The smell of garlic, cinnamon, and fresh dough greeted Tamora as she pushed open the door to Cornerside Pizza, jingling a set of brass bells overhead. To one side were a half-dozen booths and small tables, mostly unoccupied. A small group of teenagers sitting in the far corner, talking and joking over drinks and a brownie the size of a small pizza. Cornerside’s business was mainly pick-up and delivery.
Enormous goldfish drifted in green water in a tank by the counter, left over from two years ago when this had been a Chinese restaurant. The clock above the tank read nine fifty-six. Tamora was early.
“Welcome to Cornerside Pizza,” said a girl behind the counter. Sarah, according to her name tag. She sounded like she was reading from a script. “Would you like to try one of our new breakfast pizzas, or an order of cinnamon breadsticks?”
“Um, sure. The breadsticks.” She tugged out her wallet. “And a drink, please?”
The drinks were self-serve. Tamora took her cup and filled it with juice, adding a bit of Sprite for extra kick.
The bells over the door rang. Tamora stuck a lid onto her cup and turned to see Karina Lord standing in the open doorway, staring around as if she wasn’t sure where she was or how she’d gotten here.
Karina was Kevin Lord’s twin sister. Tamora had seen her on the news, standing behind her father in some of the stories about the missing kids. She was a tall, slender white girl with wispy blonde hair and braces with yellow and black rubber bands that made it look like she was eating bees. She’d been an 8th grade cheerleader last year, and looked the part, in a sleeveless silver-and-brown Grand River Rams shirt and matching mid-thigh shorts.
Tamora grabbed a straw, steeled herself, and walked toward the door. “I got your texts.”
Karina looked down at her. “Who are you?”
“Tamora Carter.” Karina’s expression didn’t change. “You said to meet you here at ten, then you sent me a poem.”
“No I didn’t.”
Tamora’s face burned. Had she been wrong about Karina sending those texts? She grabbed her phone and pulled up the messages. “These didn’t come from you?”
“I sent that first message to my brother. How did you get it?”
“Your brother Kevin?”
“That’s right.” Karina stepped past Tamora and approached the counter, where she ordered a slice of cheese pizza for herself, and a pepperoni-and-green-pepper for her brother, adding, “I’m sure he’ll make it this time.”
Sarah looked sad, but punched in the order. Karina asked for two cups, filling one with water and the other with Coke before taking a seat in the booth closest to the door.
Sarah caught Tamora’s eye. “Your bread’s ready.”
Tamora had almost forgotten about her order. She took the basket of butter- and cinnamon-drenched breadsticks and a packet of cream cheese frosting. “Does Karina come here a lot?”
“Three or four times a week.” Sarah kept her words low as she scooped two large slices of pizza onto plates. “Always orders the same thing for her and her brother. It’s creepy.”
The words raised Tamora’s hackles. “It’s not creepy. She lost her brother.”
“She acts like she doesn’t know he’s gone. Like she really expects him to come walking through that door.”
They both turned to look, as if Sarah’s words might magically summon Kevin Lord to Cornerside Pizza.
When nothing happened, Sarah sighed. “I think she might be on drugs.”
Tamora grabbed the tray with Karina’s food and added her own basket. “I’ll take this over.”
She brought the tray to Karina’s table and slid into the booth on the opposite side.
“I’m waiting for someone.” Karina seemed to look through Tamora, staring at something beyond the brick walls of the restaurant. “You’re Mackinac Carter’s little sister. The derby girl, right?”
“Tamora. Are you friends with Mac?”
“Not yet,” she said absently, blotting the grease from the cheese slice with her napkin.
“What does ‘the roots of the palace’ mean?” asked Tamora.
“Deep in the clay.” Karina cocked her head like a bird. “How do you know about that?”
“You texted me your poem?” When Karina didn’t answer, Tamora added, “I’ve heard those words before.”
“They’ve forgotten us.” Karina set the napkin aside and stirred her drink with her straw, as if hypnotized by the rattling of the ice. “I try to remind him.”
“You mean Kevin?” Again, Karina didn’t answer. Tamora clenched her fists under the table, trying to contain her frustration. “Where did you hear about the palace?”
“From you.”
Maybe Sarah was right about the drugs. “We’ve never met before.”
“Yes, I know.”
Tamora ate half a breadstick, letting the hot cinnamon and melted frosting calm her irritation. “Have you seen anyone or anything strange since Kevin disappeared?”
“Every night. Kevin left me his dreams.”
The way she said it made the hair on Tamora’s neck stand up. “Can you two hear each other’s thoughts? Is that a twin thing?”
For the first time, Karina truly looked at her. Her eyebrows arched. “Don’t tell me you believe all that mystical twin crap.”
“You said he left you his dreams!”
“That’s different.” She sniffed and looked down at her phone. “Why would I send you a poem?”
This whole conversation was like trying to roller skate across an icy lake in the middle of a blizzard. “I’ve been looking for my friend Andre. I think he’s with Kevin and Lizzy.”
“I don’t even know what the stupid poem means.” Karina slapped her hands against the table. “Roots of the palace? Words unspoken? It’s nonsense.”
“It’s not,” said Tamora. “Gulk told me he came through the roots of the palace.”
Karina’s attention sharpened. “What kind of name is Gulk? It sounds like the noise you make before you puke.”
Tamora hesitated. So far, Karina had gone back and forth between looking down on her and looking through her. Tamora also wasn’t convinced Karina could help her find Andre. But if there was even a chance…
“He’s a goblin.” Another thought occurred to her. “Gulk says goblins can smell magic. Maybe there really is some kind of magical connection between you and Kevin. That could be where the dreams and the poem came from. You should meet him.”
Karina shook her head and didn’t answer.
