Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets

by Gabby Fawkes

  I suppressed a moan. Yep, this was it. The part where we got arrested and flung in a DSA prison cell – or worse.

  But then the woman’s thumbnail tapped the sheet, and several illuminated words appeared on the paper’s surface: GUESTS – ADMIT 3.

  Her expression went foul. “I don’t suppose you’ll say whose guests you are?”

  Demi smiled uncomprehendingly, and the woman waved us in, muttering, “No shame, none at all…”

  “Wonder what that was about,” Kian said, turning back to eye her, though the clear door had already been slammed behind us.

  I shrugged. “I’m just glad we got in.”

  “I see you managed fine,” Axel said, approaching us.

  “No thanks to you,” I said, late nerves kicking in as I grabbed at the clinging satin of my dress. “You just ditched us without explaining anything.”

  “More realistic like that,” he said. “Anyway. I waited here in case anything went amiss.”

  “Important thing is that we’re in,” Demi pointed out, ever the peacekeeper. She patted each of our hands in a ‘there, there’ motion, although her gaze went to Axel. “Who should we be looking out for?”

  “Here, I’ll just levitate up a few floors to find them this second,” Axel said.

  I visually followed his pointing finger up and up… and up… and… I inadvertently steadied myself on Kian’s shoulder for support.

  Talk about a dizzying view. The whole building was an ode to lit-up glass – the walls, floors, ceiling all made of it. Above us were several levels that, most perplexingly, were levitating.

  “Uh…” Kian said.

  “Witches helped in the construction, yeah,” Axel said. “Although this type of building isn’t done to code – regular magical buildings aren’t allowed to look like this. We have regulations too. But this is in a part of the forest reggies can’t enter, and the DSA are the masters of exceptions, so…”

  Taking in our surroundings, Demi murmured, “They don’t do half-bad.”

  “Understatement of the year,” I murmured back.

  All you had to do was glance at the people’s bizarre outfits – with their over-the-top, downright impossible patterns – to see that they dripped money. Had they used the capitol citizens from the Hunger Games as their inspiration?

  “Cool,” Kian murmured, her gaze on a nearby brunette, white Beatles’ lyrics floating down the black velvet back of her dress.

  That was nothing compared to some of the others, though. There was a blonde whose skirt was coated with popping – and then regenerating – fuchsia bubbles, while her friend wore a ball gown with long strings of pearly sequins that floated by themselves. Another man’s suit had a snarling tomato-red panther on the gray pants, prowling its way up to his pinstriped jacket. And then there was her.

  A woman dressed in pure gold she didn’t deserve.

  My gaze stopped on her at the same time my heart did. My jaw dropped.

  Automatically, I took a step closer. Then another.

  The gorgeous way the golden sheen caught the light… like liquid heaven. If I just ran my fingers over it, hell, if I wore it…

  “How do they afford all this?” Kian was asking quietly.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Axel said. “DSA are supposed to be just another government body.”

  As my friends talked some more, it was just white noise to the siren song of that gold, that flickering beckon of the light playing on the gold. The gold, the gold, the…

  “You okay?” Axel was blocking me, an obnoxiously knowing expression on his face. “So you do suffer from… some of the other dragon shifter effects.”

  I glared at him. “Meaning?”

  He turned, following my gaze to the woman in gold. Then leaning over, in my ear he whispered, “There’s no shame in wanting beautiful things.”

  His hand skimmed my lower back at the last part, and I shivered. Damn it, why was it just the smell of him… the nearness…

  Although him thinking he ‘got’ me was getting way old.

  Letting my gaze linger on Axel was a bad idea. With the sparkling lights, I could see just how hopelessly good he looked in his classic black and white suit.

  “Why aren’t you dressed like them?” I gestured at the other DSA people.

  His upper lip curled. “Not my thing.”

  “That won’t make you stand out?” Demi asked.

  Axel shrugged. “A bit. There are others, though.”

  Sure enough, in the crowd there was the odd man or woman dressed in a nice yet normal suit or dress.

