“Mr. Xanderberghen, I’m afraid I must confiscate this item.”
He felt the color drain from his face. “But…”
“The only butt I want to see is yours, in your seat, and doing your work! You may inquire with the headmistress to have it returned
Idric remained standing, his brain too preoccupied to communicate with his feet. His head felt light, his vision hazy. He felt sick to his stomach. Had he really just lost the key?
“Mr. Xanderberghen, I said sit!”
He lowered himself into his desk, his mind racing through what had just taken place, his brain scrambling to find a way to fix this. How would he tell Sally after his little tirade with her the day before? But the shape-shifters had the key. He couldn’t imagine anything worse at that moment. With his phone hidden from view, he sent a panicked text to Sally.
[Screwed up. Conley has the key. Need help!]
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
IMMEDIATELY AFTER RECEIVING IDRIC’S TEXT, Sally insisted they speak. Of course he couldn’t say much during class, and waiting for a chance to communicate was killing her.
“Do you have him yet?” Sally asked impatiently.
She and Stephanie were in the control room while Jake tried to make a connection to Idric’s laptop. Yasif helped by monitoring things on his screen.
Stephanie kept fiddling with the prosthetic arm she’d been fitted with. She kept adjusting it, scowling as though it should somehow just fit better.
Sally glanced at her.
“What? It itches,” Stephanie said.
Sally nodded, not knowing what else to say.
“Almost there,” Jake announced, turning to look at the large monitor mounted to the wall across the room. A window appeared, dark at first. Then Idric’s voice, “Sorry, let me turn on another light.” A moment later, and his face lit up on the screen.
“Okay, Idric, we’ve got a secure connection,” Jake said. “The school’s filters can’t trace us.”
“And they can’t listen in?” Idric asked, glancing at something off-screen.
Jake shook his head.
“Good.”
“Can he see me?” Sally asked.
Jake and Yasif both nodded.
She continued, “What’s going on?”
“I’ve screwed up.” Idric’s voice cracked, his gaze flicking nervously between them. “I’ve screwed up really bad.”
“Calm down, Idric,” Sally said. “Just tell us what happened.”
He spoke fast. “Well, I used to wear the crystal that acted as the key to the Book of Aashr, but I got bored with it a couple weeks ago. I guess I left it lying around, because my roommate decided to give it to his girlfriend. So I got all mad and was like ‘Why’d you do that?’ and he was like ‘I thought you didn’t want it.’ So then I tried to get it back from the girl he’d given it to, and it got taken up by Mrs. Conley.” He finally stopped for a breath.
“Okay.” Sally felt winded just listening to him. “Okay…let’s think before we panic.”
“Easy for you to say,” Idric replied. “You’re not supposed to be the one guarding this thing.”
“Can they use the key?” Sally asked.
“If they know anything about Aashr magic,” he replied. “I haven’t seen any reason to think they would, but who knows. And getting around at night is near impossible now, so I can’t just go and get it back.”
“How so?” Yasif asked.
“It’s like Fort Knox lately. They’ve even repaired the fence around the school so we can’t even use the passage in the back like we used to. We’ve all been given badges.” He held one up to the screen with his face on it. “They verify everyone is in class when they’re supposed to be, and if you’re not they come looking for you. I can’t even use the forged note anymore to leave the school with you guys. They have to have a ‘face-to-face meeting’ with a parent in order to grant permission to leave.”
“So how do we get in?” Lani asked.
Sally replied, “You could always go in as a reporter.”
“I’d need a better reason than to just show up at the school,” Lani said.
Stephanie raised her hand. “I know one!”
Lani eyed her.
She rolled her eyes. “Duh! Me!”
“I’m still not following you,” Lani said.
“What if you did a report on me? Like what it’s like for a girl to return to school after an injury like this.” She held up her arm.
Lani nodded. “That’s actually a really good idea, Steph. We could use the same story we told your mother. No one would turn you away. I’d have to get it cleared with my boss, of course; I’m on a tight leash right now, but it shouldn’t be too hard—he’s a sucker for stuff like this.”
“Sounds good to me,” Sally agreed.
“What about the rest of us? If you say security is so tight, how are we supposed to get in?”
Idric cleared his throat. “I might have a way. It’s kind of a long shot. In fact, I’ve never actually done it before.”
“Idric. Get to the point,” Sally said.
“Well.” He scratched his head. “It’s a spell that can link two places.”
“I’m going to need a bit more to go on than that,” Sally said.
“My dad did this spell once,” Idric went on. “It’s how we left our village without notice and came here, but the problem is I’m not really sure how it works. I’d have to figure that part out on my own.”
“Okay,” Sally replied. “You get busy and see if you can get it to work. That gives me an idea for getting the book out as well.”
He nodded and then ended the connection.
She turned to the others. “Okay, so let’s make sure we’re ready for this.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
“THIS IS HIGHLY IRREGULAR.” Mrs. Padilla stood in front of Lani and Stephanie in the commons area toward the front of the school. Her eyes kept glancing down at Stephanie’s prosthetic arm.
