by Rena Barron
“I saw the permission slip; we’re going to the Field Museum,” Frankie said. “It’ll be the perfect place to sneak off into the Dark.”
“The cranky twins will be there for sure.” Eli grimaced. “They’re like a bad taste that you can’t get out of your mouth.”
Frankie wrinkled her nose and straightened her glasses. “Well, we’ll just have to create a distraction.”
* * *
When I got home, Mama was sitting in a chair beside the bed where Papa lay completely still. “Every time Eddy left to fix the veil, I got this queasy feeling in my stomach,” she said, her voice choked with tears. “I tried not to think about it, but I always worried.” She stared down at Papa. “I never could get over that he was responsible for something as vast as the veil with no one else to help him.”
Papa was still in his human form, but his skin glowed with white light. His frame blurred around the edges like he was slowly fading away. “He has me to help now,” I said, biting my lip.
Mama rubbed her forehead. “Maya.”
Before she could finish, I said, “The veil won’t last much longer. If I had to guess, maybe a week, possibly less.”
“Maya.” She repeated my name, this time anguish in her voice. “I can’t lose you.”
“If I don’t go back, then the veil will fail, and everyone will lose everyone they ever loved,” I reminded her.
“You’re growing up too fast.” Mama let out a frustrated breath. “I knew you wouldn’t have a normal childhood, but I didn’t expect anything like this.”
“I like being a godling,” I said. “I am going to be the guardian of the veil with Papa one day. You have to let me be who I’m meant to be.”
Mama hunched forward, her shoulders trembling. “I’m not happy about it, but I won’t stop you from going back into the Dark. I’ve thought about this long and hard . . . and you’re right. I can’t deny what you are, and I can’t limit your potential.” She swallowed hard. “Our world needs you, Maya, but I don’t have to like it.”
“Thank you, Mama,” I said, giving her a long hug.
Operation Go Dark was back in business.
Mama let me miss a day from school, and the cranky twins “missed” school too. They came over to keep us company. They even brought food—mac and cheese, baked chicken, and potato salad—so Mama wouldn’t have to cook.
The next morning, I met up with Eli and Frankie, and we boarded the buses to take our class to the Field Museum. The Johnston twins, pretending to be seventh graders again, sat right behind us.
“There’s a big chunk of plastic poking me in my back,” Miss Ida complained in a squeaky voice. “Someone ought to do something about these horrible seats.”
“What was that, Miss Johnston?” Principal Ollie said, looking up from their iPad at the front of the bus.
“Nothing but the big pimple growing on the center of her forehead,” Winston said from across the aisle. He, Tay, and Candace snickered.
“The joys of being twelve going on thirteen,” Miss Lucille said, sounding less cranky than usual.
“Wait a minute,” Frankie asked as she turned on her knees to face the twins. “You didn’t only change your appearance on the outside?”
Miss Lucille shrugged. “The orisha council thought it would be more believable if we reversed our true age to twelve.”
“So are you stuck this way forever?” Frankie asked.
Miss Lucille shook her head. “No, it’s just that it’s more than an illusion. We’re actually twelve for now.”
“Who would want to go back to being twelve?” Eli frowned. “No one listens to us.”
“Precisely my point,” added Miss Ida.
When we reached downtown, traffic was backed up bumper to bumper. Several yellow school buses had already parked on the street beside the Field Museum. It looked like Jackson Middle wasn’t the only school on a trip. That was going to work in our favor.
“Stay together,” Principal Ollie said, standing in front of the exit. Kids were anxious to get off and pushing each other to be first in line. “We’re going to have a picnic on the grass for lunch.”
“I’m allergic to boredom,” Tay shouted.
Principal Ollie narrowed their eyes. “I have a list of allergies for our student body. I didn’t see boredom listed by your name, but nice try, Mr. Curtis.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Eli whispered to me.
“I’m going to bring Sue back from the dead,” I said, winking at him.
“Who’s Sue?” Eli cocked his head to the side. “Also, if anyone’s bringing someone back from the dead, it should be me. I have a special connection to the paranormal. Obatala said so.”