  Less sight-seeing, more action, my PV scolded, and for once I was in agreement.

  “Okay,” I said. “So how exactly do we get to those upper levels?”

  “Here.” Axel strode forward, coming to a stop on a large round circle on the otherwise translucent floor. Once we were all on, he tapped his foot. The floor circle swept us up at a diagonal to the second floor, which was slightly smaller than the first.

  Another look up made me realize how it worked – each floor was slightly smaller than the last – with the tiniest several stories up.

  “I just came to check on you,” Axel said, stepping off the platform onto the second floor. “Let me know if you need anything, I’ll be around.”

  “Right,” I said, as we stepped off the platform. Less talking, more doing. “Bye.”

  He stayed on the platform and it conveyed him up to the next floor.

  For a few seconds, my friends and I stood there nervously, while DSA men and women either blatantly ignored us, or peered at us out of the corner of their eyes. It felt like one of the first days of school, when I’d had to go to the cafeteria and had had a major brain freeze, clueless of where to sit, what to do.

  “Who are we supposed to be on the lookout for again?” Demi whispered.

  While I wracked my brain, Kian answered first. “Some bright red-haired woman, twins and some big hairy guy.”

  “Great,” I said, looking around. “I see some women with wings, a man with glitter permanently revolving around him, and another guy who has as many wands as we do toes. You guys?”

  “I see fooood,” Kian sing-songed excitedly.

  “Guys,” I said.

  “Don’t be such a killjoy,” Demi scolded, already headed that way. “Maybe they’re at the food station.”

  It wasn’t such a bad idea. Especially seeing as the food area was a crowd favorite, with a lineup to get to it. Although there was no sign of anyone who had bright red hair, was overly big and hairy or twins. The woman we were behind had a skirt that looked straight from the forest, with some slightly-shifting trees, one bearing a woodpecker hard at work.

  The red-headed bird rhythmically stabbing its beak into the tree trunk had a sort of mesmerizing effect when you looked at it. It took a good minute before I shook myself out of it.

  C’mon, Tala. You’re here to save Jeremy.

  And if that meant talking to whoever was nearby…

  “I like your dress,” I told the woman.

  Turning, she gave a vague look, the kind you’d give to a homeless person saying ‘Nice ass, baby!’ Still, I plodded forward.

  “This building is beautiful. Nice everyone could make it, even when it’s so far from the…” I leaned in. “The base.”

  I tried to smile in a chummy you-know and I-know-too way, but she only blinked at me. A very long, very painful minute passed before, grabbing a drink, she said, “The gala is here every year.”

  And with that, she strode off.

  “Nice try,” Demi said sympathetically as we got to the table.

  “Maybe less…you know, obvious next time?” Kian suggested, pulling me aside.

  “You’re right,” I said. “I should be long-gaming it. Befriending the first woman I see, learning about her two well-trained kids and her utmost favorite type of herbal tea so that, after months and years of gradually increasing intimacy, in a moment of mutual vulnerability, I can dare ask h
er the question of questions: Where exactly is the DSA base?”

  Demi cackled, while Kian just glared. “Okay, okay, you have a point. Coming here was a longshot at best. I don’t know, maybe we’ll have better luck with the men.”

  There was also the fact that our social skills weren’t exactly well-developed. Apart from all the madness after our escape, back at school I hadn’t talked to an actual stranger stranger in, well, ever. And though that shouldn’t have mattered, judging by that woman’s crappy reaction, apparently it did.

  “It’s our turn,” Demi said, tugging us back to the bar. Floating in the air above it were several semi-translucent pastel drinks, with a few yummy-chocolate-looking sweets too.

  “Uh…” Kian said to bartender.

  He only gestured to what was on display. “Take what you’d like. Unless you want a custom food or drink.”

  We exchanged a shrug, then Kian grabbed a floating drink.

  “Pink works for me.”

  “Me too,” Demi said.

  I eyed them temptingly, but held back. As much as a drink might’ve bolstered my nerves, I had to be 100% on track tonight. Although one of those cupcakes wouldn’t hurt.

