Finally, I’d get to see the famous Charlotte Basani in action—just not in the way I’d imagined. White sparks glittered around her fingertips, and I knew what was about to go down—the same thing happened when my mom got ready to use her Telekinesis.
Here we had a classic preemptive strike (apparently, I had learned something in Hosseini’s class), and I dealt with those the pacifist’s way—by ducking and rolling. Silvery strands shot out of her palms, and I made my escape, diving under the Telekinetic trajectories. I hit the floor hard, a jolt of pain shooting through my knee, which had absorbed the shock.
“Charlotte, enough!” Nathan stepped between us. “You may be Shailene’s daughter, but that doesn’t give you the right to attack us. What we’re doing does not concern you, and Persie and I will deal with Victoria once we’re finished.”
Charlotte didn’t listen. Instead, she shot a strand of Telekinesis toward him. It took him by surprise, snaking around his waist. He lifted his palms to retaliate, but she flicked her wrist and threw him against the nearest wall before he had the chance to do anything. I grimaced as I heard the thud.
Meanwhile, my hand clawed for the metal folder she’d dropped. I grabbed it before she could aim a fresh round of Telekinesis at me and hurled it at her head with all my might. She ducked, whirling around to watch it skid down the hallway behind her. I didn’t waste any time. Jumping up, I raced toward Nathan, helping him up.
He groaned. “We need to get… out of here. We can’t… save Genie, if she turns us in… to Victoria.”
“Way ahead of you.” At least, I’d thought I was, but Charlotte was facing me again, her hands raised and ready for more.
“If you’re not going to come quietly, that causes a few problems for me,” she said. Closing her eyes, she slammed her palms into her chest, sending green ripples down her body.
Nathan sighed. “Ah, crap.”
“What?” I whispered, trying to hurry him away from the scene.
“Charlotte’s best attack.” He dropped to the floor and pressed his palms into the ground, presumably preparing some kind of Earth-based defensive maneuvers. Beneath my feet, I felt a rumble growing. The polished concrete splintered just in front of Charlotte’s feet, and out slithered a tangle of vines. They crept up Charlotte’s legs, wrapping around her.
It took a second for me to understand what was happening when her body began to transform. Her face morphed into a mask of pain as her shoulders broadened. She lengthened right in front of us, growing two feet taller. Her skin rippled, and thick brown hair sprouted rapidly. Muscles that hadn’t been there before bulged out, and I stared in disbelief as a snout formed and huge claws protruded from newly-born paws. It took less than twenty seconds for the process to complete, leaving Nathan and me standing in front of a freaking grizzly bear. The only thing that hadn’t changed were her hazel eyes, which glinted at us with very human anger.
“She’s… she’s…” I remembered vaguely that she was a Bestia, but I hadn’t fully understood what that entailed until now. With a growl that shook the walls, she clawed away the constricting vines like tissue paper. And that meant nothing was holding her back from a full-on grizzly charge. Surely she didn’t intend to maul us?
“We need to run!” Nathan urged. “I could hit her with everything I have and it wouldn’t bother her in the slightest, not in this state.”
Just as we were about to whip around and flee, my own beasts reminded us that they were there. A divebombing unit of twenty-plus pixies plummeted from the ceiling, shrieking a deafening war cry. The bear looked up in bemusement as the creatures struck. Two of them went straight for the eyes, coming in for a dropkick with their tiny legs extended. The bear’s massive paws flailed in front of her face, trying to fend them off, but there were two more right behind, prepared and willing to temporarily blind Charlotte. A distraction crew circled her, tugging at her fur and generally trying to piss her off by socking her in the jaw and yanking on her ears. Meanwhile, two smaller groups had materialized curtain ties from who-knew-where. One team wrapped the velvet cords around her legs, crossing over one another in perfect unison as they pulled the cords tighter and tighter, like something out of a cartoon. The other team did the same with her arms, binding them to her sides.
I wanted to give them a standing ovation as the bear came crashing down like a bowling pin. Charlotte roared as the distraction crew jumped on her head, dancing a jig and elbow-dropping into her fur, while others pulled at her bear ears, basically ensuring she kept her head down. Boudicca walked across the bear’s head, all the way down to the tip of her snout, lifting her hand in a salute before gesturing wildly at the now-clear hallway.
“Sorry, Charlotte.” Grabbing Nathan’s arm, I pulled him past her. “I didn’t want you to get involved in this,” I said to bear-Charlotte. “But you wouldn’t listen. You’ll understand soon. I’m doing this to save both of our best friends.”
If the pixies were right, then we’d be able to solve the mystery of the missing magicals before the night was over. I just prayed I wouldn’t be getting expelled for letting a horde of free-range pixies loose on a Basani-Bear.
She attacked first. She’s the one who should be reprimanded. Defiant, I let go of Nathan’s arm and tore along the corridor, though I still had no idea where we were going. Once Charlotte broke out of her bonds, she’d probably go straight to Victoria and we’d be on the hunters’ most-wanted list, but we’d have to handle that after we saved Genie. I couldn’t waste this window of time worrying about
