“Something like what?” I urged.
“Maybe there was an unexpected death in the family. Perhaps a work trip? It’s possible they took a little vacation to console themselves over your absence. I know how much they love you. In any case, I assure you I will do everything in my power to locate them. In the meantime, I don’t want you to worry. From everything I’ve heard, Temple Academy is a fine school. So you should focus on your schoolwork and enjoy yourself. I’ll be in touch if there’s any news to share.”
I was about to yell that I couldn’t enjoy myself until I knew for sure that they were okay. But as I was about to say the words, the overhead lights began to flicker, just as they had done in the museum the night of the exhibition. I glanced around the main room and watched as one by one the computers shut down, their screens going black. I turned back to my computer to tell Mr. Waterman what was happening, but the call had been disconnected. Mr. Waterman was gone. When I tried to reconnect, I got an error message telling me that the network was unavailable. The Internet was down. Arrrgh! I couldn’t take any more of these power outages. They always seemed to happen at the worst possible time. I wanted to throw my laptop across the room, but I was fairly sure Shani would kill me if I did.
So instead I gathered my things and walked back to Radcliff Hall, hoping that maybe it was a rolling blackout that had yet to reach my dorm and I could get online there. When I arrived, the dorm was totally dark except for the sunlight streaming through the windows. Several girls—including Doli, Shani, and Lin—were all packed into the common room, chattering loudly, their arms crossed.
“What’s going on?” I asked Doli. “Did the power surge here, too?”
“It’s worse than that. Mrs. O’Grady said she got word from Principal Ferris that the entire computer network crashed. Plus, we have no electricity,” Doli replied. “Shani is devastated.”
“You joke,” Shani said, “but I am. Mrs. O’Grady is checking to see why the generators haven’t switched on yet, but for now we’re in the dark.”
Doli motioned for Lin, Shani, and me to follow her to the kitchen, where we wouldn’t be overheard. “I’ve been thinking,” she said. “Ana, you know how you said Lin accused you of causing the earthquakes and storms because they started when you arrived?”
I gave Lin a baleful look, and she had the grace to blush. “Yeah.”
“Well, you weren’t the only one who arrived right around that time.”
It took me a moment to catch on. “Dr. Logan!”
She nodded. “And when we were in the basement, Ixchel said that she knew he was walking the Earth again when the strange weather started up.”
“So what does that mean?” Shani said.
Doli took a deep breath. “I think that whenever there’s a power surge, or an earthquake, or a thunderstorm that comes out of nowhere, it’s because Anubis is nearby.”
Suddenly I felt the blood drain from my face. “Oh, God,” I said. “The night before I left Ohio, there was a huge storm. It raged all night. And now I just talked to my family’s lawyer and he says my aunt and uncle have gone missing. What if . . . what if Anubis was there in Ohio, plotting to get rid of me and my family? They’re the ones who sent the vase. What if they knew something about how to capture the Chaos Spirits, so he did something to them before they could tell me? Or maybe he was there to try to stop me from coming to Temple so that the Wildcats would never meet.” Every possibility made me shiver to the bone. “What if he has them?” I whispered, dread washing over me.
“You can’t think that way,” said Doli. “Your aunt and uncle sound pretty smart. And if they sent the vase, they probably aren’t completely in the dark about all this either. Besides, if Anubis had them, don’t you think he would have used them against you by now?”
She had a point there. I held on to that kernel of hope as if it were gold.
Shani gave us a mischievous smile. “There is one silver lining about the whole grid being down,” she said. “No lights means no problem sneaking out to the woods tonight to practice shape-shifting into Wildcats.”
Lin let out a disgusted grunt. “Ugh, you mean you want me to trek through the muddy athletic field in the dark so we can run around in the woods? No way. It’ll ruin my clothes, and the only shoes I own are designer.”
“I’ll lend you something more casual to wear,” I promised.
