Maybe everything would be okay.
Maybewewould be okay.
Ryan sat back down onto the couch. He was still tense, his hands clasped together and neck bunched up. Still with me. Gabriela beamed at me, as if she were expecting birthday presents. Taking a tissue out of his pocket, Maximus dusted a chair and then sat. A plume of dust billowed around him.
It seemed they were willing to listen. Good. “All of us have our own reasons for being here,” I said, looking at each of them. “I want to steal back what was taken from me: my family’s place, our pride, our honor.”My mother,I thought. “But to do that, I need all of you.”
Maximus raised his hand. “Before we start, are there snacks?”
Ryan clutched his laptop tighter, as if it were a shield and he was prepared for battle. “Sky, if he isn’t going to take this seriously…”
“I don’t take anything seriously,” Maximus said. “Except gold and jewels. And since this little adventure has the potential to involve both…” Sparks began to dance around his eyes as he got to his feet. “Let me show you how serious I am.”
“Ooh, magic fight,” Gabriela breathed. She looked on the verge of breaking into wild applause. Her eyes were wide so she wouldn’t miss a moment.
I strode between Maximus and Ryan. “Enough.”
Maximus saluted. “Sorry, ma’am.” He flopped back onto the burned chair and put his feet up on a broken coffee table. Bits of burned wood crumbled beneath his heels. “I assume you have a plan?”
“The plan is simple: Our target is protected by a series of security measures, and we will overcome them one by one. First, we have to get on the property. We can’t use the road. There will be too many guests using it, and it will be watched. But there’s a cliff I’ve climbed plenty of times before. Once I’m up, I’ll lower a rope on a pulley for you two. Ryan will leave the pulley hidden nearby, so all I have to do is set it up. Second, there are security cameras all over the property. Ryan will figure out a way to override them. He’ll also be providing us with earpieces and mics for communication. Once the cameras are down, we enter the house through the kitchen and head directly to the basement. In the stairwell to the basement, we’ll have to pass through a wall of fire. Maximus, can you provide a fire resistance spell for Gabriela?”
“Delighted to,” Maximus murmured. “It will be a snap.” He snapped his fingers together, and flame spurted out of his fingertips. He twirled it into a fireball and then caught it.
Gabriela gasped.
He winked at her as he rolled the fireball back and forth over his knuckles, twisting it around and tossing it like a juggler. Mouth hanging open, Gabriela gawked at him. I knew she’d be thrilled about the idea of a spell. I hoped she didn’t mind the taste—wyvern wizard spells weren’t done with words and a magic wand. They were potions and powders and enchanted stones. The potions tended to taste like fishguts.
“Very similar to the powder I’ve provided Sky’s family with for fireproofing their walls. Except this is a liquid you’ll ingest,” Maximus said to Gabriela. “Only trick is that you have tobelieveit will work. You have to achieve the right psychological mind-set to trigger the spell within your body. For humans, that takes practice.”
“We’ll schedule practice time,” I promised. To Gabriela, I said, “After you’re through the wall of fire, you need to block the wyvern detection spell.”
“Easy as pie,” Maximus said. “All she has to do is stand in front of the spell’s ‘eye’—it will be content ‘looking’ at her and won’t see us. Real weakness in the spell, but most wyverns don’t have a human on their crew. Ingenious move.”
I continued, “While the spell is blocked, I’ll pass through the sensor lasers, suspend myself above the pressure-sensitive floors, open the panel with my fire-breath, and crack the lock—that will turn off the lasers and the floor. Once the vault door is open, Maximus will use his spells against the fire beast that guards the interior.”
“Fire beast,” Gabriela breathed, awe in her voice.
Maximus grinned at her. “It’s a magical construct designed to combat both wyverns and humans. It creates a white-hot fire that’s hotter than any wyvern can withstand. Because the fire beast itself is magical, fire resistance spells are useless against it. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve.” He then looked at me. “I should be able to destroy it temporarily, but be aware that it will regenerate after thirty minutes.”
Thirty minutes was plenty of time. “If we can manage to avoid setting off any alarms, escaping should be easy—everything will be shut down, so we run, back the way we came. Flee in the car, minus Ryan, who will stay and erase any trace of his hacking from the security camera system. And that’s it. That’s why I need all of you. You each have very specialized talents that will help us get through very specialized security measures.” I was looking at Ryan as I said it, hoping he saw what I saw: we needed a crew. The two of us couldn’t complete this heist by staring longingly at each other.
Maximus cleared his throat. He was still toying with the fireball as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but there was something about him that didn’t look casual. Maybe his eyes were staring at me too intensely. Maybe his muscles were coiled too tightly. “And what, precisely, is the target?”
“I want a jewel in Ryan’s family vault, the same one my mother tried to take,” I said. “Maximus, you may ‘shop’ for a few trinkets as your payment. And Gabriela…they have a unicorn horn. It’s yours if we succeed.”
Gabriela’s eyes went wide. “A unicorn horn? Really?” she squeaked.
“No one get greedy,” I cautioned. “Steal a small number of items, and the wyverns will applaud my ingenuity. Steal more, and…well, don’t do it.” Turning in a slow circle, I fixed my eyes on each of them to make sure I had their attention. I did. In fact, I couldn’t have had more of their attention if I were a dancing bear in a tutu. Mom would have been proud.Now don’t screw up,I told myself. “This is going to be an official ‘first heist,’ which means your names will be kept out of it. I will be the only face on this. I will take the credit and any blame before the wyvern council at the next Reckoning. That’s what will keep you safe.”
“What will keepyousafe?” Gabriela asked, her eyes round and doll-like. She looked for an instant like an innocent little kid, excited to be at the fair but worried about dropping her ice cream on the sidewalk.
Glancing at Gabriela, I felt a stab of guilt. This would change her. Succeed or fail, she wouldn’t be the same. That’s why stealing your first hoard is so important in our culture. You leave childhood behind after you orchestrate your first major theft. I wondered if she knew that, and I told myself her emotional well-being wasn’t my responsibility. She’d begged to be a part of this. “Us not failing will keep me safe,” I said. It was the truth. The only thing that would protect them from wyvern wrath was if it was clear that I’d led the team, and the only thing that would protect me was success. “So…now that you’ve heard everything: Are you in?”
Ryan nodded.
Maximus grinned at me.
Gabriela looked scared, but she pressed her lips together and also nodded. And I felt something loosen around my rib cage, as if I’d been keeping my breath and my heart trapped inside. I could breathe again, fully in and fully out. I felt myself smile and hoped that I didn’t look like a grinning idiot.
