“I wonder… Aperi Portam,” I whispered. It was a shot in the dark, but a shot nonetheless. And a good one, it seemed, as I heard the locking mechanism click.
I turned the knob again, and the door opened with a subtle creak.
The lights were mostly off, except for the wall sconces that still flickered quietly, casting a warm glow over the crystal boxes filled with formless, smoky monsters. I wasn’t sure what I was doing here, but I figured I could at least take a better look at those rune locks and glass casings. Maybe I’d see something the others had missed.
Thinking a little too highly of yourself there.
I walked through the narrow corridors with walls made of monster boxes in different sizes. My skin crawled as I felt countless pairs of eyes watching me. I heard voices somewhere to my right, so I slowly and quietly made my way to the source.
Two figures stood beyond a massive glass box with tropical greenery and a plethora of dark limestone rocks. It looked familiar, but I didn’t give it a second thought, crouching by its side so I could get a better look at the two figures—one particularly massive, which I identified as Tobe, and one whose soft, honey-like voice instantly reminded me of Alton.
I leaned forward, my face against the glass, until I could see both clearly.
“I don’t think we should keep the Mage Council out of this, Alton. It’s too risky.”
As suspected, Tobe and Alton were engaged in what sounded like a heavy conversation. I listened quietly, ignoring the goosebumps I was getting from the monsters’ attention. They couldn’t do anything while stuck in those glass boxes, anyway.
“Right now, only you, me, and Garrett’s and Wade’s teams know about this,” Alton replied. “You heard Leonidas today. One more slip-up and they’ll start handing out the penalties.”
“And you’ll lose what, money bonuses? Is that worth putting this coven’s magicals at risk?” Tobe said, crossing his feathered arms.
“We can handle this on our own, Tobe. All the Council can do is look down at us and deprive us of future funding. And Adley’s getting so close to a fully functional detector. We can’t risk it. No one got hurt, and we can clean this up before any rumor makes it back to the Council. You know they’ll put some blame on you, too. Leonidas will stop at nothing to make us look like idiots.”
My Daisy got hurt.
“Leonidas will one day die of old age, and I will still be here. I have seen plenty of his kind, and I am not intimidated,” Tobe declared, and pride flowed through me like liquid fire.
“Nor do I expect you to be intimidated, Tobe, but you must understand that the times are changing. They all expected us to turn down the nomination, and the covens have been laughing at us for too long,” Alton insisted. “One more push with Adley, and we’ll prove our worth. Whatever problems we’re having with the Bestiary, we can handle them on our own. We don’t need the Council holding our hands and humiliating us further.”
“What do you suggest we do, then?”
“Let’s start by doing another sweep of the Bestiary tomorrow. I’ll have Garrett and his magicals do a thorough search of every box, every lock, and every mechanism,” Alton proposed. “Wade and the Rag Team will handle the cleanup, and I’ll send out more magicals to search for rogues. Those two wild gargoyles came from the San Diego area, for sure.”
“What if others escape from the Bestiary? What then? What if someone gets killed?” Tobe frowned. “I’ve been around for over a thousand years, Alton, and this has never happened before. It’s completely unprecedented, and I am worried for the safety of this coven.”
“So, what? Do we tremble in our boots and expect the Mage Council to solve something we can handle ourselves?” Alton replied. “Listen, if it gets worse, I will notify the Council. In the meantime, let’s reinforce security and investigate this properly. I’ll give you some of Nomura’s instructors to help around the Bestiary, particularly when you’re resting. I’d advise you not to leave here for a while. O’Halloran can do live monster training with the new recruits. He’s fought most of the creatures in here, already.”
Tobe shook his head slowly, his thick mane rippling in soft, golden waves. “The monsters only listen to me, and me alone. The only thing that added security can do is alert me and try to catch them in Mason jars.”
“The more, the better, I say. At least we’ll know we’ve tried everything. And I’ll ask Sloane to devise more charms for the boxes, too, just to be on the safe side. I’ll restrict access to the Bestiary, as well. Whatever I can do to ease your mind that doesn’t involve calling the Council, I’ll do it, Tobe. Just bear with me, and I know we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“I’ve locked Murray in a separate box,” Tobe said, scratching the back of his head.
“You named that gargoyle Murray?” Alton chuckled.
