Cloaked (22 page)

Chapter 46

A few minutes later, it’s all settled: I’ll send her ten pairs of shoes, and she’ll wear them, mentioning that they were made by “an exciting new designer” she met in South Beach.

“Sort of a princess product placement,” Meg says.

“Zis is not trouble,” Victoriana says. “But now zat we have settled zis, we really must go.” She walks to the door. “Bruno!”

The mountainous guard appears. Victoriana says, “Can you please alert ze limo driver and ze pilot.” She gazes at Philippe. “Now zat my bruzzer is safe, we need to go home.”

“Have a great trip,” I say, “and beware of Sieglinde.”

Victoriana nods. “I will always be aware.”

Fifteen minutes later, we’re on our way down to the lobby. It’s a little crowded because Bruno insists on standing in the center, holding Victoriana’s hand, and I’m stuck between him and Ryan. It’s like being pinned under two fallen oaks. Another treelike guard backs up Philippe.

“Listen, man,” Ryan whispers. “I’m sorry about . . . I know you liked her, but it was just, Vicky and I have so much in common. We like the beach, partying . . . it’s like it was meant to be.”

Yeah, it’s hard to find girls with those interests in South Beach.
But I say, “Don’t worry about it.” I suck in my stomach to avoid Bruno’s elbow.

We reach the lobby, and Bruno tugs Victoriana out past me.

“Ouch!” she yells. “Zat is not necessary!”

“Eet is my job!” Bruno looks around as if expecting a mob attack at any moment. But other than the usual guests on their way to the pool, the lobby’s pretty uneventful. If anything, it looks empty without the swans.

“Ze limousine?” Philippe says. “Where is it?”

Bruno says something in French to the other guard. The guard starts toward the front doors. “He ees checking.” Bruno glances around again.

“But you called down for the limo. They said it was ready.” Meg, too, looks at the doors and whispers, “I don’t like this, Johnny. You know Farnesworth would have her limo here.”

She’s right.

“Maybe you should go back to your room,” I say to Victoriana. She nods and starts back toward the elevator.

“Eet is not necessary.” Bruno takes her arm. “Gerard, he is checking.”

Victoriana stares at his hand, which is tightly around her wrist. “Please, Bruno. You are hurting me.”

“Eet is for your own protection.”

The elevator door beside ours opens, and a woman with two little girls exits. When she sees Victoriana, she shrieks. “It’s really her! It’s the princess!”

The two little girls run over to Victoriana. “Can we take our picture with you?” the older one begs.

“Samantha, that’s very rude!” the mother snaps, but she doesn’t pull her away. Victoriana has gotten free of Bruno and is talking to the girls, but their shrieks have alerted other guests, who run over and start snapping cell phone photos.

“Can I try on your tiara?” asks one woman.

“Mira, José! Mira!”

They’re all shoving, poking, touching. Victoriana’s trying to be gracious, saying, “Wait! Please! I will speak wiz you all.” Her eyes seek out Bruno, but he’s glancing around like he’s searching for something. The other guard is talking to the valet, arguing with him. Victoriana’s car is still nowhere in sight.

“Bruno!” Victoriana cries as a big guy steps on her open-toed shoe.

“Hey, watch it!” Ryan tries to shove the guy out of the way. “You don’t treat girls like that.”

Bruno’s still looking around, searching for something. Or someone.

And suddenly, I know why the limo isn’t here. Bruno didn’t call for it. He called someone else.

I reach for Victoriana’s hand through the crowd of people. “Come on, Princess. We have to go.”

Victoriana looks around, unaccustomed to going anywhere without her bodyguard. “But Bruno—”

“Johnny’s right.” Meg, who’s been staring at Bruno too, nods agreement. “You should go.” She leans over to Ryan. “Maybe you could get your car for Victoriana and Philippe.”

“It’s a two-seater.”

“It’s an emergency,” I say, trying to extricate Victoriana.

Ryan starts out toward the employee lot. Victoriana tries to follow, but the crowd is relentless.

“Wait! Wait!” a woman says. “I need a picture!”

