Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
The gala erupted into pandemonium. People were screaming, scattering in all directions, as if someone had lit the fuse of a firework in the middle of the museum.
Dr. Rodriguez gaped down at the unforeseen deposit of students at her feet, as bewildered as anyone else.
The two bodyguards for her and her father rushed to the stage, one leaping up to shield Mr. Gianakos while the other grabbed Dr. Rodriguez by the elbow and practically airlifted her off the dais.
“What the hell?” Kass said. “What just happened?”
They’d fucked up, that’s what. As Wyatt, Oliver, and Katya disentangled themselves, Dani saw that Wyatt was still holding Dr. Rodriguez’s laptop.
In all the confusion, she doubted Dr. Rodriguez had even realized it was there, or that it was the thing that had caused this in the first place.
She was already gone, spirited away from the fracas with Mr. Gianakos close behind.
A number of the gala’s own security guards were fighting upstream to reach the dais, presumably to seize the three interdimensional interlopers who had fallen out of nowhere and launched a perfectly respectable event into total chaos.
“Hecate’s bones,” Dani breathed. She didn’t know what to do—to run, stay put, or try to help her friends.
Miss Amari! Silva cried, her voice deafening in Dani’s skull. We need you—NOW!
Say no more, McKenna thought.
What the fuck do we do? Wyatt asked. The three of them were on their feet now, backed against one another and looking around desperately for an escape.
“Dani,” Kass said, making her jump; she’d almost forgotten he was there. “I’m thinking we should bounce.”
“I,” she began. “I can’t—” He traced her gaze to her friends and understanding dawned on his face.
“Got it,” he said. “But maybe it would still be a good idea to leave?”
He wasn’t wrong. There was no chance that Wyatt, Oliver, or Katya wouldn’t be implicated in what was going on here, especially if they were caught while they still had Dr. Rodriguez’s laptop.
The event’s photographers were snapping pictures like their lives depended on it, and the guards would be on top of them in minutes.
If Dani wanted to save her own hide, running away now would definitely be the wiser choice.
But she couldn’t abandon her friends like that. Especially not after what she’d learned about Silva. She glanced up at the woman, wondering what her next move would be. The apparently-not-a-professor was scanning the room, her jaw clenched.
“Professor,” Dani said, even though it didn’t feel right to call her that anymore. “Beatrice.” Silva looked down at her, eyes flashing at the use of her first name. “What should we do?”
It’s done, it’s done, it’s wilderness, McKenna sang gleefully through the shell. You best be quick about yourselves, because the horde is coming …
“The horde?” Dani repeated aloud. She turned to ask Silva exactly what McKenna was about to do, but the start of her question was drowned out by a sound so unexpected, so anathema to this setting of high society and evening gowns, that she was certain she had hallucinated it.
But the crowd panicking around them froze, listening, like someone had pressed pause on the collective freak-out.
The noise rang out again, unmistakable this time: the howl of a wolf.
Kenz. What did you do?
But if McKenna heard her, she didn’t reply.
In any case, it didn’t matter; Dani’s answer was coming fast. From somewhere on the other side of the museum—exactly where, she couldn’t pinpoint—some unknown dam had broken, and animals spilled into the exhibition hall.
It was a veritable battalion of woodland creatures: dozens of them, maybe a hundred, on claws and hooves and paws and wings.
For a second nobody moved, like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing, until a herd of deer went stampeding toward the buffet of hors d’oeuvres, knocking over a sign for one of the exhibits on their way to the feast. Someone let out a bloodcurdling screech, and just like that, the abrupt arrival of three Fox’s Leap students from seemingly nowhere was utterly forgotten.
Somehow the gala came even further apart at the seams.
“Holy shit.” Kass grabbed Dani’s hand and guided her back through the tables, heading for the safety of the sidelines while it seemed like everyone else fled for the front doors, creating an instant traffic jam.
After a moment, Silva joined the two of them by the wall, her head whipping back and forth as she tried to evaluate the absolutely unhinged situation.
The deer were grazing from the buffet now; raccoons invaded the trash cans while squirrels chittered at them angrily from atop display cases.
Birds of all colors and songs pecked at the crumbs of appetizers and swooped down to harass the guests, dive-bombing the hats and jewelry of those who were making a run for it.