“Letters and numbers don’t do these creatures justice. Besides, getting out of the Bestiary twice and going after Harley just for revenge has made him stand out.” Tobe shrugged. “So, I called him Murray. He sounds like a Murray.”
That ugly, winged bastard responsible for the destruction of my Daisy did sound like a Murray, indeed. I knew a bully in kindergarten named Murray. He used to eat glue, blame me for it, then put chewing gum in my hair. My first foster mom had to cut my hair short because of bird-brained Murray. Yeah, Murray sounds about right.
“I’d advise you to keep an eye on the ‘kids’ tonight,” Alton concluded. “I’ll come by in the morning, and we can discuss this further then. Trust me, Tobe, once we figure out what the problem is, we’ll be able to resolve it without any Council involvement. I simply can’t flush two years’ worth of Adley’s research down the drain because of this. You know full well that if we nail one of the bonuses, I’ll be sure to upgrade central parts of the Bestiary, too.”
“Agreed,” Tobe replied. “We do need special replacement parts for the stem, to amplify the energy output to African and South-East Asian covens.”
“All the more reason for you to stick with me on this one, Tobe.” Alton smiled, then gently patted his shoulder. “I’ll see you in the morning, friend.”
Tobe gave him a brief nod, and we both watched him leave. As I turned my head to follow him from the other side of the glass box, I froze at the sight of two huge turquoise eyes with black slits in the middle that took center stage in front of me. I quickly recognized the white-and-fuchsia plumage of its collar. Quetzalcoatl, the massive snake, stared at me from inside its glass box—the same box I’d chosen to hide behind.
Its jaws snapped open, and it hissed violently, its feathers trembling aggressively.
Chills ran through me as I jumped back on pure instinct, catching Tobe’s attention. He didn’t seem mad, but rather amused. “I think Quetzi likes you,” he quipped, as I stood up straight, ignoring the waves of adrenaline surging through me. It was a natural response to having just two inches of glass stand between me and a giant, monstrous snake that could gobble me up in seconds.
I looked down at the creature, just as it lifted, then cocked its head to one side, its haws flicking black over its gem-like eyes. Again, I wasn’t sure whether that was cute or creepy.
“Sorry, Tobe,” I murmured, putting on my most innocent expression. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you and Alton.”
“What are you doing here? You should be resting, after such an eventful day.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” I shrugged. “I just wanted to look around. Maybe see if I could find something to help with the investigation. As of tonight, this whole Bestiary issue got really personal, really fast.”
“Don’t worry about it, Harley,” he replied gently. “We’ll take care of it, but, as I assume you heard what Alton said, keep the incident to yourself and your team. No one else can know. At least for now.”
I nodded, putting my hands in my pockets. I was still very restless. “I won’t tell, of course. But how do you think the gargoyle escaped the second time around? I thought you guys checked and secured the boxes already.”
“We did, and that’s what bothers me the most. There are approximately two thousand gargoyles in the Bestiary. They’re the most frequent Purge manifestations, and they tend to team up in packs. Murray came out and rallied two wild ones to join him, for example. I fear that if another comes out, it will do the same, or worse.” Tobe sighed, then gazed across to his left, through several walls of glass boxes, where black smoke swirled around, as if responding to his attention. “I’m afraid we might be dealing with an inside job, and I don’t like how it’s making me look incompetent. I have never had such issues with my monsters before. They all fear and obey me, without exception. And yet, Murray keeps getting out, and I fear others might follow his example.”
That confirmed one of my suspicions. At least I knew my reasoning wasn’t faulty on this one. But the follow-up question still bothered me. “Why would anyone try to sabotage the Bestiary? What would their purpose be?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but I do know Alton drew the ire of many covens when he didn’t reject the nomination for the Bestiary. The Los Angeles and San Francisco Covens, in particular, are still fuming, as they consider San Diego to be woefully inferior and unprepared for such a task.”
“And what do you think, Tobe? You’ve been the Beast Master since its inception. Surely, you’ve seen worse covens than this?” I replied, the corner of my mouth twitching.
Tobe needed a couple of seconds to answer that. It didn’t work in San Diego’s favor…
“I don’t know, honestly,” he replied. “On one hand, there is so much potential in the magicals here, but, at the same time, due to poor funding and low morale prior to Alton’s arrival, they have so much to catch up on, compared with other covens.”