  “Think I’ll stick with one of these,” I said, taking one.

  I must’ve been crazy starving too, since a strange tingling sensation went through the pads of my fingers at the contact.

  As soon as I popped it in my mouth, though, I knew I’d messed up. Sounds and images receded in the background, while, in a horribly amplified bumblebee-on-steroids voice, my PV returned: Missed meee?

  -Yeah, actually, I thought vaguely. This place is…

  My feet carried me away from my friends, to the ground circle for the next level. It was time to get this show on the runway… or whatever shows got on.

  Below me, as the next level shrunk below me, I waved to my friends, who were staring blobs.

  You know that cupcakes… PV was saying, giggling.

  -Cupcake, I corrected it, giggling myself.

  Although time had hopped ahead. Already, I was somehow on the next floor and getting onto a platform to the next.

  I was still cracking up when I got onto the next floor, which was filled with-

  “Don’t tell me.” A blond guy took my hand. “Shifter, right?”

  He knowsss… PV laughed.

  “The cupcakes?” I said weakly.

  “And you’re new too.” He made a sympathetic face that seemed hilariously like a wolf trying to look like a sheep.

  But then those eyes. Big and blue and…

  Stewie… Stewie… Stewie, Stewie, Stewie… PV was chanting.

  If my PV was on board, that meant this guy was okay? Or the opposite?

  Already though, he had conveyed me onto the dance floor, which was filled with-

  “Just my luck,” he was saying, as he conveyed me around, toward another circle on the floor.

  Just ours because… he’s… I frowned. My PV was useless right now.

  Although my brain wasn’t much better. Everything was hazy. I couldn’t remember why Stewie was important, or why it was important that I endured how his creepy giant blue eyes seemed to be violating me somehow.

  ‘Eyes that look like they could beam out of his head at any minute’… Where was that from…

  Already though, we were on the platform to the next level and the dancers below us were sweeping out of view.

  And my friends…? I couldn’t see them anymore.

  “Something tells me that we’re going to get to know each other very well,” he whispered in my ear.

  I shivered, but I let him continue to convey me along. No way was I going to leave – not until I figured out who he was, and found out something useful about the DSA or their base.

  Now we were stepping on a smaller platform, where there were less people. But more starers. They all were. But why? Who was this man?

  And what in the hell was in the cupcake that had made my brain like mush? Everything was passing in a blurry film reel. Even sounds seemed far-off, like they were happening to someone else. Only smells seemed intensified… Stewie’s metallic scent, several women’s cloying battling perfumes...

  In any case, we weren’t staying. We were going from platform to platform. And when we reached the top…

  Are you going to ask him, or shall I? PV asked, woozily delighted.

  At least someone was having fun. I was just creeped out.

  And tired of stalling. It was time to just out and ask him.

  “You’re high up in the DSA, aren’t you?” I said.

  Screw being all sneaky. This guy wasn’t suspicious of me, was he? Although he was creepy. Definitely creepy.

  “What gave it away?” he asked. He patted his suit pocket and it blinked, revealing guns and knives of all shapes and sizes.

  I swallowed. He laughed.

  Stewie turned to size me up for a minute, then said, “You’re just some small-time shifter one of our guys let in, arranged to meet here, aren’t you?”

  When I said nothing, his grin widened. “Too bad for him I stumbled on you first.”

  We were on our way up to the second-to-last platform. There were only a handful of people there.

  “So,” he said, arm snaking up to my shoulder and squeezing it. Ew! “I bet you’re brimming with questions. Go for it. Ask away.”

  I paused to eye him. Was this guy for real? Or was this a test that could get me killed?

  Whatever it was, this was still a chance – one I intended to make the most of.

  I swallowed again, trying to smile. “What do you really do?” I asked him.

  Stewie’s gaze went incredulous. “C’mon, now.”

  “Doesn’t everyone want to know?”

  “Of course. Only it’d cost me my head to tell you.”

