Chapter 28

Nuke swooped out of the purple morning sky and landed by the truck, galloping to a stop in front of me.

He pressed his big beak into my hand, puffing through his nostrils.

“Good boy.” I hugged his head against my chest and gave him a scratch under his chin. Inside, I was as cold and flat as a frozen lake. And as I stared at the Mediterranean-style mansion down the hill, I felt a huge, dark shadow lurking under the ice.

After camping overnight in the back of the truck, we’d driven to the edge of the Hemming’s property and hid the Dodge behind a stand of oak trees to scope out the battlefield. I could see pretty much every acre of their front lawn. Besides a few manicured hedges here and there, it was almost completely clear, with a long, paved driveway circling the white fountain in front of the house.

Plenty of space to express my feelings.

Martina trudged up beside me with a black hoodie pulled up over her pink hair. She unwrapped a granola bar she’d dug out of Dr. Jacob’s emergency bug-out bag. “Any sign of your parents?”

“No.” Mom’s phone was still pinging at this address, but in an hour of circling, Nuke hadn’t found any signs that she was inside, or Dad. “They might not even be here.”

That was the one unknown that kept me from dropping a hundred-thousand-pound dinosaur on Mrs. Hemming’s dreamhouse. I’d already summoned Sauroposeidon once last night—or, as Dr. Jacobs called her, Haymaker—and the heat alone nearly blasted my eyebrows off. She wasn’t so much a scalpel as a sledgehammer.

And after all this, if I accidentally crushed my own parents . . .

I shook the thought away and withdrew Nuke. A tower of fresh dirt and tangled-up roots collapsed at my feet.

“You just focus on disarming Crow.” Dr. Jacobs sat on the tailgate, screwing a scope onto her rifle. Winnie rested beside her. “Once you have the Acro, you can demand whatever you want. If Christine won’t give your parents back, you can step on her precious SUV.”

Martina bit off a chunk of granola bar and said through a full mouth, “Or her son.”

Dr. Jacobs shot her a warning glare. “Hush.”

After he ratted me out last night? I was seriously considering.

Pine slid out the passenger’s side door and landed on leaf litter and acorn shells in bare feet. The poor guy lost his one pair of sneakers last night in The Big Chomp.

I’d managed to resurrect him again with the help of a portable speaker that Dr. Jacobs kept in her car for camping trips. But even between my magic and the paleo team’s genius, we couldn’t make him a new pair of Nikes.

He still had a duffle full of hand-me-downs, so he’d gotten a chance to change into a black tank and blue jeans. But unless he wanted to try and squeeze into my size six high-tops, he was out of luck.

Sorry about your shoes, I said as he joined me at the edge of the tree line.

I don’t miss them. He put in his hearing aids, recharged thanks to the Dodge’s USB port, and stared down on the Hemming’s house. “Crow?”

“Yeah. He’s in there.” I’d already checked, just a quick in-and-out so I didn’t give myself away. I could tell he was in Mrs. Hemming’s place by the polished wood floors and crystal chandeliers. But it was a darn big house. “Somewhere.”

Dr. Jacobs paused in the middle of loading several brass bullets into her gun. “What about Crow’s raptor?”

I wasn’t connected to the female’s soulshine, so I couldn’t check. But I knew someone who could. “One way to find out.”

I summoned my own raptor, ready to drop him with the sleep command if he made a false move.

Winnie growled as he formed, but Dr. Jacobs hooked her fingers around her collar to keep her still.

The instant Boyfriend saw me, he puffed up all his feathers and let out a long, wailing call. I guess he was going for a romantic balcony scene, but to me he sounded more like Romeo dying of a broken heart. And/or poison.

A second later, a matching howl floated up and over the hills.

Boyfriend snapped his head toward the sound and perked his ear tufts. His ink-black pupils dilated, swamping almost all the yellow out of his eyes.

Goosebumps traveled down my arms. There was Juliet.

Boyfriend slipped out of the shade of the oaks, sniffing the air.

Nope. I wasn’t taking any chances. “Sleep.”

He collapsed like someone had kicked his legs out from under him. And after a moment of perfect stillness, he let out a soft snore.

“Boyfriend can’t fight the other raptor,” I told Dr. Jacobs. “She’s stronger than him.”

“Then sic him on Crow like we planned. I’ll go around the east side of the property and keep an eye out for the female,” Dr. Jacobs said. “Our top priority is knocking out the Acro. But if we have a chance at Crow, we should take it.”

I nodded. Tracking so far.

“At some point, Christine will probably scry out our position. In that case, Martina will drive off with the truck as a decoy.” Dr. Jacobs looked over at her. “Make sure they see you leave.”

Martina pulled the car keys out of her pocket and spun the ring around her finger. “Can do.”

“And you two—Don’t. Move.” Dr. Jacobs jabbed her pointer finger at me and Pine to hammer those two words home. “If something goes wrong, lay low and watch for a text. One of us will come back for you.”

Pine gave his classic nod, looming close beside me. A silent promise to watch my back.

“We only have fifteen minutes to pull this off,” I said. There was no way to fuel Haymaker up ahead of time without losing the element of surprise. At least that meant the Acro would have to run on fumes, too. “Whatever happens out there, it’ll be over fast.”

Fifteen minutes to save my parents. To get my life back. To undo every terrible mistake I ever made with our family’s magic.

The ice floe in my stomach flipped. I wasn’t a great test-taker, and this was so much worse than a final exam. But at least I wouldn’t have time to overthink.

