You okay?
I realized Milo had taken my hand to send that question to me, and I nodded, again aware of his mental walls but grateful for his support.
I caught a glimpse of myself through his eyes and saw that my forehead was glistening wet. I felt trickles escape from underneath my bra, too, sliding their way down the sides of my stomach under my shirt. I knew what I was feeling wasn’t splashing from the water wall though.
It was sweat.
Because this was hard work.
Six of the dogs were aggressively following us. Their barks and snarls were just barely audible over the roar of the current. When I looked back, I saw that the seventh—the biggest, super-blond one—was trailing silently behind, as if making sure we were heading toward the gate.
I could also see Dana eyeballing me as she motioned for the boys to move it faster. I knew she saw signs of my growing fatigue, so she also started looking around for Plan B options—where to run, jump, or roll to when the water hit the asphalt.
“I got this,” I shouted, more to convince myself than her. We could see the archway and the gate behind it. We were going to make it!
But then I felt it. My homing ability had kicked back in, stronger than ever. Morgan’s minion, John Morningstar, was not just nearby; he was ridiculously close. But where?
I looked back again—directly into the eyes of that giant seventh dog and suddenly the craziest theory popped into my head.
That dog is John Morningstar who is, in truth, the G-T Morgan.
Milo was still holding my hand—well, really, I was clinging to him so tightly that he hadn’t been able to shake free. But because our connection was open, he’d been subjected to my brain explosion.
The big dog is who…?
Milo was incredulous.
But I had a question for him.
Can boys really be Greater-Thans? I remember Dana saying something once about some G-Ts being boys and some are even grown men…?
Well, yeah
, Milo told me.
There’s a really powerful G-T up in Boston named Dr. Joseph Bach. He’s a monk or…something. I think. But it’s pretty rare. And I’m almost certain that dogs can’t be G-Ts.
Maybe not, but rumor had it that a G-T as powerful as Morgan could change her appearance at will. And just maybe she—or
he
, since G-Ts could be boys—had managed to turn himself into a dog.
“Hold up!” I signaled for Dana and Cal to stop, and they both turned and looked at me as if I’d gone mad.
The archway was
right there
. But the dogs had fallen back a bit, as if to make it easier for us exit the park. Which completely made sense.
If I were a mysterious and powerful G-T who didn’t want to be found, I’d make it easy for the people who were looking for me to leave, too. Because once we left, we wouldn’t find him.
Morgan’s a German word, isn’t it?
I asked Milo through our telepathic connection.
Yeah, I think so. Doesn’t it mean…
We both thought it at the same time.
Morning.
Yup, I was right. John Morningstar wasn’t Morgan’s minion. He
was
Morgan. Definitely.
Well,
maybe
definitely. But at least one hundred percent quite possibly.
If I’m wrong about this
, I quickly told Milo,
get Dana and Cal out of the park. I’ll run and lead the dogs away so you can get to the car, but then I’ll meet you right by the hole in the fence. Make sure Cal pulls the car close, so I can get in, fast.
He didn’t like it, but he knew he wasn’t going to change my mind.
Be careful
, he told me.
I nodded and let go of his hand before lifting up one side of the water snake so that I could slip out beneath it.
Out to where that pack of dogs was waiting. And yes, they’d backed off, but their snarling and barking got louder and some of them crouched down so that if and when they leaped toward me, they could reach me in close to a single bound.
Behind me, I could hear Calvin and Dana both shouting at me, variations on Dana’s earlier WTF theme. But I’d locked eyes again with that biggest dog, who seemed to shake his head very slowly and sadly at me, and I knew I was okay.
“Call them off,” I told him.
Cal almost messed it up by gunning his chair forward, directly through the water wall. He came out on my side soaking wet but ready to at least
try
to protect me.
I knew that Dana would be right behind him, and Milo right behind her, so I lifted the water snake up so that they wouldn’t get soaked, too.
I was still holding the big dog’s gaze, and the six other dogs all backed even farther away as they quieted and then lay down. Likewise, I molded the rushing circle of water back into a static sphere, which eliminated the roar.