“But—”
“Lin, learning how to use our powers might be the only way to stop Anubis. If he shows up again, Ms. Benitez won’t be around to save our skins,” I said. “We need to be able to defend ourselves. But we’ve got to do it together. We’re a team, right?” I stuck my hand out, palm down, and Shani and Doli piled theirs on top. We all gazed at Lin expectantly.
Finally she added her dainty hand, so different from her tiger paw, on top and said, “Right. We’re a team.”
chapter 17
“AHHH, WHY CAN’T I GET this!” Doli groaned.
I’d never seen her this upset. She was usually so laid back. But Doli was also used to winning. And at that moment we were all failing miserably at transforming into the Wildcats.
We’d waited until eleven o’clock, when we were sure Mrs. O’Grady had gone to bed, then we sneaked out of the dorm. We trekked through the muddy athletic field in the dark, just as Lin had feared, stopping only when we found a clearing in the woods near an old hiking trail where we could practice transforming. The problem was, we had no idea how we’d done it the first time, so we had no clue how to do it again.
We tried chanting out loud using Navajo words that Doli taught us. We tried spinning in a circle like Wonder Woman. Lin even tried scaring us into transforming, as if she were trying to cure a bad case of hiccups, but she was wearing my Cookie Monster T-shirt and an old pair of my Keds, so how scary could she be? It was now well past midnight and not a single one of us had managed so much as a whisker.
“Maybe it only works in creepy museum basements,” Shani suggested.
“If that’s the case, I’m going home,” said Lin. “I need my—”
“Beauty sleep,” we all said in unison. It was the fourth time she’d said it, and we were all sick to death of hearing the same old thing.
Lin looked at us, pouting. “Well, I do.”
“Guys,” I said finally, “maybe we’re trying too hard. I mean, these cats are a part of us now. Maybe instead of thinking, ‘Turn into a jaguar, turn into a jaguar,’ over and over, we need to just think like an animal. You know, let go and let the cat take over.”
“Sounds a little New Agey to me,” Shani said, “but let’s give it a try.”
I closed my eyes. First, I tried to clear my mind. I thought of nothing but the cool night air on my skin and the sound of lizards scurrying through the leaves. I could hear their three-pronged feet scratching into the dirt as they ran. I sniffed the air and smelled chlorine and dead leaves coming from the pool. When my breath was nice and even, I tried to recall the way I’d felt as a cat. I pictured my lean, muscular body walking on four legs, and balancing the weight of it with my tail. I saw myself moving through the woods on padded feet, finding the wind’s direction with a shake of my whiskers. I imagined my teeth growing long and sharp in my mouth. . . .
Slowly, tingles traveled up my spine and down into my hands. I detected the musty aroma of fear as the horses in the stables picked up my scent. I felt loose and strong. When I opened my mouth to say, “I think it’s working,” what came out was a quiet roar, followed by a loud scream.
I opened my eyes to find Shani and Doli staring down at me with fascinated expressions on their faces. Lin was hiding behind Doli, her eyes just peeking over her shoulder.
“That. Was. Awesome!” Shani exclaimed.
“I think you traumatized Lin for life,” Doli said with a touch of pleasure in her voice. She raised her fist in front of her and gave me a secret thumbs-up.
“Did not,” Lin said, emerging from her hiding place. “I just . . . don’t want to get any of h
er cat saliva on me. Gross.”
I licked my paw and shook out my fur, settling into my jaguar skin, and let out a low growl full of warning.
Lin jumped back behind Doli, and Shani burst out laughing. “Guess we know who the alpha cat is. I’m so going next,” she said.
Her transformation was slow but amazing. At one point she opened her eyes in time to see her hands turn into lion paws so heavy that her human arms were almost too weak to lift them. Lin, probably eager not to be the last human standing among a pack of dangerous—and possibly hungry—wild animals, took only ten seconds to change. Doli, ever the competitor, transformed almost instantly.
We did it! We had become the Wildcats, on purpose this time.
When the transformations were complete, the dogs in the kennel far from where we were began to howl and yelp. They must sense that big cats are near, I thought. I padded ahead to the hiking trails that led down into the valley, where we couldn’t be seen from campus. As soon as we reached the valley floor, we took off running.