“Sue is a dinosaur,” I said, shaking my head.
“You are so weird,” Eli replied.
“Weird, but really clever,” Frankie countered, giving Eli a smug smile. “You just wish you’d thought of it first.”
“Well, if it doesn’t work, you can always Frankiefy people with your general nerdiness,” Eli suggested as we climbed from the bus.
Most of the tour would’ve been exciting if I hadn’t had more important things on my mind. We walked through the exhibits with a guide explaining everything in meticulous detail. We saw fossils, meteorites, gems, and precious stones. Finally, we got to the dinosaurs, and Sue stood like a giant in the middle of it all.
Sweat trickled down my forehead as I glanced around the exhibit. People snapped pictures and crowded around the dinosaur. She was nothing but bones, of course, but that made my plan even better. What I was about to do was risky and likely would get me expelled from school, but I didn’t see any other way.
“And here is our most popular exhibit,” the guide was saying. “Sue is one of the largest tyrannosaurs ever found. She was named after the explorer Sue Hendrickson, who discovered her.”
People clamored to get a good spot to take pictures with the dinosaur. I wasn’t sure that I needed the coin in my pocket to amplify my magic, but I squeezed it anyway. Nothing happened. The coin felt slick against my sweaty palm. This had to work. Papa was running out of time.
After a while, one of Sue’s massive leg bones moved. It was a small tremble at first. Besides Frankie, who gasped, and Eli, who looked stunned, no one else noticed. That was, until more bones rattled like Sue was waking from a deep sleep. The kids closest to the dinosaur stumbled back, pointing and shrieking. People thought they were joking until Sue shook her leg loose from the wire holding her together. Then she opened her mouth and let out a great roar.
FOURTEEN
We need a new distraction
The cables that held Sue the T-rex in place snapped one by one, sending metal cords flying across the exhibit. One cable crashed into a brachiosaurus. Its bones shattered and rained down on the crowd. Another cable headed straight for a group of people hiding behind a map of the museum. It shredded everything in its path.
Frankie threw up her hands and sent waves of energy that wrinkled space. Her blue sparks forced the cable to go wide, barely missing the group. It slammed into a wall before falling limp on the floor. More blue lights flashed, flitting back and forth like popping firecrackers. Those were for sure the cranky twins.
“Well, that didn’t go as expected,” Eli said, ducking a stray bone that flew over his head.
Principal Ollie snapped their fingers to get the dinosaur’s attention. Sue tilted her head to the side and looked at them through empty eye sockets. “Time to go back to sleep,” they said, raising a hand in the stop motion. A white light grew in the center of their palm, and I did a double take. I’d known that Principal Ollie was an orisha since earlier this summer, but I hadn’t seen them use their powers.
Sue’s tail went limp, and she staggered forward like a eighteen-thousand-pound zombie, which had to be the worst kind of zombie ever. Before Principal Ollie could put Sue to sleep, another dinosaur slammed into them. It knocked Principal Ollie clear across the room and straight through a window.
My hand shook as I clutched the coin in my pocket. I hadn’t woken the second dinosaur, nor the third or fourth. “That’s not me!” I said, turning the coin into a staff. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
“Maybe another godling coming into their powers?” Eli suggested. “That or your magic is out of control yet again.”
When we started toward the center of the chaos, Miss Lucille stepped in our path. “Stay here,” she said, taking up a position in front of us. She raised her hand and deflected dozens of raining bones. “Ollie and my sister will handle this.”
“Miss Lucille, I know this is bad timing, but I have to ask you something.” Eli dodged another bone. “Why are some godlings’ powers stronger than others’? Like, I can only do the invisible thing.”
“What?” Miss Lucille asked, her attention split between us and the chaos. Dinosaurs whipped their tails around, breaking glass and smashing stone columns. “I wouldn’t say some powers are stronger. Some are just more specialized or peculiar.”
“Specialized, eh?” Eli said, his face lighting up.