“Can you give me some money?” a boy asks.

Finally, Victoriana’s through. She tries to make eye contact with Philippe, who’s oblivious. But the crowd has alerted Bruno that his charge is escaping.

“Your Highness!” Bruno’s voice penetrates the crowd. He shoves past them, knocking one of the little girls on her rear end. She starts to bawl. “You should not have done zat!” He grabs Victoriana again.

Victoriana tries to pull away, but he holds fast. I see tears in the princess’s eyes.

I try to look calm, even though I know now that I’m dealing with a spy. I signal to Ryan to get his phone, call a cop. “Aren’t you supposed to be working for her?” I ask Bruno.

“Stay out of zis, peasant!”

Ryan comes back and tries to step between Bruno and Victoriana. “Hey, buddy, leave her alone.” He’s almost as big as Bruno, and much younger, so he grabs Bruno’s arm. But Bruno’s trained in self-defense. In an instant, Ryan’s on the floor. Bruno wrenches Victoriana’s arm behind her back. She screams.

Her shrieks alert the masses in the lobby. Until then, they were listening to the voice of authority. Now, they’re realizing something’s wrong.

“What’s he doing?” A woman points at them.

“He’s trying to kidnap the princess!”

A buzz goes through the crowd. The information gets translated into several languages. Someone calls for hotel security. Other cell phones come out. People rush toward Victoriana. In the melee, she breaks away from Bruno’s grasp again. I find myself between them, among the pressing bodies. It’s a mass of flesh, and Victoriana’s trying to get to the parking lot with Ryan, who has struggled up. “Please! Let me through!”

Suddenly, everything freezes, everything and everyone. The room goes silent. And then, people start to move in lockstep, clearing a path to let Victoriana, Philippe, and Ryan through.

What’s happening? I try to speak the thought, but I, too, am frozen. My tongue won’t move. In the silence, I can feel my pulse pounding, so I know I’m still alive. The only other thing I can move is my eyes, and through them, I see Victoriana, Philippe, and Ryan walking through the parted crowd. I shift my gaze to the left, to Meg. I try to make eye contact. Does she see what I see?

But Meg’s eyes are moving rapidly back and forth, back and forth to Bruno, to the crowd, to Victoriana, Philippe, and the other silent people.

Meg’s doing it. She’s the one who froze the crowd. Somehow, she got Bruno to unhand Victoriana too. She made them all give way.

I was never the best at math, but at some point, even a guy with a C in trig can add one plus one. Plus one. Plus one.

The brownies. The magic ring. The way the swan got healed when Meg laid hands on it, and I started feeling better after the scorpion bite. The graveyard. And now, this.

Meg’s a witch.

But what does this mean? What does it mean for me? For us? Did she cast a spell on me? Is that why I fell for her, not Victoriana?

And what else has she done to me? To everyone?

Now what she’s doing is she’s saving the princess. Victoriana’s gone. She’ll return home, to her friends, to her family.

To her shoes!

But suddenly, there’s a gust of wind. It knocks people over, and everything unfreezes.

In the middle of the room appears Sieglinde. Sieg- fried too.

“Can you do nothing right?” she demands of Bruno.

Bruno cowers before her. “
Bitte.
I could not get to her. There vas another vitch. She stopped me. She let them go.”

“Go where?” Sieglinde shrieks.

Bruno gestures mutely toward the door to the em- ployee lot.

“Fool!” Sieglinde stomps her foot. “How could you let her get away?”

“I didn’t . . . I couldn’t. There was . . .” He looks at Meg, who’s staring at her feet. “A witch.”

Sieglinde turns to Meg. “You? Here?”

Meg faces her. “Where’d you think I was? Trapped in a lighthouse? That’s just the lie you told Johnny.”

“I vill put you there now!” She looks at her son. “Siegfried! After them! Now! You vill succeed this time!”

“Yes, Mama.” Siegfried gulps but runs to the door. When he gets there, it’s locked. He pulls at it, shakes it. It won’t open. Sieglinde raises her hand as if she’s about to release a lightning bolt or something to blast it open. But suddenly, her feet are knocked from under her, and she’s on the floor.