As a jaguar, I could see just as well in the dark as I could in the light of day, maybe even better. We’d managed to avoid human eyes, but here there were a thousand more. The night was alive! Blackbirds drinking from trickling streams took flight when we passed, and I could see every flap of their glistening wings against the moonlight. Raccoons scurried into their nests, and fat spiders hung from the ends of thin lines of silk, their webs quivering in the breeze. It was such a rush being one more creature in the night, feeling like I belonged here. It was the most fun I’d ever had in my life.
Even Lin looked like she was enjoying herself now. It didn’t faze her when she galloped through clouds of buzzing mosquitoes. She just kept running, bounding over rocks and joyfully waving her striped orange tail.
We could have run all night, but the moon, which had been riding high when we first came out, had begun to sink behind the trees as if it were putting itself to bed. It was getting late. Eventually, Doli led us back to the clearing, and this time we focused on what it felt like to be human. I imagined walking upright, my fur replaced with smooth brown skin, my teeth small and even. Being a jaguar felt so natural to me that it was almost disappointing to open my eyes and find that I was a human being again.
When we’d all transformed into our usual bodies, it was Doli who spoke first. “That was incredible. I think we’ve got the hang of this now.”
“I hope so,” said Shani. “If Anubis comes back and hits us with magic again to turn us human, I want to be able to shift right back.”
“Me too,” Lin agreed. “But not tonight. I’m so tired.”
“We should go back to the dorm one at a time,” I suggested. “Everyone’s probably asleep by now, but just in case. . . .”
Shani and Doli headed back first, leaving me and Lin on the athletic field. While we waited, Lin turned to me abruptly and blurted, “So Jason has been texting you?”
Taken by surprise, I furrowed my eyebrows. I vaguely remembering mentioning that in passing, but why was she bringing it up now? “Once in a while,” I said. “Why?”
Lin tipped her chin up so she was looking down her nose at me. “He’s like that with everybody at first, you know. He’s just friendly. It doesn’t mean he likes you. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “So if it doesn’t mean anything, why do you care?”
Her lips tightened into a hard line. “I don’t,” she snapped. But it was obvious that she did. Without another word she slipped down the path that led back to the dorm, leaving me speechless. This is going to be a problem, I thought.
I knew I should follow Lin back to Radcliff, but something about the early dawn air was intoxicating. No one was going to be up for another hour or so—did it really matter whether I lingered a few more minutes? I looked around and didn’t see anyone. No one will see, I thought. So I cleared my mind, focused my cat senses, and changed back into my jaguar self once more. For a moment I wondered what would happen if I went into the dorm this way. If Nicole found me scary as a human, how would she react if she woke up and found a massive jaguar waiting outside her room? The image was almost too good to resist. But in the end, I did the right thing. I looked up at the full moon and changed back into my human form, like a werewolf in reverse. But when I turned to face the dorm, I found that I wasn’t alone after all.
Jason stood on the running track in his sweats—and he was staring right at me. I felt my heart jump into my throat. He must be out for an early jog. . . .
Had he seen? The lights were low across the campus, but the stars were so bright. . . .
“Hi, Jason,” I tested. “What are you doing h—”
Jason’s eyes rounded in horror and he backed away, holding his hands out in front of him. “Don’t . . . don’t come any closer,” he said.
My heart sank. He’d seen, all right. I took another step toward him. “Jason, calm down. It’s okay. I can explain,” I pleaded—even though I had no idea how I could possibly explain.
“I mean it—get back!” He was terrified, I realized. Of me. With my jaguar senses, I could smell his fear. But even without that, it was written all over his face.
“Don’t freak out,” I said. “It’s just me.”
“Don’t freak out?” He shook his head. “You’re not even human!” he shouted. “I don’t know what you are, but I want you to stay away from me.”