  “I thought we were going to get to know each other really well,” I said, putting on my best alluring-Tala voice.

  The corner of his lips quirked into a smirk. “How about this – the day you make it into the base, I’ll tell you myself.”

  “But that’s-”

  “Classified, exactly.” He winked as his hand slid down. “Something tells me you’d know all about it, though.” As he squeezed my side, I pulled away.

  “Huh?”

  His smile had a feral curve to it now. “What? Not a fan of all those red lights? Or the canals?”

  The sound of footsteps and the next second a vicelike grip closed on my arm.

  “Come on,” Axel said.

  “She’s yours, then?” Stewie sneered.

  “Yes,” Axel said, ripping off his wig.

  My protest was ripped out of me as Axel grabbed me, leapt off the platform, plummeting us down a level.

  “We need to leave,” Axel said as soon as we landed.

  “Why?” I asked.

  It was the only thing I could give voice to. Although most of the weird cupcake fuzziness had worn off, I was still stunned after all that had happened – creepy Stewie’s comment, Axel’s arrival, him calling me ‘his,’ our stomach-jolting jump.

  “Because they are getting suspicious,” Apollo said in a low voice, frowning. I hadn’t even noticed we’d landed right in front of him and Artemis.

  “I had to,” Axel said to him.

  “Maybe,” Artemis said, “but you basically caused a scene.”

  Sure enough, while before my friends and I had been stealthily stared at, now, no one was bothering to even hide their staring.

  “I didn’t have a choice, that scum was going to…” Axel trailed off, eyeing the top level where Stewie’s blond head was visible, glaring at us. “Forget it, let’s go.”

  “Agreed,” Apollo said shortly, looking displeased.

  “He’s apparently dumb as a post, if that’s any consolation,” Artemis said cheerfully as we hurried along.

  It wasn’t. I still didn’t understand what had happened, although I knew better than to waste time trying to figure it all out now.

  W
e found Demi and Kian speedily enough, chatting with some younger-looking waiters on their way up one of the platforms. Judging by their nervous yet relieved, eager faces, they’d been on their way to find me, doing a bit of questioning on the way.

  “Where the hell did you go?” Kian demanded, hands jabbing onto her hips. “One second you were there and the next – poof! Nada.”

  “Not now,” Axel said shortly. “We have to go.”

  “Don’t be obvious,” I whispered to my friends. “But look up.”

  We all cast furtive gazes up, each of which found Stewie venturing down on a platform towards us.

  “Fine, whatever,” Kian said.

  Although she slid me a look that said, You good?

  I gave her a smile that said, Not terrible, then a head tilt asking, Find anything?

  She shook her head. “We’ve been here barely 10 minutes.”

  As he hustled us along, Axel delivered us an I’m-warning-you glare.

  Another floor down, Dion and Aphie were grooving in the center of the dancefloor. Both had a flock of admirers, although Dion lit up when he spotted Kian. Still, neither looked like they’d struck gold. Apollo waved them over.

  “Glad we weren’t the only ones working hard,” he said sarcastically once Dion was near.

  “Ever heard of mingle then harass?” Dion said lightly. Aphie didn’t come over at all.

  Dion’s gaze had already settled on Kian’s orange-red lips, which she must’ve reapplied in the bathroom, since the last time I’d seen her they hadn’t been that bright. “What color this time?”

  “Tiger orgasm,” she said, without missing a beat.

  His mouth fell into a shocked ‘o,’ while he made an indistinct “rmrm?” sound.

  Before Kian could respond, Apollo said, “We’re attracting attention. I’m leaving.” In one smooth movement, he did an about face and glided away.

  “Who shit on his sundae?” Kian asked.

  “He did,” Artemis said with a half-shrug. “My brother likes keeping a low profile and sticking to missions he has a good chance of succeeding in. This one was neither.”

  “He’s right, anyway,” Axel said. “We’re better off leaving now. That one won’t tolerate being disrespected for long.”

  Sure enough, one floor up, Stewie was talking to a familiar-looking sallow-skinned boy and girl.