A cyclone of crows swirled into the center of the room, focusing its eye on a point just next to the dais—directly over Katya, Oliver, and Wyatt, obscuring them from view.
Squinting, Dani thought she caught a flash of turquoise in the black-winged tempest.
The hall looked and sounded like the precursor to a world-ending animal takeover, or perhaps a fairy forest uprising—chilling, but also kind of cute. And it was all McKenna’s doing.
Dani realized she was smiling as she watched everything dissolve before her eyes. The night had gone to total shit, and there was something cathartic about the parallel descent of the gala into animal anarchy. For a brief moment, it almost felt good.
Where is everyone? Silva asked through the shell. Sound off!
Making a run for it, Wyatt said.
We’ve got an avian escort, Oliver added. The crow-cloud was moving toward the back right corner of the hall, the birds forming a bubble around the trio to protect their bid for freedom.
Heading for the side door, Katya said. Out to the garden.
We’ll meet you there. Silva spoke to Dani without looking at her. “Miss Lionet, come.”
Dani turned to Kass, taking his hand in hers, gathering the strength to tell him she had to go with Silva.
Even with all the plot twists and thrown wrenches, the group had made it this far, and she still had twenty-five thousand dollars to collect.
If she bailed now, she didn’t think Silva would be volunteering to mail her a check.
But Kass beat her to it. “I’m coming with you,” he said.
“You can’t,” she said. “If they find us and you’re with us, your dad—”
“I don’t care about my dad,” Kass said. “I care about you. I want to come.”
Dani glanced at Silva, who misinterpreted the look as a request for permission. The woman nodded. “You might as well bring him,” she said. “He’s in it now, and we should keep an eye on him.”
There was something in her tone that Dani didn’t like but couldn’t name, a dark thread that gave her pause.
She didn’t have time to work it out, though.
She didn’t know how many of these animals were real—or, if they were illusions, how long they would last. They needed to move while McKenna’s diversion was still in full swing.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They followed Silva as she led them in the same direction as the crows, opposite the rest of the attendees, who were still clogged in a slow-moving bottleneck at the front doors.
They made a diagonal cut across the exhibition hall, dodging scampering rodents and ducking when a hawk made a low pass over their heads.
They circled around the dais, where a self-satisfied fox was cleaning its paws, crossed the second half of the room, and escaped into an empty side hall, at the end of which an exit sign hung above a door standing ajar to the night.
Dani gave a whole-body shiver as they stepped out into the cold air and relative silence of the sculpture garden.
They were alone, or so it seemed. The black silhouette of the forest rose up on the horizon, outlined by the dull orange gleam of the city.
Rain was falling steadily, and somewhere in the distance, sirens sang.
Where are you? Silva asked.
Gazebo, Katya answered.
A few statues down and to the left, Oliver added, their breathlessness coming through the telepathic link.
Gingerbread was waiting for them, perched on a sculpture of Janus that stood at a crossroads in their path, the god’s mirrored faces phantasmal in the darkness. The crow cawed, ruffled his feathers, and swooped down to land on Dani’s shoulder.
“Where is she?” Dani asked Gingerbread as she and Kass followed Silva farther down the path. He quorked and twisted his head to look at her, but she couldn’t read the answer in his beady eyes.
They took a left at an abstract statue and the gazebo Katya had mentioned loomed up ahead, its roof sheltering three silhouettes.
The wrought iron fence around the garden stood between the gazebo and a meadow on the other side, the edge of the forest visible beyond.
Kass whispered a soft word, and an orb of light appeared overhead, floating above him as he, Dani, and Silva stepped into the gazebo and out of the rain.
The golden glow of the enchantment spread across the pavilion, illuminating Oliver, Wyatt, and Katya before them.
They were dressed in nondescript black clothing, which did make them look an awful lot like burglars in this context.
Both Oliver and Wyatt were still half glamoured, but the rain had washed much of it away, leaving a jumble of the familiar and the fabricated.
McKenna was nowhere to be seen, but Dani didn’t have a chance to ping her on the shell before Wyatt stepped forward and jabbed a finger at Kass.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” Wyatt asked, dislike curdling the expression on his face. “Did you guys get back together or something?”