“Can you take us to it?” I failed to disguise the pleading in my voice.
The she-pixie gestured around and shot me a look that said, “Well, duh. Why else would I have asked everyone what they know?”
“Point taken.” I smiled apologetically. “Please, guide us there. My friend is one of the people missing, and I need to get her back.”
The entire squadron of pixies gasped and shook their heads, chattering ominously. I even saw one of them pretend to tie a noose and hang themselves with it. The gesture felt like a knife to the gut. I didn’t need to understand their language to get the picture—if Genie had entered that doorway, then she was obviously in a lot of trouble. All the more reason to get going.
The she-pixie held up her hands and drew a square shape. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance, and she shook her head vehemently, giving one loud, high-pitched squawk that definitely sounded like “NO!”
“You don’t want us to put you in puzzle boxes?”
She nodded, repeating the singular squawk.
I cast a look at Nathan. “What do you say?”
“I say we let them go free-range. They’re helping us, after all.” Nathan looked pointedly at the assembled crowd. “But you have to stay out of sight. Can you do that?”
The pixies snorted and puffed out their chests proudly, and a few polished their fingernails against their shoulders: “easy peasy lemon squeezy.” They’d given the hunters the runaround for days without getting spotted, and they had us to help cause any necessary diversions if hunters happened upon us. And why shouldn’t they get to come with us as equals? They were doing us a favor, not the other way around. And the pressure was mounting by the second.
“Just keep as close as you can, and stay hidden,” I warned. To the she-pixie, I said, “You can lead us there, but don’t take any chances. If you see a hunter, take cover, and only come out again when it’s safe.”
She lifted her hand to her temple in a salute. No sooner had she done that than the entire crew took off into the air, fluttering all the way up to the ceiling. The she-pixie surged upward last and flew past the others to take her position at the head of the aerial squadron. Once there, she beckoned for Nathan and me to follow before waiting by the closed Repository doors. Nathan and I gave each other an encouraging nod and jumped to our feet, racing across the marble floor. He did the honors of opening the towering doors, and all of us ducked out into the hallway beyond.
I scoured left and right to make sure there were no hunters around as the pixies blended into the shadows overhead. I glanced up and saw how their colored banding and vibrant wings darkened until they were entirely camouflaged. Now I understood why they’d given everyone hunting them such a headache; like cuttlefish, they could alter their skin to fit their surroundings, making them trickier to find than a needle in a stack of pins. The only one who stayed vaguely visible was the she-pixie, who I decided, then and there, to name Boudicca.
I’d read about the ancient Iceni queen in the Institute’s entrance hall, on a plaque beside a gold torc, a thick metal necklace, that had belonged to her. A rumored Celtic magical of the Primus Anglicus, she’d led an uprising against the Romans. Like the she-pixie, the original Boudicca was said to have wild hair, a harsh voice, and a piercing glare.
“Why are you smiling?” Nathan whispered, looking at me as though I’d lost my marbles.
I pointed up to the leader. “I named her.”
“Oh?”
“Boudicca. Queen of the Pixies.” I slowed my pace to match hers as we approached an intersection of hallways. She stopped, looking both directions for the enemy.
Nathan laughed. “I think she’d like that.”
“Me too.” I quickened my pace again as Boudicca took a left. Where were we going? There wasn’t anything up there aside from the new wing, which hadn’t been built yet. But I wasn’t about to argue with her. She could sense high concentrations of magic, and I couldn’t.
Nathan side-eyed me. “Do you think she might have her wires crossed?”
“I’m not sure. Is there an annex up here that I don’t know about?” I whispered back.
“There are private studies and offices, and a chapel which has an exit to the back gardens. Maybe that’s where she’s leading us. It would be the quickest way.” He frowned, evidently deep in thought. “I suppose it depends where this doorway is. Did your little birdie happen to mention how far down it was buried beneath the Institute?”
I shook my head. “My little birdie is never that detailed.”
The day Leviathan gave me information that wasn’t peppered with gaping holes would be the day his glass box properly froze over again. All he’d told me about the door was to “look into it.” I’d done that, and I’d hardly learned anything. Oh, he must’ve been killing himself with laughter, knowing my only option was to ask the pixies for help, that we’d have to resort to a bevy of hilarious charades to communicate.
“It’s Leviathan, right?” Nathan asked as we continued to walk, following Boudicca’s fluttering wings. Some of her motley crew were acting up, wiping the last of the strawberry goop off their faces and smearing the jammy blobs across the nearest available canvas—rafters, the tops of the high windows, the wall. I didn’t get to focus on it much, since Nathan had dropped that doozy of a question on me.
“Huh?” My throat closed up.
Nathan looked half-excited, half-sorry, an expression he seemed to have perfected. “The little birdie is Leviathan. He gave you this ability, didn’t he?”
“H-how could you possibly know that?” I