The sudden silence was deafening—I could hear my own heavy breathing as I shakily continued to work to keep that water aloft. No doubt about it—I was approaching my G-T limits. I could hear Dana and Cal and even Milo breathing hard, too—all three of my friends were still in fight-or-flight mode, with an emphasis on fight.
But then that big dog started toward us, his movement graceful as he said, “Color me impressed. Not so much about that…” He looked up toward the water bubble before smiling back at me.
“A talking dog! A talking dog,” Cal breathed.
The dog continued, “But rather the fact that you figured out…this.”
And on the word
this
, he transformed right before our eyes from a giant talking dog into, yes, the young man Cal and I had met in the Palm River CoffeeBoy the night before. He was definitely a Greater-Than. I could feel it now, the way one G-T instantly recognizes another—no doubt about it. And I also realized that one of his skills must’ve been an ability to mask his G-T-ness—and yet even with that, I’d felt something bleeding through up in Palm River.
“Holy shit,” Dana whispered.
Cal’s mouth had dropped open. “It’s John Morningstar. So,
so
very much of John Morningstar.”
He was golden and handsome and gleaming—and very,
very
naked.
“Otherwise known as Morgan,” Milo said, pulling off his T-shirt and tossing it to the Greater-Than. “Sky figured it out.”
But Morgan tossed his shirt back. “I’m good,” he said, clearly completely comfortable with his body—why wouldn’t he be? “But actually, you know, I haven’t showered yet today, so…would you mind, Sky dearest?” He pointed toward my water ball that was still hanging in the air. “I know you must be getting tired, so…two birds with one stone, right?”
I nodded and somewhat jerkily moved the water over Morgan’s blond head where I released it as gently as I could.
He lifted his face up as the water poured over him, arms raised to squeegee back his gleaming hair. He looked like a Greek god or a male model or maybe a movie star.
“
Holy
shit,” Dana whispered again.
And now Cal was looking less amazed and even slightly grim. “I liked him a whole lot better when he was a talking dog,” he muttered.
“Thanks,” Morgan told me before sighing dramatically. “I suppose since you’ve come all this way, I have to invite you in. But I’ll tell you right now, whatever it is that you want from me? My answer is
no
. Nope.
Nein.
Nada. Never gonna happen.”
He turned and headed toward a huge building labeled “Gift Shop,” and his dogs stood up, shaking before trotting away, back into the depths of the park.
“Come along,” Morgan called over his shoulder to us. “Let’s get this tediousness over with ASAP.”
“Holy
shit
,” Dana breathed again, before giving herself a shake similar to that of the dogs. Leading the way, she followed Morgan, whose bare behind was as gleaming and perfect as the rest of him.
“This is not okay,” I heard Cal mutter.
Dana heard him, too, because she turned to glare. “What’s
not
okay,” she said, “was you putting yourself in danger.
Again
. What were you thinking? And now you’re soaking wet.”
“I was thinking,
I’m good with dogs
,” Cal said for what must’ve been the twentieth time.
I just glanced at Milo and shook my head as they continued to bicker while we followed Morgan into Adventure City’s gift shop.
Chapter
Fourteen
“Whoa,” I said. Because this place deserved a
whoa
. It was that insane.
This was like no gift shop I’d ever seen before.
To start, it was the size of a warehouse. All four walls were patterned like a gigantic candy cane, rising high up to a second-story loft that could be reached via four different sets of circular, winding red-and-white stairs. There was a long firefighter pole in the center of the room. It extended all the way to the ceiling and could be accessed from a series of catwalks on the loft. The red-and-white stripes that wrapped around the pole were rotating, although I couldn’t tell if the pole was actually moving or if that was just an optical illusion. I sensed that, here in Morgan’s world, illusions were a fairly prevalent theme.
In the far corner of the room, I spotted a long, curvy red slide. Beneath that was a gigantic pool of what looked to be multicolored plastic balls piled at least five feet high.
