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The leopard and Caleb rolled on the floor before the leopard shifted into his human form. He leapt to his feet, dragging Caleb up with him.
In his hand was a jet-black dagger, and that blade was currently pressed against Caleb’s throat.
“You should have never dropped the case, Caleb.”
“Davie?” Caleb said in complete shock.
“You know him?” I asked, feeling this situation begin to spiral. I had to figure out how to get us out of here, but since when was I the one with ideas?
Fuck.
“He was my client. The one who hired me to find the Moriarty paintings, and now I know why.”
Davie’s laugh filled the theatre like a toxic gas. It echoed off the glass ceiling, bouncing around in a sickening echo. “And look at you now, delivering the last painting without even asking for a fee. How kind of you.” He pressed the dagger up against Caleb’s throat. I could see beads of scarlet blood appear where blade met skin.
None of us realized Amelia had snuck onto the stage. Davie’s back was to her, his focus trained on me. He didn’t see when she pulled the painting out of the satchel nor when she replaced the fake with the real one.
It was when they were lined up that he noticed. A loud sound echoed through the space, like a gong being hit. Then, all three of the paintings started to glow, their frames merging together, the swirls of paint beginning to move to form solid shapes. David turned to look at them, dropping Caleb in surprise.
“This is it,” Davie said. “Our prayers have been answered.”
Caleb crawled away from Davie, jumping off the stage and running to my side. Amelia stumbled backward. She was fixated on the paintings, same as Davie.
It was time I had some of my own prayers answered.
I shot three perfectly formed shards of ice at the center of each painting.
The first one was a bullseye, the canvas breaking apart and the paint dripping off as if it were fresh.
Second was the same. Bullseye. Canvas destroyed, paint dripped.
Third was no different. The painting was destroyed.
All three of them were ruined, broken, blown off their easels.
And then the world shook. Literally. An earthquake rolled through, the impact of it knocking everyone down to their hands and knees. It rolled us back and forth for what must have been a minute, getting stronger and stronger with every passing second. Amelia cried, Caleb shouted, Davie prayed. I looked for an escape route. With every rock, we could hear glass beginning to crack. Spiderwebs formed all around us, ocean water beginning to drip in. Some places had more than just a drip. There were full jets of water beginning to shoot out of the glass walls.
And the earthquake wasn’t even over yet.
“We have to go!” I shouted. “To the Ruby Room!”
We tried to get up and run, but the earth wouldn’t allow us. The cracking noises were everywhere, water hitting my face and splashing onto the floor.
“We don’t have time,” Caleb said. He looked desperate, scared. I knew I had to do something.
“Get under my wings!”
Caleb and Amelia managed to give me enough space, falling against each other as the ground continued to shake, the intensity lessening but the cracks in the glass intensifying. I shut my eyes and called on my inner dragon, my body becoming encased in a plume of blue smoke.
I opened my eyes and stretched my wings. Amelia and Caleb ran underneath me, and I snapped my wings down on them just as the ocean reclaimed its space. The ceiling cracked first, huge chunks of glass raining down on us. A solid piece the size of a boulder landed on Davie’s head.
Lights-out.
And then came the water. I planted my claws into the stone and anchored myself as much as I could. Water cascaded down on us, a waterfall of glass and sand. The earth stopped shaking, but we were far from safe.
I protected Caleb and Amelia from the brunt of it, but we were still under the ocean, and I had to get us out. We were fully submerged now, which meant time was quickly running out. It was a good thing dragons were as good swimmers as they were fliers.
I snatched Caleb and Amelia up in my claws and swam up to the surface and through the hole that had been created in the ceiling. I held on to them tightly as I swam, my tail whipping through the current. Solid bricks of glass floated in the water, still shaken by the earthquake, sand swirling through the water and stinging my eyes.
Up and up and up I went. Up until I broke the surface.
Up until I reached the sky. Catalina Island rose up beneath us, its hillsides covered in white homes with their pink-tiled roofs looking like an island plucked from Greece and dropped off near Los Angeles. The Glass Auditorium was no longer, the entire place now resembling the ruins that had surrounded it for so long. Meanwhile, two of the heads of the Crimson Ring were defeated, and the paintings that would reveal a lock were now gone.