He turned and ran, disappearing down the pathway. The exhilaration I’d felt earlier in the night crumbled, and I felt my heart shatter like glass.
chapter 18
EXHAUSTED AS I WAS, I spent the whole school day pumped up on adrenaline, panicked that Principal Ferris was going to call me into her office any minute. And what would I say? Sorry, Principal Ferris, it’s just that me and my Ancient Civilization Superpowers figured out that we can transform into Wildcats. No biggie! Sorry I freaked out your son. . . .
I dragged my way through biology lab, then world history, then English. I kept expecting an office aide to come in and call me out of class, but the worst thing that happened all day was when Mr. Harper chided me for not participating in our class discussion of Oliver Twist. I’d actually read the chapters he’d assigned the night before. . . . I was just too jittery to form a coherent thought.
“You don’t have anything to add about the story, Ms. Cetzal?” Mr. Harper asked, crossing his arms and looking down at me in disapproval.
Gulp. I tried to force my brain to produce something. “I think it’s . . . really depressing,” I managed after a few seconds. I heard a wave of titters go through the class, and when I looked up at Mr. Harper’s scowl, I could tell I’d said the wrong thing.
He sniffed and pinched my shoulder before walking away. “Do try to have something more significant to add tomorrow,” he muttered. I felt a wave of relief as he called on Nicole, who was smirking and waving her hand in the air. Got a reprieve!
After class, Lin and Shani came running up to me as I trudged along the path back to the dorm.
“Ana!” Lin cried, grabbing my arm. “Seriously, if we’re going to practice our special skills at night, you have got to get better at hiding how tired you are the next day.”
I turned to look at my friends. They both looked bright and alert, though when I looked closer, I could see the bags under their eyes. I hadn’t told them about Jason spotting me in my jaguar guise last night. I wasn’t trying to hide it from them, exactly—I just felt like it was my problem. And until I knew it involved them, I didn’t want to freak them out.
“How are you two looking so perky?” I asked, avoiding the subject.
Shani chuckled. “Caffeine, and lots of it!” she said.
Lin nodded vigorously. “It’s days like today when I really appreciate the espresso bar in the cafeteria.”
Noting the slightly manic expression in her eyes, I couldn’t help chuckling too. But then I spotted the person I’d been secretly searching for all day: Jason. He was striding toward us, a
few yards away, walking with his head down. In a few seconds he’d cross our path. My heart leaped into my throat, and I stared at him, waiting for him to notice me.
Lin seemed to notice my sudden silence and followed my gaze to Jason. “Ooh,” she murmured, and pasted on an even more manic smile as he came closer.
But her effort was wasted. Jason glanced up at us only briefly as he passed us. As soon as he saw me, he quickly focused his gaze back on the pathway and picked up his pace, practically jogging away.
Lin’s head swiveled to watch him run off. “Wow,” she breathed, turning back to me with a satisfied expression. “Guess the honeymoon’s over, huh?”
I sighed. “Drop it, Lin,” I huffed, and ran ahead to go back to the dorm alone.
I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I just wanted to crawl back into bed and hope things would feel more normal when I woke up.
I entered the dorm feeling like a deflated balloon. Despite all my worrying, it didn’t look like Jason had any plans to tell anyone what he’d seen—who would believe him, anyway? But the way he had looked at me in that brief moment when he passed us, like I was a monster, broke my heart.
On my way to Doli and Shani’s room, I ran right into Mrs. O’Grady, the dorm mother. She was holding a cup of tea and when she saw me, she took on a pinched expression. “Ana,” she said in a reedy voice, “just the person I’ve been looking for. We need to talk.”
For a second I thought she knew that I’d sneaked out the night before. I tried to figure out what I would say.
“Is it true that you’ve been sleeping in Doli and Shani’s room?” she asked, surprising me.
I lowered my eyes. How had she found out? “Yes, it’s true.”
“I’m sure you know that’s against dorm rules. If you want to switch rooms, that’s fine. But you have to do it through the proper channels. Otherwise, you’ll have to remain in your assigned room. Do you understand?”
I nodded. “What are the proper channels?”
“There are change-of-room request forms in the main building,” she answered. “You can only put in for one room change per semester, though, so you’d better be sure it’s what you want before you fill out the paperwork.”
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