“Give me a chance to get situated.” Dr. Jacobs got up and slung her rifle over her shoulder. “I’ll text when I’m set, and you can cut loose.”

Winnie stood up in the truck bed and shook her dusty coat out, ready to roll.

But Dr. Jacobs held out her hand. “No, ma’am. You stay.”

Her cowdog flopped back down, resting her nose between her paws, and let out a whine.

“See you in fifteen,” I said.

We all watched her walk off into the trees, until we couldn’t see her anymore. And for a few minutes, all I could do was wait.

I turned back to the Hemming’s house, slipped my finger into my glass slide, and tried my best to settle into the familiar weight of my guitar. But with every second I had to stand there, cold seeped out of my inner icescape. The chill spread through me, numbing my fingers and toes, locking the muscles I needed to breathe. And then—

Pine’s hand fell on my shoulder. You’re shaking.

The warmth of his palm thawed me through, stunning me back into the moment.

A summer breeze tumbled past, swaying the limbs of the oak trees and stirring up my curls.

I took a huge breath, gathering all my fear in my chest, and blew it out for the wind to carry away.

It worked. A little.

We’re safe here. Pine let me go. And if anyone finds us . . .

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” I said.

My fingertips got busy and slid up the fretboard, all the way to the stock at the top. And as I plucked the first string, I twisted the peg, and the note slid like a raindrop down a windshield into a rich, heavy sound.

I focused on loosening each peg, one by one, dropping the whole guitar a full step. Having a job gave me the space to talk.

“Last night, I let everybody down. I . . .” The word failed stepped onto my tongue like a high dive and paused there, paralyzed, holding up the line. Eventually I just switched to our private channel. This was easier to think than to say. This whole mess started because my mom trusted me to use our family magic. She took a chance on me, but now—if I can’t pull this off . . .

You can, Pine said. You have to.

“I know I have to,” I whispered. “But what if I can’t?”

He fixed me with a long, steady look. I don’t know. His blue eyes were as comforting as a hand to hold. But I’ll be with you.

“I’m sorry for dragging you through this.” I shook my head. “None of this was supposed to happen.”

No. When Crow . . . Pine’s face screwed up, and the night he died flickered through our shared brain. Everything just ended. But I needed. . . He pressed his mouth into a tight line, searching for the word. I wanted the chance to . . .

I paused in the middle of plucking a string. I could feel what he meant. “To finish.”

His eyes went glossy. He turned his face toward the horizon and gave that one, solid nod. Thank you, he said. For the chance.

The past few days had been so hard to get through. All this time, I just assumed that I woke Pine up to a brand new nightmare. I never guessed he’d be grateful.

But I also understood. I had loose ends of my own—someone I never got to say goodbye to. And if I got the chance, I guess I’d take it, too.

“Thank you,” I said. “For being here.”

I adjusted the final string and gave the whole guitar a strum, closing my eyes to drink in the sound. The weight in that deep, smooth chord anchored me in the moment.

The next fifteen minutes. That was all I had to think about. It was all that mattered.

Martina’s phone buzzed. She showed me a text from Dr. Jacobs—a thumbs up—and gave me a nod. “When you’re ready.”

I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready. But one way or another, I had to try to finish this. For my parents. For Pine. For me.

Pine stepped back. Like for a summon this big, I’d need personal space.

I took another deep breath. But instead of calming my nerves, it stoked the cold coals inside me back to a red-hot glow. I’d fought my whole life to hold this magic back.

But not today.

My fingers caught the steel strings. Six dark notes curled into the air like gunsmoke.

The Hemming’s property shifted and swelled. Cracks ran through the long driveway, and a head broke out of the ground—then a neck. From this far away, it almost looked like a streetlamp.

I kept playing, and the earth began to rumble as the neck rose and grew, from streetlamp to sequoia.

Heat simmered the air, stirring up a searing wind that snapped at my hair and clothes. It felt like standing over a volcano. The perfect golf course grass down below withered and browned.

Pine shielded his eyes.

Winnie started barking, and Martina had to hold her back. But at this point I was sure nobody down below could hear Dr. Jacobs’ dog over the roar of wind and soulshine.

The thick neck, banded in black and white, sloped into a solid black back. The soil and concrete crumbled as the rest of Haymaker’s body rose like a blimp, leaving a crater the size of a baseball diamond behind.

Somewhere, a car alarm went off.

Haymaker stepped out of the steaming pit in slow motion, heaving herself up on Redwood tree trunk legs to her full six-story height. Dirt spilled off her bulldog chest, enormous potbelly, and the thorny bumps dotting her back. A long, white-banded tail slid out behind her and whipped the air.

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a black bandanna—the same one from the paleo lab—and tied it around my eyes. And with my magic, I reached out for Crow.

I found him standing at the mansion’s huge front windows, watching a massive, rough-scaled leg float through the air.

Haymaker’s clawed elephant foot came down on the edge of the Hemming’s white wishing fountain and shattered it. Water gushed out on the lawn. A pipe must’ve burst, because the whole thing started spewing.

Knock, knock, I whispered into Crow’s head.

His face crinkled into a smile. You came.

Give me back my parents. I dosed each word out with a steady hand.

But Crow didn’t waste a second to consider.

Red light reflected in the windows as he activated his magic.

I pulled out of his mind immediately. Ripped my bandanna off. “That’s a no.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, the lawn rumbled again.

And Acrocanthosaurus surged out of the ground.