nicki wouldn’t have held Malcolm’s—I strode toward the elevator. Zach kept pace beside me. He didn’t have the same walk as Malcolm. His movements were jerkier, and he picked his knees up higher like a stork. Malcolm had a glide to his gait. I hoped that no one else knew Malcolm’s walk the same way I did. Only a few steps to the elevator.

  At the elevator, I pushed the button and we watched the numbers flicker down. The doors slid open. And Lou stood there.

  I felt my bones harden into place. I couldn’t breathe.

  “Up?” Lou asked.

  I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zach was nodding too. I wished there were a way to warn Zach … but he knew who Lou was, didn’t he? He’d mentioned that a bald man had interrogated him. We walked into the elevator.

  My finger hovered over the numbers. With Lou here, I couldn’t push five. Instead, I pushed three. We’d have to lose him in the offices—and hope we didn’t see the real Malcolm and Aunt Nicki.

  As the elevator lurched upward, the tinny music played. It sounded like the carousel.

  “This time, we contain her,” Lou said. “No more of your touchy-feely nonsense. She stays on the hospital floor under guard. She is not to be treated like a refugee. Or even a pet. Do you understand me, Agent Harrington? I blame you for this.”

  Zach cleared his throat. “Yes, sir.” He tried to pitch his voice lower. It came out close to a growl. Lou looked at him sharply.

  The door slid open. For an instant, I thought we could stay in the elevator. But Lou slapped his hand on the elevator door to hold it open. We had to walk out.

  “We’ve alerted the airport terminals, bus terminals, and train stations—the usual cover story.” Lou aimed a fingers at me. “Gallo, bring in that Zachary boy. I want to know what he knows. I knew we should have kept him here. Remind me never to listen to you two bleeding hearts again.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said.

  He frowned at me, and for an instant, I thought he knew. But he pivoted and strode toward the lobby. We trailed after him. He halted at the receptionist’s desk and leaned over the desk to speak to her. I couldn’t hear what he said. She handed him a locked aluminum briefcase.

  Maybe we should run now, while he’s distracted … Before I could move, Lou turned and shoved the briefcase at me. Automatically, I took it. “Um, what do you want me to do with this?” I asked before I thought. I then froze. Aunt Nicki might have known the answer.

  Lou smiled at me. It was an unsettling expression on his face. His cheeks and eyes crinkled like a crunched paper bag. “I want you to do your job, Gallo, before I fire your ass.”

  I looked at the briefcase. It had a combination lock.

  He took the briefcase back and set it on the receptionist’s desk, and then he turned the numbers on the combination lock. The lock snapped open. He raised the lid. Inside was the Magician’s box. Instinctively, I shrank back. He lifted it out and then held it out toward me, his palm flat, not touching the clasp. “You might want this, when you find her. We’ve tested it—magic doesn’t penetrate it. It will keep her from turning you into shrubbery.”

  Hands shaking, I took it. The metal felt chilled, as if the box had been recently stored in a freezer. I didn’t trust myself to speak. I shoved the box into my front pocket. It bulged, and I felt the corners press against my thigh.

  Ahead, I heard voices. Malcolm’s office door swung open. We had to leave now. Smiling weakly at Lou, I pivoted and strode back toward the elevators. Zach walked fast beside me. My heart was beating so loudly that I was certain Lou could hear it.

  “Gallo! Harrington!” Lou called after us.

  From his office, Malcolm called, “Sir?”

  I looked over my shoulder to see Malcolm, the real Malcolm, step into the hallway. I broke into a run as I heard him say, “What the hell—”

  An alarm began to sound, and a red light flashed and spun in rhythm with the sirens. I looked back again. Oddly, Lou wasn’t chasing us. He merely watched from the hallway. With one hand, he blocked Malcolm from chasing us as well. I caught a glimpse of Malcolm’s expression: Fear, I thought. Of me? For me? But others were running toward us, and there was no time
to puzzle it out.

  Zach stabbed the elevator button.

  It didn’t open.

  Shoving the stairwell door open, I pulled Zach with me. The door slammed behind us and then was pulled open again an instant later. An agent burst into the stairwell.

  Zach grabbed me and planted his lips on mine, inhaling my magic with my breath. As the agent lunged for my arm, Zach shot into the air with his arms tight around my waist. We rocketed up the open center of the stairwell. Below us, several agents pounded up the stairs, but we were faster.

  At the top, at level five, I yanked the door handle—locked. Zach breathed in more magic, and we slid through the metal door. We turned left, then right … At the end of the hall, the two guards in front of the steel door shouted and drew their guns.

  The guns dissolved into water and collapsed on the floor in droplets.

  Turning to me, Zach swiftly inhaled magic again, and I felt myself shrink, plummeting toward the floor. The world skewed—the carpet fibers were as thick and high as underbrush in a forest, and the ceiling was impossibly high. I swiveled my head and saw a beetle, monstrously huge … He’d turned us into beetles. Clever boy, I thought. But what about the box? Looking around, I didn’t see it, and Zach was on the move.

  Scurrying after him, I wove through the carpet.

  Footsteps shook the floor. Looking like mountains in motion, the guards scoured the hallway. A boot landed near me, and I jerked back. The foot lifted, and the carpet fibers were mashed where he’d stepped. I darted forward as fast as my many legs could move.

  Up ahead, I saw Zach squeeze beneath the door. I hurried after him, flattened, and slid on my smooth, slick stomach. At the end of the next hall was another door, but this one was flush to the floor. We’d never fit under it.

  Zach bumped his head against mine. His legs clicked on the tile floor. And then I felt my body expand like a balloon. Soon I was human again—myself, not Aunt Nicki—and Zach was himself again too. My clothes were restored. I felt my pocket—the box was still there. The box and my clothes must have transformed with me, melding into my exoskeleton. He kissed me again and inhaled deeply. “Extra magic,” he said. “Just in case.”