Odette threw open her closet doors. My mouth dropped. Inside were six vigilante costumes.
“Whoa,” Delmare said as she withdrew a black cloak from the closet, with a red hood and scarlet mask. “These are really cool.”
Stefan fit a black dragon’s mask on his face, and slid a dark cloak that looked like scales over his shoulders. Alexei had a golden griffin’s mask, which matched Kiara’s glittering yellow cloak. Odette yanked two costumes out of her closet, which were various shades of purple. She handed Theo an alicorn mask before she fit a similar one over her eyes.
“What are these for?” I asked Odette, eyes traveling between all the different masks.
Odette put her hands on her hips. “Well, if we’re all going to be doing vigilante work, shouldn’t we all have disguises?”
It would help to avoid the police. “I guess you’re right.”
“Yay!” Odette cheered. “Team Phantom is a go!”
“Team Phantom?” I raised my eyebrow.
“If we’re going to have a superhero crew, we need a superhero group name,” Stefan said. ”I think Team Phantom sounds just right.”
Kiara shuffled through her purse before she handed me a vial of red liquid that I’d asked her to make a few days prior. I chugged it before tossing the empty glass.
“What’s that?” Emma asked curiously.
“It’s a rejuvenation potion,” I said. “I’ll be at my former strength for a few hours.”
Emma narrowed her eyes. “Is there a catch?”
Yeah, I’ll feel worse than death in the morning, I thought, but didn’t tell her that. “Here’s the plan. Lord Radcliffe likes his ale. I took him out for a few drinks the other night, and he nearly drank the whole keg by himself before he let it slip that my cousin has a secret treasury storage in the woods outside Dolinska. It’s where he’s been storing the taxes for his new army. I went looking, and happened to find it.”
“A place like that has to be crawling with guards,” Stefan said.
“It is, but we can handle them,” I said. “I figure we break into that treasury and give the people back what Eli stole.”
“What about Lord Radcliffe? Won’t he know it’s us?” Emma asked.
“He won’t remember,” I said. “I slipped a forgetfulness potion into his last drink before he went home. As long as we aren’t spotted by the guards, the plan is fool-proof. Gabby and Eli won’t know we’re the thieves.”
“But they’ll suspect. They know you’re the Phantom,” Emma said.
“Let them. They can’t do anything about it, not when we have the video of Gabby performing dark magic,” I said.
Emma hesitated, but Kiara said, “This is a good plan. I know it can work.”
“It has to. The people of Malovia deserve our help.” I straightened up. “All right, Team Phantom. Masks up. Everyone split into pairs, and meet me at the tree line to the south of the university.”
We parted. Emma and I changed into our vigilante gear, and ran across the rooftops of the university on our way to the woods. Most of the city was still at the festival, or at the Sacred Gathering, participating inHeimskanunceremonies. Nobody was out walking the woods this late at night on a holiday.
We rejoined the others at the tree line. My nose caught onto several strange smells, and I knew the sorceresses of our group had cast spells to disguise our scents and conceal our features. I could only tell who my friends were because Iknewthey were them— looking at them now, the illusions the sorceresses had cast were convincing enough I couldn’t place features, not even those of my closest companions.
I gestured for them to follow, and we walked silently amongst the trees toward the treasury. Odette kept a shield around us, just in case we ran into any monsters in the dark.
Eventually, we saw lights and heard voices. A dozen or so guards stood around a newly-constructed building, at all entrances. All the shifter guards were in their animal forms, making a circle around the area. The sorceresses held torches for light, their sharp eyes peering outward for intruders. Damn, there were a lot of them.
“How do we get past the guards?” Emma asked.
“Alexei and I will handle it,” Kiara whispered. “We’ll use our empathy magic to start a fight amongst the guards. While they’re bickering, you guys slip in and get as much coin as you can.”
“Will that work?” Stefan asked.
“Look at the guards. Tell me what’s missing,” Alexei said.