Jake hid behind a news camera on his shoulder. He didn’t want to chance the shape-shifter recognizing him from Mt. Holly.
Lani put on a good performance. “Mrs. Padilla, this girl was brutally attacked by a dog, her arm taken in the process. Her story deserves to be told!”
“Oh, it was horrible, Mrs. Padilla, the pain I was in! I can’t believe my cousin had such a ferocious dog. I mean look at me!” She held up her prosthetic for effect.
Lani glanced at her, hinting to tone it down a bit.
“I don’t like the idea of reporters hanging around the school,” Mrs. Padilla stated.
“I understand,” Lani replied. “The last time I was here, you gave me all the instructions. I’m well aware of the etiquette.”
“Last time?” The shape-shifter faltered, but quickly corrected itself. “Oh yes! Dear me. My memory is getting weaker as I age.”
“I just want to share this girl’s struggle with our viewers,” Lani said. “Besides it may bring some positive light on the school after the incident with the three runaways.”
“Well, I certainly am glad to see the media accept the truth. I was afraid it would turn that fiasco into a circus.” Mrs. Padilla brought her hands together in front of her.
“Most certainly not, Mrs. Padilla. I take great pride in the honesty of my work.” Lani wore a sincere smile.
“Okay, you can do your story. But if your cameras interfere with classes, I will have to insist that you leave.”
“Fair enough.” Lani bowed her head. “Maybe an interview afterward, so you can give your side of the story about the runaways?”
“We shall see,” was all she said.
Lani turned to Jake and smiled as they left her office, Stephanie in tow.
As soon as they were out, Lani picked up her phone and sent a text to Idric. “Okay. You’re turn.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
IDRIC SPENT THE EVENING RESEARCHING. He knew his father had made a portal for them to come from their home village to the U
nited States so there had to be a way for him to recreate it. The problem with Aashr magic wasn’t a simple cookbook of spells. It was all about understanding elementary principles of convergences, something he’d only picked up in his brief time in training. He’d have to research the magic he wanted to create and determine what mixture of properties and convergences he’d need to pull something like that off.
His parents had left him a few books, most he’d neglected because he wasn’t technically supposed to do magic. Every once in a while, he’d get curious and play around with a few spells. He found what he was looking for in an older text, a book on combining convergences with immutable objects and symbols to produce more powerful results. The magic would work on the principle of association. It was the intention of the spell that was important. If they wanted to travel from one place to another, they would need an analogy—a surrogate object—something that would represent the intention of what they hoped to accomplish.
So what would be a physical representation of traveling?
Idric thought long and hard. The obvious choice would be vehicles, but convergences around vehicles were usually unstable and erratic. Roller skates? Skateboards? He thought of anything that went places.
What had his father used?
He couldn’t remember; it had been so long ago. He sighed, rubbed his eyes, then his gaze fell on the poster of a dragon on his closet door.
“That’s it!” The memory of what his father had done came to him. He could have smacked himself for not thinking of it sooner. What better physical representation than—
Idric smiled. “A door.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
YASIF STUDIED THE SYMBOL Idric had sent to Sally’s phone. He was supposed to draw it on a door in the switching station in order to make the spell work, but Yasif sucked at drawing. Idric had warned the symbol had to be drawn perfectly, saying if it wasn’t, the spell could send them to another dimension instead of to the school. This didn’t help Yasif’s apprehension. The idea of being trapped alone in some strange dimension sent a shudder through him, but Sally insisted he do it.
They’d decided on using one of the small closets next to the control room. He drew the symbol using chalk, so he could erase it if it didn’t look right. After seven tries, he felt he couldn’t get it any better.
“Looks good.” But Sally’s expression didn’t quite match her enthusiasm.
“Yeah right.” He smiled.
“Here.” She took the chalk. “A little shift in this line… Tweak that a bit, and…voila!” He’d been too distracted by her closeness to see what she’d done. It was when Sally cleared her throat he realized he hadn’t been paying attention. His cheeks grew warm and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He wiped them away anxiously and glanced at the symbol. “Much better than mine.”
Sally handed him the chalk. If she’d noticed his embarrassment, she gave no indication. “If this works, we may be able to go back and forth to the school whenever we want.”
Yasif fanned himself. “I hope so, we’ve already missed a lot of school. I’d be surprised if they even let us graduate.”
She gave him with an odd expression. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Her phone rang, interrupting the conversation.
“It’s Idric. Are we ready?”
Yasif nodded.
She pulled him away from the door. “He said to step back.”
They both watched, waiting for something to happen. Yasif did his best to keep himself focused, though Sally’s presence seemed to envelop him, locking him in a euphoric haze. Fortunately, the symbol lit up as if traced with light, giving him something to ground his focus.
It grew brighter as the room filled with a strange sound as though air was being sucked through a small vent. Wind whipped around them as lines of light traced the edges of the door.
The sound grew louder, the air moving more violently as light burst from the door in an intense flash. Yasif shielded his eyes. When the illumination faded, the door creaked open slowly. On the other side, Idric was in his dorm room, smiling.
