With muffled thumps and quiet mutters, Jillian got the Hoberman megasphere out of her backpack, shoved it under the bottom of her box, and flicked it to expand the tight bundle of plastic into a bright-colored, four-and-a-half-foot-wide, loosely woven ball. Louise winced slightly as the sphere seemed to appear out of nowhere on the museum security monitors. They had practiced this, but they weren’t totally sure it would work. They hadn’t used it to get in, since they hadn’t figured out a way to keep the sphere invisible while using it to breach a wall.
Jillian reached out from under her box to adjust the megasphere. Her disembodied hand turned the ball so that the loop threaded with wire was lined up with the window. With the soft murmur of Elvish, Jillian activated the spell. Another slight push, and the loop slid into the glass and the glass temporarily vanished. Then came the scary part, actually stepping through the loop, box and all. The spell affected only what it was touching at the moment of activation, but Louise couldn’t help but imagine that they would end up in the quantum space where the glass molecules were suspended.
“I’m through,” Jillian called from outside.
Louise carefully lined her box up with the loop and stepped through. “Okay, I’m out.”
Jillian’s hand appeared and jerked the loop out of the glass and canceled the spell. “It’s out. Let’s go!”
Louise checked the security camera feed. It showed the glass back in place and the multicolor ball bouncing away as it trailed behind Jillian, still connected by the wire. With a quiet thud and a muted “oomph” Jillian hit a tree and bounced off it.
Wincing, Louise checked the other security cameras. There were no guards heading toward the Columbus Street exit, so no one must have noticed the ball for the minute it was inside the museum. Breathing out with relief, Louise followed after Jillian into the wooded safety of Theodore Roosevelt Park.
April Geiselman jerked open the door. She was in a bathrobe, and her makeup was weirdly smeared. She glared down at them. “What are you doing here? It’s after dark. Do your parents know where you are?”
“We need help.” Jillian slipped past her into the apartment. Tesla followed Jillian in, unstoppable as a tank. They’d safely retrieved him from Jin Wong’s statue. The mini-Tesla was still in school, broadcasting from their locker.
“Alexander is in big trouble. We need to warn her!” Louise ducked around April the other way.
“Some people want to kidnap her!” Jillian cried as Louise dumped the flattened wardrobe boxes on the floor.
“Hey! Wait!” April cried. “You can’t come in; I have — what?”
“We were at the museum. . and we heard these people talking about Alexander.” Louise realized that they probably shouldn’t dwell too much on where they heard all this and certainly never mention when. “They said they’re going to kidnap her! We need to warn her, but we don’t know how!”
“Okay, okay, calm down.” April made calming motions with her hands. “Who are ‘they’ and where is she? I thought she was still on Elfhome.”
“We don’t know who ‘they’ are!” the twins cried, and Louise added, “At least not all of them.”
A tall figure in the hallway brought the conversation to a halt. The shirtless man had lipstick smeared across part of his face and his hair sticking out every which way. “April? What’s going on? Whose kids are these?”
They all gaped at him for a moment.
April finally broke the silence by pointing at him. “Stephen! They’re — they’re. . It’s complicated. Look, I’m really sorry, but this is going to be a while. Can — can we do this another time?”
April herded the man into her bedroom, where the muted conversation continued in awkward and embarrassed starts and stops. Mostly it was April apologizing and Stephen saying that he understood. Since they’d missed dinner, the twins raided April’s fridge for Diet Coke, still-warm Chinese takeout, and three different types of pickles.
April had changed into a tank top and yoga pants when the two adults emerged from the bedroom. There was an awkward good-bye at the door, where both adults seemed hyperaware that the twins were watching closely.
“I feel like I’m in high school again,” Stephen whispered.
“I’m sorry,” April said for tenth time since the twins appeared on her doorstep. “It’s a family emergency.”
“So they’re family?” Stephen asked.
April shot the twins a cryptic look. “Yes, it’s complicated, but they’re family.”
“With family, is it ever anything but complicated?” Stephen hesitated and then kissed April good-bye before allowing her to shove him out the door.
“Call me,” April cried and then slammed shut the door and chained it. She leaned her head against the door for a minute. “I just knew the negative karma was going to bite me in the butt one day. Walk away from one kid and two will come breaking down your door.”
“Sorry,” Louise called.