“Go the other way!” she screams at Siegfried.

He runs off toward the front entrance, knocking through the crowds and the doormen. Sieglinde struggles to get to her feet, but it’s like she’s stuck in something, chewing gum that binds her to the ground, and as I watch her, I know I have to go after them too. I began this quest to help the princess. I have to see it through to the end.

I start to run after Siegfried.

“No, Johnny!” Meg is still staring down Sieglinde. “Try the door again!”

I slide to a stop and go toward the door I know is locked. It opens easily. I run down a dark passage and see Victoriana and Philippe, struggling to squeeze into Ryan’s two-seater convertible. The princess stops to pick up a fallen sandal.

“Go!” I yell. “Go quickly! They’re coming for you! Ryan, just take them anywhere. The witch will find you if you go to the airport! And Bruno probably didn’t call for the plane.”

They hear me, and slam the door, leaving the shoe just lying there, abandoned, Victoriana in Philippe’s lap. The motor starts. They’re going to make it. They’re going to make it.

Suddenly, I feel a hand on my chest. Then, something cold against my neck.

It’s the blade of a knife.

“You vill make them stop now,” Siegfried’s voice says.

“No!” But I don’t want to die, and Victoriana is gesturing toward me, telling Ryan to stop. Ryan hesitates.

Siegfried digs the knife into my throat. I feel blood. His breath comes in short bursts. “You go, he dies. Give me . . . give me the princess, and no one vill . . . get hurt.”

I can feel Siegfried shaking as he says it, his breath hot in my ear. He’s as scared as I am.

“Please,” Victoriana tells Ryan. “He is a hero. He saved my bruzzer. I cannot allow zis.”

Philippe nods agreement. He opens the door, and both he and Victoriana stumble out.

Against my back, I can feel Siegfried’s heart racing, as hard as my own. He’s panting almost like he’s about to have a seizure. But when he sees Victoriana, he loosens his grip a bit.

“Ja!” he exclaims.

“No!” I shout at the same time. “Victoriana, no!”

“Shut up!” His voice is raw. “Now you . . .” He gestures toward the princess, and I can see he’s shaking like he just came out of a cold pool. “You come here.”

“No!” I repeat. I twist, trying to meet his eyes, but it’s hard with a knife at my throat. “Is this really what you want?”

“Johnny, I am going wiz him.” Victoriana goes to Siegfried. He grabs her arm, loosening his grip on me at the same time. In one fluid movement, he has Victoriana in his clutches, the knife at her throat. He kicks me away.

“No!” I scream. It can’t end like this. I can’t have done all this work just to have him take her away.

“It is okay,” Victoriana says. “You did your best.”

“No.” I stare at Siegfried and remember how he let me go in the graveyard, remember his mother screaming at him. “Is this really what you want? Or are you just doing it because of your mother?”

“Vat are you talking about?”

“About you.” I gesture at Victoriana. “Are you like this, a kidnapper, a killer? I understand all about family and wanting to do what your parents want. I’ve done my best for my own family. But sometimes, Siegfried, you have to make your own decisions.”

“I am brave.” He holds Victoriana closer. “She must come with me.” But there’s doubt in his voice.

“You let me go in the graveyard,” I say. “You’re twice my size. I couldn’t overpower you.”

He laughs shakily. “Of course not. I . . .” He stops. “I did not let you go.”

“You did. And in Zalkenbourg. You let me go that time too.”

“I messed up those times. I have no powers, no magic.” He says it in a trembling voice. “My mother, she says I mess up alvays.”

“Maybe you messed up because you knew you were doing the wrong thing.”

He loosens his grip on Victoriana a bit, and I hear her take a deep breath.

“Let her go,” I say.

The hand holding the knife trembles. “But . . . she vill be so angry with me if I do not bring her the princess.”

I know he’s considering it. There’s uncertainty in his eyes. “The police will be mad if you take the princess. If they catch you, I bet you get the death penalty for that. That’s worse than your mother being mad.”