“This place is awesome,” Cal said, but he sounded anything but excited. In fact he was uncharacteristically subdued as he added, “or so the sign claims.” He was watching Dana, who was glaring at Morgan, who appeared to be in the process of shopping for a bathing suit among the round racks of clothing that dotted this part of the shop’s brightly tiled floor.
Morgan looked up for a moment, shaking his head as he glanced around. “Pity. I liked it here. I’m gonna miss this place. Of course I have to leave now that you’ve found me.” He clapped his hands together, the sound sharp in the big, echoey room, and we all jumped. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”
You’d think a guy who was naked after shape-shifting from dog back into human would’ve been in more of a hurry to pull on some clothes, but Morgan was taking his time and being selective.
He finally picked out a pair of board shorts patterned with a blue-and-aqua wave, but then took his sweet time removing the various tags.
“Can you give the guy at least a
little
privacy?” Cal finally said to Dana, who turned and looked at him with astonishment.
“If he doesn’t care, why should I?” she countered as she strode to a pile of beach towels adorned with the Adventure City clown and threw one at Cal’s head.
“It’s a respect thing,” he said stiffly as he caught it and started patting himself dry.
“Oh, you mean, kind of the way it’s a
respect thing
when you ignore me and Skylar even though we’re Greater-Thans and you’re just a normie?” Dana countered. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep you alive when you won’t even follow the simplest of directions?”
“Do they do this often?” I looked up to see that Morgan had directed his words at me. He’d pulled on the board shorts and was now shopping for a tank. He didn’t wait for me to respond. Instead, he raised his voice and told Cal and Dana, “The dressing rooms are that way”—he pointed to the back of the building—“and they’re
very
private. Practically soundproof, if you need a little alone time to—ahem—pound this out of your system.”
Both Dana and Cal turned to look at him with near-identical expressions of
What?
And simultaneously Morgan’s meaning dawned—he was telling them to
get a room
—and they both spoke at once.
“Oh, we’re not, you know…” Dana cleared her throat and finished her sentence with “together,” as Cal chimed in with an “Oh no. No, no. We’re just…we’re friends.”
Morgan laughed. “You seriously expect me to believe—”
“Dana’s single,” Cal said with a grim sense of resoluteness that I’d never seen from him before. “Let’s just be honest about it and not draw this out. She’s single; you’re Morgan. She’s hot; you’re hot; Greater-Than plus Greater-Than… It’s inevitable that she’s gonna hook up with you. In fact”—he turned to look at Dana—“I’m happy for you. I am. He’s brilliant and perfect, with God knows what amazing G-T talents aside from the wicked awesome talking-dog thing, and you know for damn sure you won’t have to struggle to keep
him
alive or get
him
to follow simple directions or whatever, so…congratulations.”
We were all kind of stunned, maybe Dana most of all. She actually blushed, and I can’t be quite sure, but I think she may have shot Morgan a look of apology.
But his eyebrows-up look back at her was pure amusement laced with micro-disgust. “What, no rebuttal? Calvin wants us to be honest, babe.” When she didn’t respond, he turned to me. “Seriously, the four of you are just a flaming clusterfuck of hormones. How do you get
anything
done?”
I was hyperaware of Milo, who was standing just slightly behind me. It
was
a very good question.
Dana spoke up. “Is this place secure?” She gestured with her chin toward the heavy wooden door we’d all just used to enter the building. “Is that the only way in—or out?” I knew what she was thinking.
Cool place, but it would suck to be trapped in here.
She scanned the room, focusing up at the loft railings that ran parallel to each wall.
In the corner opposite the slide and the ball pit was a collection of coffin-sized Russian nesting dolls. I saw Calvin eyeing them with an expression of vaguely horrified fascination. Cal hated dolls. They creeped him out big-time.
Particularly the kind of dolls that Sasha had collected.
I was struck suddenly by a vivid memory of the little girl I’d babysat nearly every weekend. One of the very first clues she’d given me as to her G-T status was when she told me that she liked to
make her dollies dance
in the middle of the night. Of course, at that time, I had no idea about Sasha’s abilities—or my own, for that matter. I had assumed she was just a kid with an overactive imagination, trying to buy some extra time with the sitter before lights-out.