Principal Ollie climbed back through the broken window, looking frazzled. Their light gray suit was wrinkled and torn, and they had a smear of dirt on one sleeve. As the celestial drew closer, their body shimmered with white light. That was when I saw the dinosaurs had purple and black ribbons woven between the bones. I couldn’t breathe.
“What is it, Maya?” Frankie asked. “Another tear?”
I shook my head, unable to speak as the same ribbons wove through Sue’s bones. I didn’t feel a tear, but it was him. The Lord of Shadows had gotten through the veil. But why possess dinosaurs? I pointed at Sue as she stumbled and roared against Principal Ollie. “The Lord of Shadows is controlling Sue!”
Miss Lucille cursed under her breath. “It can’t be.”
“It is,” I whispered.
“We need to get you out of here.” Miss Lucille pushed us into the mammoth exhibit, which we found full. A crowd that had fled from the chaos gathered here after the fighting started. The exhibit was a dead end. The only way out was back through the dinosaur exhibit. By the sounds of crashes and shattering in there, that wasn’t an option.
I glanced at my feet. This was my fault. I woke Sue, and somehow the Lord of Shadows had taken advantage of the situation. He was here, but not really here. I couldn’t explain how that was possible. It was like when he created a connection from the crossroads to my dreams.
“Shouldn’t you be helping the others?” I said to Miss Lucille, but she ignored me as she stood guard.
Frankie grabbed my arm, her eyebrows pinched together in deep thought. “I’ve been thinking about what the kishi . . . Charlie . . . said on Azur. About calling him if I needed anything . . .”
I was only half listening to her. “Yeah.”
“What if I called him now?” Frankie suggested, her voice dropping low. “He could help us slip away from Miss Lucille.”
“Call him, then,” Eli said. “I’m pretty sure he forgot to give you his number.”
“I’ve been thinking about that too.” Frankie opened her mouth to explain but stopped when both Eli and I shook our heads. “Give me your phone,” she said to Eli, who shrugged and handed it over.
She stepped away so that Miss Lucille couldn’t overhear her. We couldn’t hear either. As far as I could tell, she lifted the phone to her ear without actually dialing a number.
“Is she talking to herself?” Eli quirked an eyebrow. “She’s finally lost it.”
“There you are!” Tay said, stepping in front of Eli and me. All I saw at first were his alternating red and black cornrows. He was a foot taller than both of us, and I raised my staff in self-defense. I was in no mood to take any mess from Tay or anyone else.
“Whoa, calm down.” Tay threw up his hands, his palms facing out. “I just want to talk.”
“Quit playing, Tay,” Eli groaned. “This is not the time to be starting something.”
“I ain’t starting nothing,” he said, rocking on his heels. “I need help.”
“Help from us?” I asked. Where were Winston and Candace? They had to be in on whatever game he was playing.
“Yeah, you.” Tay glanced away, looking embarrassed. “Listen, don’t tell Winston I even talked to you. He’ll disown me, but I have to ask.”
I frowned, keeping one eye on him and one on my surroundings. “Ask what?”
“I need to know how to unlock my powers,” Tay said, his voice desperate. “Winston keeps saying that he doesn’t know how he did it, but I don’t believe it. He just wants to be the center of attention.”
I didn’t think the day would ever come that Winston and I would be on the same side of anything. “He’s telling the truth,” I explained. “The first time we showed powers, it was really random. We didn’t call it.”
“Wait, but there has to be some way.” Tay narrowed his eyes. “You’re holding something back.”
“Um, we have to go,” Eli said as we sidestepped Tay. We really didn’t have time for this conversation.
Less than a minute passed, and Frankie walked back over to join us and handed Eli his phone. “We should have a new distraction any minute now.”
A light flashed in the corner of the room. When it faded, a person wearing a blue hoodie stood with their back to us. I only caught a quick glimpse of his face as the crowd swallowed him up. I was about to dismiss the man when a scream rang out in the exhibit. Then several screams, all coming from that direction. People rushed away from the man in the navy hoodie.
“For gods’ sake.” Miss Lucille whirled around to face the commotion. “Now what?”