“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. Gulk says three human heroes went to his world to hunt down the goblins and the other monsters. The goblins came here to escape.”
“From the prophecy,” Karina murmured.
“That’s right!”
Karina jumped. “What’s right?”
“Are you kidding? You just said—” Tamora stuffed the rest of the breadstick into her mouth to stop herself from going off. She washed it down with a long drink, then took a long look at Karina Lord.
Karina poked her pizza like it was a nasty science experiment, sinking perfectly manicured silver nails into the cheese. Her makeup mostly hid the dark shadows under her eyes. Beneath her lipstick, her lips were rough and chapped, like she’d been chewing them.
In a softer voice, Tamora asked, “Are you okay?”
“Hm?” Karina blinked hard. “I’m fine.”
“I don’t believe you. Kevin was your brother.” When she didn’t answer, Tamora pressed on. “Andre was my best friend. I’ve been a mess since he disappeared. I’m mad all the time. I get nightmares.”
Karina looked away again. “At least you only get them when you’re sleeping, right?” Something inside of her seemed to crumble. Her head slumped into her hands, and she ran her fingers through her hair. “Half the time I don’t even know what I’m saying. I try to keep it under control. My father wants Dr. Shah to screen me for Tourette Syndrome.”
“Isn’t that the one that makes you swear all the time?”
“It can, but mostly it’s twitches and tics, or you blurt out random sounds and words. Dr. Shah—she’s my therapist—thinks I’m having trouble coping with the trauma. They’re trying me on medication to get this under control before school starts. Can you imagine what people would say?”
Tamora wasn’t sure how to respond to all of that. “Did you tell Dr. Shah about things like Kevin’s dreams, or the prophecy?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t always remember what I’ve said.” She slumped back in her seat. “Maybe my father’s right. Maybe I am going crazy.”
“You’re not crazy.”
Karina smiled wryly, flashing her braces. “Says the girl who talks to goblins.”
“That’s right. And the day after I start talking to goblins, you ‘accidentally’ text me. That’s not a coincidence, and it’s not crazy.”
“I don’t even know your number.”
Tamora leaned forward. “You knew about the roots of the palace. You knew about the prophecy. Maybe you don’t know what you know.”
“What?”
“You texted me by accident,” Tamora pressed. “You mentioned the prophecy when you weren’t thinking about it. Try to just talk. Don’t worry about what you’re saying. Don’t even think about it.”
Karina took a sip of water. “Talk, and the truth will magically spill out of me?”
“Do you have a better idea? What’s ten plus ten?”
She rolled her eyes. “Twenty.”
“Your favorite color?”
“Purple.”
“Your favorite kind of pizza.”
“Sausage and pepperoni, but I can’t eat that. Too fattening.”
“Who did you have for English last year?”
“Mr. Jerrold.”
“What’s Kevin doing right now?”
“Hunting trolls. Holy crap!”
“Is Andre with him?”
“I…I’m not sure.” She bit her lip, and her forehead wrinkled.
“Don’t try to think,” Tamora pleaded, but Karina was shaking her head. Whatever glimpse she might have had was gone now. Tamora tried not to let her disappointment show. “What did you see?”
“A cave.” Karina stared at her. “It was hot and humid. The air stunk terribly, like old roadkill. I saw fires. Torches, maybe? I think Kevin was wearing armor.”
If Kevin was there, Andre and Lizzy might be, too. Tamora tried to imagine Andre wearing armor and hunting monsters. “Who else was with them?”
She shook her head. “It’s slipping away. Do it again. Ask me more questions before your brother interrupts us.”
“My brother? Mac’s at home. He doesn’t know I’m here.”
Karina’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows inched together in confusion. “I have no idea why I said that. Mac doesn’t even talk, right? Because of his autism? We were in fourth grade together, and the teacher talked to the class about it.”
“He’s nonverbal, but he talks through his iPad. Where’s the key to the portal?” She rushed through the words, hoping to catch Karina off guard and sneak another answer from her.
“I don’t know what that means.” Karina took another bite of pizza and looked longingly at the untouched slice of pepperoni. “Are you hungry? We shouldn’t waste it.”
Tamora had barely touched her cinnamon bread. “No thanks.” She thought of Gulk and added, “But I know someone who’ll eat it.”
Karina shoved the plate across the table. “My grandmother went crazy,” she said. “My parents put her in a home. At the end, she didn’t know who anybody was. She thought I was her sister. She kept calling me Margaret.”
Tamora didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
“You’re telling me this stuff I’m seeing and hearing is real, but I feel like I’m going crazy.”
“You’re not.”
“That doesn’t help,” Karina snapped. “I see things that aren’t there. I walk around, and half the time I don’t know how I got wherever I am. The nanny has to keep chasing me back into the house like I’m a four-year-old who’ll wander into traffic. I’m used to people assuming I’m an airhead. This is different. It’s inside my head, and I hate it.”
“Maybe if we find Kevin, it will stop.”
“You think a twelve-year-old kid and a crazy cheerleader are going to save three kidnapped children from elves?”
Tamora pounced on the question. “I never told you about the elves. You do have a connection to what’s going on.”
Tamora’s phone chirped with a text message from her brother.
Mac: Come home quick! Appa found a goblin in our backyard!
Tamora’s stomach lurched like she was skating out of control, too far gone to save herself from a nasty fall. What was Gulk doing out of the dog house where anyone could see him? Or had Mac gone poking around? What would he do to the goblin? Had he told Dad? What would the goblin do to Mac?
“Your brother?” asked Karina.
“You knew.” Tamora shivered. “You said he was going to interrupt us.”
“Welcome to my life,” said Karina. “It only gets stranger from here.”
Tamora suspected she was right.