“Holy cow!” Yasif approached the doorway, his jaw wide open.
It was as if Idric’s room had always been on the other side of this door. Yasif examined the frame itself. One side was the cold black metal in the switching station, the other the familiar greenish color of all of the school’s dormitory closet doors.
Yasif touched the frame. “This is amazing!”
“I can’t believe I pulled it off!” Idric said excitedly.
“Good work, Idric,” Sally complimented. “Now let’s get moving.”
Yasif grabbed his bag, the bow concealed inside. Sally checked to make sure the end of her crossbow was well hidden. It didn’t retract like his and stuck out the top, but she’d been clever enough to conceal it by covering the end.
Yasif stood at the opening, hesitating before stepping through. He stuck his hand out to make sure it was safe.
“Just go!” Sally pushed him.
He rushed forward, a slight tingle his only indication he’d just traveled thirty miles. It was as if he’d simply gone from one room to another. He glanced back to see Sally behind him.
“How long does it last?” she asked.
“We can open it whenever we want as long as the symbols are there.” Idric closed his closet and the light from the symbol faded.
“Sweet!” Yasif was just happy he hadn’t been vaporized or lost in some alternate dimension.
“Okay,” Sally said. “Yaz, get to the server room and start the rewiring.”
He stared at the closet door, only vaguely registering what she’d said. He couldn’t help but be curious by what had happened to the connection in the doorway.
She continued. “Idric, you know what to do. I’ll head to the gym.”
Unable to contain himself, Yasif opened the closet door to find the things one would expect in the closet of a fifteen-year-old boy.
“You have to use one of these.” Idric handed them each a deep dark stone. “Don’t lose them. I don’t have any more obsidian right now.”
Sally looked it over, then pocketed it.
Yasif could tell she was overwhelmed at the thought of all this magic. He knew her obsession with things making sense. It was amusing to think how much around them wasn’t rational at all. It must have been driving her crazy!
“I don’t know about you,” she said. “But I’m ready to get this over with.”
CHAPTER SIXTY
YASIF MADE HIS WAY to the server room, trying to attract as little attention as possible—which was easy since the halls were empty. All the students were in class, oblivious to any of the strange events of the past couple months. His only problem was he couldn’t get his mind off Sally. Their time together at the station lingered in his thoughts the entire trip. By the time he reached the switching station, he felt the need for a cold shower.
Once he entered the room, he set down his bag and distracted himself with creating an interface into the school’s computers. He needed to link TESSA directly. After creating the physical connection, he set to work on the software side. He wished he’d accepted Jake’s offer for help—he wasn’t as good as Daniel with coding.
Yasif finished and tested it. Once it was verified, he set up the connection for the wireless cameras. He had to admit, Sally’s plan was brilliant. Now all they needed was to make sure it worked.
After all that, came the really tricky part. Hacking Mrs. Padilla’s email. In order for TESSA to search for irregularities, she’d need direct access to the account. The school’s servers were unfortunately not hooked to Jake’s routers. He needed to circumvent the school’s firewall and give her direct access. If cameras didn’t work, the idea was TESSA might find something incriminating they could use.
Once the confirmation went through, he congratulated himself, then began unplugging the wires, but before he’d finished, the door opened and Mrs. Conley walked in.
At first, she
hadn’t noticed him, but he wasn’t exactly in an inconspicuous location. Once spotted, she put her hand on one hip. “What exactly is it that you think you’re doing, young man?”
It was the first time he’d seen the imposter. Everything about her looked exactly as it should, from her short reddish hair to her aging complexion, everything was exactly as it had before the disappearance. For a split second, he doubted himself. What if she’d returned? What if this was the real Mrs. Conley? There was no way for him to know for sure.
“I’m just running some maintenance on the servers.”
“I don’t think so, young man.” She wagged a finger at him. “Mrs. Padilla gave strict orders that you and your little lady friend were not allowed on campus.” She advanced toward him, grabbing his arm, but he managed to yank free. “I’m warning you, young man!”
He ducked to one side and went straight for his bag. Before she could do anything, he had pulled out the bow, extended it, nocked an arrow, and aimed it directly at her. His hands shook and his heart had begun beating faster than the wings of a hummingbird.
She eyed him, gauging his reaction. “You wouldn’t dare shoot a teacher!”
Yasif smiled, though he couldn’t help the nervous twitch in his voice. “Now see, there’s only one problem with that logic. In order to get in trouble for shooting a teacher, you’d have to actually be our teacher.”
With that, he loosed the arrow.
There are times when things happen so fast the brain has difficulty registering. This usually occurred with something unexpected, such as a car accident, or an extremely emotional experience such as finding out about a severe illness or a surprise pregnancy.
In the case of his arrow, Yasif had a set of expectations he knew would take place. He’d release the arrow, it would fly through the air, the creature would jump or dodge, and the arrow would lodge itself into the wall on the far side of the room. He never expected to actually hit Mrs. Conley. She was a shape-shifting creature after all; she was bound to put up a fight.
Sally Singletary's Curiosity (The Sally Singletary Book 1) Page 22
