“It’s the tiger yards,” Finn said, recognizing the route of the Jungle Trek. “Maybeck and I walked right by there.”

The man was nearly upon them.

Finn kept hold of the satellite photo, already folding it as he turned to Amanda and shouted harshly, “I think it’s time we…RUN!”

49

AMANDA AND FINN turned the corner. At the far end of the hallway glowed a red EXIT sign. Finn was already in the process of texting a D-Gamer message.

Finn: chernabog!

The green fairy rounded the far corner, coming between Finn and the EXIT sign. She held a black kitty in her arms.

She set the cat down, waved her hand over it, and it stretched and grew to the size of a panther. The man pursuing Amanda and Finn skidded to a stop.

“Silly, silly boy,” Maleficent said, aiming her finger at him. “Won’t you ever learn to mind your own business?”

“Who are you?” the man shouted from well behind Finn.

“Pest!” she called out, waving her finger at the man. The panther took off—running right past Amanda and Finn—and chased the man around the corner.

Finn pushed the fear from his thoughts and drove away his anger. He whispered, “Examination room,” and pointed subtly with his left hand, holding it behind his back. “Get the others. We’ll meet up at the trek.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Amanda informed him. “Not without Jez.”

He couldn’t allow her defiance to ruffle him. Above all, he had to clear his mind of any frustration, resentment, or ill will toward others. As he did, he felt the familiar tingling sensation in his toes and fingers, and he knew it was starting. Knew, without looking, that he was crossing over.

In the past, he had only been able to sustain his waking-DHI form for a matter of a minute or two. Somehow he knew it would have to be longer this time—that this was to be a test of his strength.

He suspected that by becoming his DHI, he risked the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. This was uncharted territory, but he had to do something to counter Maleficent’s power.

“Go!” he called out to Amanda.

“No. I’m staying.”

Maleficent drew her scrawny hands toward her face, her fingers twitching, her lips bubbling with an incantation. Finn could sense a spell coming, but he would not allow himself to fear it. Even his frustration with Amanda for not listening had to be ignored. He would be no help to her if Maleficent’s spell affected him as well.

“You have a powerful master,” Finn called down the hall. He watched as Maleficent’s face became rubbery with surprise and wrinkled with concern.

“You know nothing of my master,” came the reply.

“More than you think. Is it control over the Animal Kingdom that Chernabog wants?”

Maleficent cringed at mention of the name; it was as if Finn had spoken a sacred secret. She curled her hands into a tight ball, and Finn could feel it coming.

“Look out!” he shouted at Amanda. He turned to warn her.

Amanda was gone. Vanished. No longer by his side.

Maleficent hurled a blinding ball of energy down the hall. About the size of a softball, it spun through the air, throwing off sparks like a tiny, blazing sun, and looked as if it would burn up anything in its path.

“Duck!” said Amanda’s voice.

Finn glanced up to see her floating horizontally near the ceiling.

“DUCK!” she repeated.

But it was too late for Finn to duck. The burning ball arrived and passed right through him. It exploded at the end of the hall, hitting a tile wall and erupting into a cloud of black smoke that rose to the ceiling. The smoke crept toward a blinking sensor mounted in the ceiling.

“But how…?” he muttered.

Amanda, still floating, said, “I told you Jez and I had unusual abilities.”

“You can fly?”

“Not exactly. I can levitate.” She sank then, and returned to her feet.

Finn knew this discussion would have to wait until later.

Maleficent twisted her ugly fingers. A cage of blue-white lines surrounded Finn and Amanda.

Finn wasn’t scared of the laser cage. His DHI stepped right through it, coming closer to Maleficent. Amanda floated off her feet and swam through the air, slipping through a gap between the electric bars. She sank back to the floor.

“Or is it the other way around?” Finn called out to Maleficent. “Is it that the Animal Kingdom controls him, and you’re going to ‘save’ Chernabog? To free him! His powers are limited here. Is that it?”

Maleficent took a step back, away from Finn. It was the first time he’d ever sensed an ounce of retreat in her. He savored the moment.

By gloating, he briefly lost his DHI.

“My master’s powers are anything but limited,” she said. “Just you wait!”

She threw an arrow of flame at Finn. His cherishing Maleficent’s retreat had cost him more than half his DHI. He was now half kid, half light. And as he turned his back against the oncoming arrow, he unknowingly offered her his mortal half Seeing this, Amanda leaped in front of him.

The arrow struck her in the chest and was totally absorbed. Her arms and legs glowed as she sank to the floor.

Maleficent grinned an evil grin.

“Looks like your girlfriend shouldn’t play with fire,” Maleficent said.

Amanda lay unconscious on the floor at Finn’s feet, a burn mark on her shirt. His fear removed him from his DHI state and exposed him to Maleficent’s powers.

But something else overcame him—a wild, pent-up anger that he could no longer control. He charged the witch.

A wide-eyed Maleficent seemed to sense her situation. As her lips muttered another incantation, she was too late.

Finn hit her with a body block, his momentum slamming her against the wall and pinning her there. He brought his hands to her throat.

Her skin was ice cold.

He said, “Release her this instant. You bring her back…or so help me…” He tightened his grip. Her cold skin was like nothing he’d ever felt.

Maleficent’s sickly green skin turned yellow. He was choking the life from her. She had no voice. No incantations.

“RELEASE AMANDA!!” Finn shouted, holding the wild panther at bay with his voice. He tightened his grip. Maleficent’s eyes bulged. She waved her hand.

Amanda coughed and sat up, coming back to consciousness.

“Are you all right?” Finn asked.

Amanda coughed hard but nodded.

Finn squeezed even tighter. “Tell Chernabog it’s over,” he said. “He will never regain his power. The Overtakers are through.”

He threw her to the floor, turned, and ran, grabbing Amanda by the hand just as the smoke reached the smoke alarm.

“You saved my life,” Amanda said, clinging to his arm. “Maleficent was scared of you!”

“I was…mad,” Finn said.

“I didn’t know you cared,” Amanda teased him, just as they opened an emergency door and sprinted outside.

“Who says I do?” he said to her, his voice breaking.

“Boys…” she muttered.

50

THE KINGDOM KEEPERS and Amanda stood watching the AnimalCam, with Philby at the controls. All but Charlene, who kept vigil at the bat enclosure, her DS in hand. Philby, being Philby, had quickly located two cameras that served the tiger yards and a third that looked back toward the arched bridge that separated the two enclosures. It was this bridge that caused the C on the satellite photo.

“They keep tigers on either side of the bridge,” he explained. “Both sides have water and some trees for shade. From the bridge you have a good view of either yard.”

“But if she’s under the C, she’s under the bridge,” Finn said.

“I don’t know that that’s possible,” Philby said, switching camera views.

“Zoom back!” Willa said in an excited voice.

Philby did as she asked.

Amanda stepped forward, her finger pointing to the screen. “The window! That’s from the diary.”

“Yes,” Finn said. “You showed us that before, when Maybeck and I were over there.”