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.
“Maya!” Frankie gasped. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
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 about 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.