My foot nearly grazed a laser, and my breath caught in my throat. I froze and then continued, flipping and twisting and stepping and bending, until I reached the other side.
“You did it!” Gabriela whispered from the stairs. “That was fantastic!”
“Not quite done yet.” I pulled out the suction cups, ready to climb above the pressure-sensitive floor and crack the lock.
The earpiece crackled.“My parents are home!”Ryan’s whisper was harsh, the sudden burst of panic clear. I felt it jolt through me.“They came back!”
I pressed a hand to my ear to try to stop the crackle. “Stay calm. We planned for this. It shouldn’t matter.” My heart started thumping faster anyway, but I reminded myself we’d left no trace of our entrance. So long as his parents didn’t randomly decide to visit the vault—which they shouldn’t, because they never did—we should be fine. “You know what to do.”
If they went into Ryan’s room, he had his art program ready on his laptop—they wouldn’t see or suspect a thing. I was glad we’d wiped up the drops of water in the kitchen.
Jumping up, I affixed suction cups to the ceiling.
“My father’s coming into the house,”Ryan reported, his voice tense.“Mom’s in the car. He must have forgotten something.”
“Relax,” I told him. “There’s no reason for him to come to the basement. We’ve planned this perfectly.” I hoped that wasn’t just bravado. If we were caught…I didn’t want to think about that, or how my brothers would react knowing how quickly I’d broken my promise.
We’re not going to fail,I told myself.
Each suction cup had a loop of climbing rope attached—I slid my feet through them, one at a time, to hang upside down by my knees. Climbing across the ceiling with the suction cups, I dangled over the steel plate that protected thelock.
Now we’d see how well I’d practiced. Taking a few deep breaths, I tried to concentrate on creating flames. It was harder than I’d imagined, knowing how limited the time was, knowing Ryan’s father was in the house….
Opening my mouth, I breathed…air.Focus, Sky, you can do this!I’d done it in the warehouse. I’d even done it in my own foyer, dangling from the chandelier, in a situation that was almost as high-pressure as this.You can’t fail now.
“He’s coming upstairs,”Ryan whispered.“Going silent.”
I heard the fear in his voice. Not for me. But fear of his father. No one should have to be afraid of their own parents. It wasn’t right. But that was a worry for another day. I can only fix one family at a time.
Opening my mouth, I let a stream of fire out. It was small, but it was enough. The flames heated the steel, and the plate slid open to reveal the combination lock.
“Yay, Sky!” Gabriela whispered.
Exactly as I’d practiced, I began to turn the wheel.Focus,I told myself. It didn’t matter that Ryan’s father was in the house. This was no different than any of the practices. All I had to do was focus on my fingertips.
My brain felt fragmented. I thought of my brothers, my father, Mom. I remembered the times I’d talked with Ryan’s dad. He was an intimidating man, not just because of his size. You always had the sense that he was angry and that any minute, that anger was going to burst out of his skin. He and Ryan weren’t close. Ryan called him “sir” to his face, not “Dad,” and they never did any of the clichéd father-son activities. No baseball in the backyard. No barbecues. Mr.Keene was old-fashioned. Always wore a suit. Always insisted on respect and obedience. He ruled his family.
Ryan’s mom rarely spoke. She wasn’t meek, precisely. Just distant. She always seemed pleased to see me, offered me milk and cookies when I was little, but then she’d drift away back to her private library. She was a mathematician who worked on esoteric problems and published them in academic journals, but she rarely left the house. Tonight was the exception: they always celebrated their anniversary at some fancy restaurant. A year ago, I’d snuck out with Ryan to our secret alcove while they were at dinner. We’d kissed. Though we hadn’t officially started dating then, that was the date I marked on my calendar—the date that my brothers had seen crossed out. This was a very different way to spend the night.
“Music time,” I said to myself. Inserting an earbud into the ear without the earpiece, I hit play. Focusing on the beat, I was able to drive the memories back.
Turning the dial slowly, I felt a tiny hitch—first number.
Second, third…
Closing my eyes, I ignored the blood that rushed into my head. I felt dizzy from hanging upside down. My calves ached. But none of that mattered.Almost there…Last number.
I told Maximus and Gabriela, “Almost got it.”
The lock clicked. I dropped down on bent knees to soften the landing, and no alarms blared. Gabriela tossed another handful of flour. It fell in an empty hall—cracking the lock had turned off both the lasers and the plates, as Ryan had said it would. Gabriela and Maximus hurried to join me.
Together we swung open the vault door.
And inside the vault, the fire beast roared.
THE FIRE BEAST BURNEDso bright that I felt as if I were staring into the sun. On the security video, it had looked like a blur of light that whipped and writhed, but in person, I saw its shape. Its body was like a bear made of molten lava, its head was a wolf made of flame, and its many arms of white-hot lightning were like the tentacles of an octopus.
All in all, it was very impressive and very terrifying.