“I’m going eat you all,” came a loud growl. “One by one.”
I got a glimpse of a tusk of brown hair, a snout, and very sharp teeth headed straight for us. It was Charlie. Frankie had actually called him. He did the big bad wolf thing, huffing and puffing, even though he was half hyena, not wolf. But it worked.
“Is that a kishi?” Eli latched on to Miss Lucille’s arm like he was scared out of his mind. “Don’t they eat people?”
“Calm down, boy,” Miss Lucille said in her high-pitched little kid’s voice. “Kishi don’t usually eat humans, but I’ll take care of this either way. They are not supposed to show their hyena face to mortals.”
Miss Lucille stormed off after the kishi but stopped after only taking a step. She looked over her shoulder at us, frowning. “Stay put; I’ll be right back.”
“Where are we going to go?” Eli said, waving his arm. “We’re trapped between raging dinosaurs and a hungry kishi.”
As Miss Lucille stormed off, I gave Frankie a fist bump. “You’re a genius.”
“I’d like to think so,” she replied, looking quite satisfied with herself.
I took another glance at the archway leading back into the dinosaur exhibit. The last dinosaur collapsed into bones. Wisps of purple and black ribbons floated up from the pile and disappeared. Principal Ollie stood with their hands on their hips, looking pretty ticked off. I was relieved that they’d stopped it—whatever had happened. I still needed to figure that out.
“Let’s go,” I said as we pushed our way through the crowd to find a spot to open the gateway. We ducked behind a mammoth where some people were hiding. Eli turned his head invisible, and they knocked each other over to get out of our way.
“That was mean,” Frankie said.
“Says the girl who called a hungry kishi to scare a bunch of kids,” Eli shot back.
“This godling is really mad,” Charlie said, his human face popping around the mammoth. Miss Lucille streaked across the room in her blue light form and tackled him. They crashed into cardboard display sign that read DON’T FEED THE MAMMOTHS. “Whatever you’re planning, you better do it now,” he said as Miss Lucille’s magic wrapped around his chest, pinning him to the floor.
“I wish I had more time to ask you ab
out my mom,” Frankie shouted to the kishi.
“Let’s make a deal,” he yelled back. “If you make it through this, give me another call.”
“Deal!” Frankie agreed as Charlie wiggled free of Miss Lucille’s gasp.
Near a wall at the back of the exhibit, I pulled the coin from my pocket. It transformed back into a staff as if it knew my plan, which it probably did. I drew a wide arc in front of the wall. My hands warmed as the magic pooled on my fingertips. But my focus kept slipping like a fog had settled in my head that made my thoughts fuzzy.
It wasn’t like this before when I had concentrated on opening a gateway near Papa. Something pushed me away—well, not something.
It had to be the Lord of Shadows. My magic was bouncing off some sort of ward that worked against me. The sparks sputtered and flickered out.
“Anytime now would be good,” Eli grumbled behind me.
“I’m trying,” I said through gritted teeth. “I can’t open a gateway near my father’s soul. The Lord of Shadows is blocking me.”
“Just open a gateway anywhere!” Eli said.
“I can’t open it just anywhere,” I yelled back. “That could be thousands of miles away or another continent or . . .”
I groaned. I was wasting time trying to explain something that didn’t make sense. I couldn’t open a gateway close to my father’s soul, so I had to think of another place fast. My mind raced as sweat glided down my forehead. If we couldn’t go to my father’s soul, then we’d go to a place that could tell us where to find it. I changed my focus, and the sparks grew into a walkway of spinning god symbols.
“It’s ready!” I said.
“Maya, don’t,” I heard Miss Lucille say as we plunged into darkness.
FIFTEEN
We take a mud bath
The gateway spat us out beside a swamp in the middle of the night. My head spun as I took one step and bumped into Eli, who crashed into Frankie. I lost my balance and fell face first in the mud. I groaned. It tasted like ten-day-old gym shorts—not that I was proud to know that. Eli hit the ground too. Frankie somehow managed to stay upright.
