Chapter Thirty-Five

The Flock

Noise filled the gallery as Iris and Lark crept back through it. Chaos. From the shop came the sound of Mr. Green yelling and things breaking. Through the gap in the curtains Iris could see Hannah and Morgan standing on a counter grabbing plates off the wall and throwing them. Preeti had grabbed a fireplace poker and was smashing vases with it while Mr. Green tried to grab her. Amma was wielding what seemed to be a small sword and was swinging it wildly.

“They said they’d create a diversion,” Lark whispered.

That they had.

They were all there—Emily, Novalie, Gabrielle, too—and Mr. Green was in a corner holding a table clock menacingly, dodging the plates being hurled at his head.

“I don’t understand,” Iris whispered.

“Iris. They came to save you.”

The words flew around Iris, unable to find a place to land.

They came to save her.

The Awesome girls.

Iris should do something, she knew she should do something. Grab a poker and start breaking things. Come up with a clever plan to lead Lark and the rest of the girls to safety. Stomp over to Mr. Green and dump magic on his head. But she could not seem to move, could barely seem to think.

He was an evil ogre, swinging his club around wildly to protect his mountain of treasure.

And Iris had caused every single one of these girls to come to his lair.

“Iris,” Lark hissed. “Stop it.”

“What?”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s entirely my fault.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s his fault. He’s the monster, do you understand? And who are we?”

They were Iris and Lark. “A team.”

“Right. And what else?”

Iris swallowed. “We’re the girls who defeat the monsters.”

“That’s right. Come on.” Lark started to pull her forward.

And now, a scream from the room.

“Hannah!” yelled another girl. And then the sound of heavy feet pounding toward them.

Mr. Green came running back, holding a writhing Hannah in his arms. Hannah, who had seen Iris keeping track of all the girls in her journal. Hannah, who had forgiven her for it. He was leading all of the girls into his lair.

“No!” Iris shouted, but it was too late. All the girls came running back through the curtain. Preeti had her poker, Amma the sword; Gabrielle was holding a giant lamp high above her head. Preeti poised herself in front of a girl-sized vase, Amma by the dinosaur skeleton. Morgan and Emily grabbed a painting off the wall and held it high.

“Put her down or we’ll break more stuff,” yelled Amma.

“You will not touch anything,” he said, his voice controlled again. “If you do, I will hurt your friend. Now, all of you, put down my things. Carefully. Any more damage to my property will be inflicted back upon you.”

Silence, terrible silence. Iris could not move, would never move again. No one else moved either, but then Mr. Green squeezed Hannah hard and she yelped. Amma put down her sword. Everyone else followed suit.

Iris did not notice the motion next to her until it was too late, but Lark had grabbed a statue and was creeping toward him. Lark, the girl who lived in her head so much she could never seem to keep track of her own body. She wanted to yell at Lark to stop, but she couldn’t speak.

He swore, then threw Hannah across the room and kicked Lark in the stomach.

She stumbled backward. Iris dove to her.

“We can do this in a way where each of you suffers, or a way in which you never have to suffer again,” he growled. “That is entirely up to you. Now I am going to lock the front door, and then I have plans for—”

A huge crashing sound—then a blink later the room was filled with shrieking crows, dozens and dozens of them, a great and glorious murder of crows swarming the front hall. The girls all yelled and ducked, but the crows were not there for them. One dove at Mr. Green and pecked at his head and flew away, then another. He yelled and picked up Amma’s sword and began swinging it wildly at the birds.

This was it. Their chance to get away. But Lark was holding her stomach and whimpering and Hannah was clutching at her leg. Mr. Green let out a yell loud enough to break the sky and was swooping up Iris in his arms.

“Get out! Get out, you filthy beasts,” he yelled at the crows, using Iris as a shield.

He was so strong and he was squeezing her so hard and it hurt and she could barely breathe. She struggled to throw her hands over her face to protect it from the birds but Mr. Green had her too tightly.

But the crows just circled the room, and did not attack.

“Iris!” screamed Lark. She was sprawled on the floor holding her stomach, and her cry sounded like she was choking.

“You monsters. You scavengers. You vermin.”

The crows slowly alighted around the vast hall, settling on sculptures and displays and the organ and the dinosaur skeleton. They fluttered their wings and squawked back and forth at one another.

