ARKAYNA STOOD BEHIND the bush with Em and Piper, waiting and watching. They kept thinking it would only be a few minutes before Zarya opened the portal for them. But a few minutes passed, and a few more, and there was still no sign of her.
“What’s taking her so long?” Arkayna asked.
“Don’t worry,” Piper said. “Zarya always comes through. She’ll open the portal.”
“Sure, but how do we get past her?” Em asked, pointing at Lateensia.
They all stared at the tiny doorkeeper. There was no way she was going to let them simply walk right into the orphanage.
“We just need a little distraction.…” Arkayna said. She dialed a number on her bangle-phone, then watched as Lateensia’s phone rang. Arkayna pinched her nose and did her best Gawayne impersonation. “It’s, like, totally Gawayne.”
“Oh my goblinnnn,” Lateensia cooed. “You’ve called me, like, five times today already.”
“Ew, he did?!?” Arkayna asked, forgetting herself for a moment. Then she went right back to Gawayne’s voice: “I mean—ew, I did! But I totally had to call again.”
“Why?” Lateensia asked.
“Because I … I wanted to hear about your day?” Arkayna asked, not sure if that was the right answer.
“Gawaaaaayne!” Lateensia whined. “You never ask me that! That’s totes adorbs! So, like, first I saw a flower or whatever and that was supes amazing.…”
She went on and on, eventually talking about some crazy dream she’d had. Arkayna stood there, her eyes on the portal, waiting. She could barely listen to Lateensia’s babble.
“Oh man, I can smell my brain burning,” Em muttered. “Hurry up, Zarya. Please.”
But ten more minutes passed. What was Zarya doing in there? Had she gotten caught? All she had to do was go inside and—
Just when Arkayna thought she couldn’t stand hearing another word, the portal swirled open. Lateensia had spun around in her chair while she talked on the phone, so her back was to the tree.
“Go! Go! Go!” Arkayna said, urging Em and Piper out of the woods.
The girls ran as fast as they could toward the portal, diving through just before it closed. Before Arkayna could even stand up, Zarya hurled a pacifier at her head. “You,” she snapped. “Fix this.”
The girls all sat there, staring at her. She was still two feet tall, a little baby version of herself.
“The potion didn’t work?” Em asked.
“I wouldn’t know,” Zarya grumbled. “This floating freak broke it.”
The same baby who’d tried to escape earlier was now floating right in front of them. It was furry and pink, with four green eyes that stared back at them. It was sucking on a pacifier.
“Awwww, he’s adorable!” Piper cried. “I’m going to call you … Blinky!”
“Focus, people! And … weird eyeball thingy,” Arkayna said, poking the furry pink creature with her finger. “We need to find that file.”
“I’m guessing it’s up there.” Em pointed to the top of the tree. There was a small, circular window with a balcony just outside it up top. That had to be where Mrs. Sparklebottom was.
“Let’s go, girls,” Arkayna said as she leapt from branch to branch. “It’s magic hour.”
The rest of the Mysticons followed—or tried to. Zarya’s arms and legs were too tiny for her to get anywhere without Em helping her. It took them twice as long to get up to Mrs. Sparklebottom’s.
The girls stood in the window, staring at the back of Mrs. Sparklebottom’s head. She was watching television, but by the sound of it she’d fallen asleep. Her snores echoed through the room.
Piper crept in first, tiptoeing so she didn’t make a sound.
“Fan out and look for a safe,” Arkayna whispered.
Within just a few feet, Zarya tripped and fell. She was about to cry when Piper shoved a pacifier into her mouth. “Walking’s hard, huh, Baby Z?”
“It’s not me, it’s the floor,” Zarya snapped back quietly. “It’s uneven.”
“Look!” Piper said in hushed tones, pointing to designs that went around the room. “Pretty symbols.”
“Those are the star signs of Gemina,” Em said under her breath, leaning down to examine them.
Arkayna crept out from her hiding place behind a desk and stared at the symbols. They were arranged in a circle across the floor—and there was a keyhole underneath each one. “The safe is part of the floor,” she breathed.
“Thirteen signs, thirteen keys,” Zarya whispered. “We just need to figure out the right key to use under the right symbol.” She pointed to a gold key ring sitting next to Mrs. Sparklebottom. By now the old woman had woken up and was singing along to some jingles on the TV. She was so transfixed by the screen, she still hadn’t noticed they were there.
Zarya walked over to the keys as quietly as she could, but before she could grab them, they were picked up by a telekinetic beam. The Mysticons turned to see the furry pink baby floating in the window. It had followed them there!
It lifted the keys up, over Mrs. Sparklebottom’s head, and then dropped them. Arkayna leapt lightly forward and caught them before they came clattering down. She and Zarya hovered behind the couch, terrified. They didn’t move until they were certain Mrs. Sparklebottom hadn’t heard them.
Arkayna crawled across the floor, studying the symbols. “I was born on the tenth day of the month of the Dragon,” she murmured, finding the symbol that matched her birth month. “At the stroke of midnight.”
She flipped through the gold keys on the key ring, searching for the one that matched the dragon symbol. She tried it in the keyhole underneath the symbol, and it worked. Suddenly a short column of jewels rose out of part of the floor. They were arranged by different birth times.
“Ten o’clock,” Arkayna mumbled, moving down a row of gems, “eleven … midnight!”
Zarya pointed to a green gem on the column. “There! That’s your twin’s birth gem.”
Arkayna grabbed at it, but it fell and clinked across the floor. Thankfully Mrs. Sparklebottom had chosen that exact moment to stir her tea, and her spoon made the same clinking sound. The girls let out a deep breath and took off, turning the key to set the column back in the floor.
They leapt off the balcony and flew from branch to branch, not stopping until they were back in the nursery. Arkayna hit the button beside the door.
“Quick, everyone out!” she called.
“I’m way ahead of you,” Zarya said, racing toward the swirling light. But as soon as she crossed the threshold an alarm blared: BABY BREACH! BABY BREACH! The girls looked down at Zarya’s leg. She had a black bracelet around her ankle, and now it was flashing red.
“It’s a security bracelet!” Zarya yelled. “Run!”