Iris writhed but she could not get free. He just squeezed her harder.

“Just let them all go,” Iris said. “Please. You can have me.”

“Iris!” Lark shouted.

“And why would I want you?”

“I’ll be Alice’s sister. A real sister, not a doll. I’ll do whatever you want. Just let them go.”

She felt something shift in his body.

“I promise,” she continued. Keep talking, Iris. “Once they’re all safe! I’ll even help you find Alice!”

She was lying about that last part. She would never do that. And if he did capture Alice, she would be her sister all right. And they would band together and destroy him. Because that is what sisters do.

“Fine,” he said, voice icy. “The rest of you can go.”

With Iris in his arms he stalked over to a cabinet and grabbed a jar of magic, and then he threw her down on a hard wooden chair next to the gallery. “Do not move or I’ll kill them all,” he growled at her. And then he duct-taped one arm to the chair. Then the other. Then he bound her ankles. And then her mouth.

“Stop it!” Lark shouted.

Let them go, Iris thought as hard as she could, while the tape itched at her face and her wrists. Let them go. All of them. Please.

“Don’t try anything,” he snarled at Iris. She could not try anything; she could not move. He looked up at the crows, which murmured and fluttered their wings. “You too,” he said to them, looking meaningfully at Iris.

“Now,” he proclaimed. “You can all go. Out the back door.” He motioned to the Employees Only door. “So no one sees you. Lark first. Then the rest of you.”

The magic well.

He was not going to let any of them go. He wanted to punish Iris by letting her watch her sister fall into the well, where the magic would consume her.

“Get up!” he yelled at Lark. “Now or never. The fate of all these girls is up to you, Lark.”

Slowly, Lark picked herself up off the floor, staring at Iris. The other girls gathered together behind her, watching carefully.

Iris could not breathe, she could not call out. She could barely move in her chair. They did not have ESP and they needed to have ESP now so Iris could tell Lark what was behind that door.

A flutter of movement next to her. A crow perched on the back of her chair. Then another on one of the arms. It cocked its head at Mr. Green, who had his attention on Lark, and pulled at the duct tape with its beak.

But it would not be fast enough. Lark’s eyes locked with Iris’s. Iris knew she understood that this was a trap somehow—but there was no way she could understand that opening the door could so easily lead to her death.

But they were a team. Iris and Lark, forever, no matter what.

And then she knew what to do.

She met Lark’s eyes and then glanced down at her fingers and tapped on the arm chair:

G-R-E-T-E-L.

“Go ahead,” said Mr. Green. “Open the door. Be on your way.”

“I think you broke my wrists,” Lark said, voice sounding pained. “When I landed after you kicked me. I can’t open the door.” She clutched her arms to her chest.

Mr. Green cocked an eyebrow at her.

“I can’t,” Lark said, voice breaking. “I can’t use my hands! You do it.”

“Do I have to do everything around here?” he yelled. Pushing her forward, he stormed over to the door.

It wasn’t going to work, Iris realized. He could still push her in.

Then several things happened at once. Mr. Green pushed the door open. As he did, Lark jumped backward. A crow let out a cry and dove toward him. He whirled around, and out of nowhere Duchess came barreling forward, right toward his ankles.

He bobbled.

Lark thrust out her hands and pushed.

And he slipped backward.

And he fell.

Into the hungry, waiting magic.

Lark slammed the door behind him. She stared at all the girls, jaw set, cheeks aflame, eyes on fire. They gazed back at her. The crows smacked their beaks.

Iris could not catch her breath. Everything rushed at her at once from all directions.

“Iris!” Lark yelled. A few moments later Amma had scissors and was cutting Iris free from her chair. Everything was still rushing and tumbling: even as Iris was being freed, inside she was raveling and unraveling. She burst up and kicked over the chair, but it was not enough.

So she snarled, and then grabbed the sword from the floor and started smashing everything around her, all of it: she wanted to destroy every single last thing Mr. Green had ever cared about or touched. She would turn his world into smithereens, and then the smithereens into smithereens.

She smashed, and smashed, and smashed, and then Lark’s hand rested on her shoulder, and Lark tapped three times. Iris and Lark. And Iris stopped.

They had defeated the monster.