Finn angled his head around the corner to get a better view into the living room. Then he jerked back.
Maleficent—the most powerful of the Disney fairies and Finn’s greatest enemy—stood by the apartment window. Amanda had somehow known! Maleficent had enormous evil powers, including the ability to conjure spells with nothing more than incantations. Finn had once seen her transfigure a trash bag into a rat. She had demonstrated powers of fire and electricity, conjuring a cage of glowing “wires” around him. Her one weakness was temperature—she could only conjure when cold, which helped explain her being jailed in an apartment kept so warm. He doubted she was at her full powers, given the warmth of the apartment, but that could change in an instant. She had her back to them, and her dark robe hung to the floor. Now Finn understood what he’d heard: Maleficent was chanting while facing the open window. It was blocked on the outside by a heavy iron grate—like a jail cell.
Casting a spell? Finn wondered.
His legs shook with fear. The last he’d known, she’d been locked in a jail cell in the catacombs beneath Pirates of the Caribbean. What was she doing here?
She stepped away from the window but continued chanting. Through the window, the sky darkened. The storm roared as lightning flashed and thunder cracked. Finn tensed with the next lightning strike: a tremendous flash was followed instantly by a crack and boom. Was she summoning the lightning? Another loud crack. A bolt of electricity struck the iron grate. It glowed red hot, and then sparks flew. The iron grate melted and fell open, the window no longer blocked. The evening’s cool breeze blew through.
Maleficent climbed up onto the sill. The crowd cheered from below.
Color filled the sky—the fireworks display had begun.
“Stop!” he shouted.
She turned. “YOU!”
It was no trap. Their being here clearly surprised her.
Her red eyes locked on to his. Her green, hideous skin scrunched tightly around her eyes. If looks could kill…he thought.
Finn stepped back, afraid. The cool air… Three loud bangs of thunder mixed with the fireworks, making a war zone out of the sky. A fiery backdrop played out behind the green creature standing in the window.
She glanced back at him one more time and then climbed outside.
Finn and Philby hurried to the smoldering window opening and looked out.
Maleficent was climbing the castle wall, her cape swirling in the wind. She moved like an insect.
He looked down and gasped. They had to be a hundred feet up.
“I’m not going out there!” Finn said.
“The stairs!” Philby said.
With every second she would be cooling off, regaining her powers. The boys hurried back to the bedroom, determined to follow her. The Dapper Dan was pounding on the closet door from the other side.
“Ready?” Finn said, his hands against the bed frame.
Philby, selected as a DHI in large part for his brainpower, did not need to hear what Finn had in mind. He knew intuitively.
“One…two…”
On three the boys shoved the bed out of the way. The door flew open.
The Dapper Dan, who’d been pushing hard on the closet door, fell through and tumbled down onto the carpet. Finn and Philby ducked into the closet, hurried out the emergency door, and threw the bolt before the Dapper Dan had climbed to his feet. They had trapped him inside.
They hesitated on the landing.
“Up or down?” Finn asked Philby, the challenge obvious to both boys.
Philby looked down the stairs, knowing this meant safety. Then he looked at Finn. “If she gets free, we’ll never be safe again,” he said.
“Up!” the two boys said in unison.
The boys climbed the dark staircase, slowly at first, but then, holding the rail, Finn picked up the pace.
As they neared the top, the sound of the crowd grew louder. The stairs ended in a small stone chamber with an open window.
It took only seconds for Finn’s eyes to adjust. There was a young woman tied up in the corner. She had wings, and for a moment he thought she, too, was an Overtaker. Then he recognized her as Tinker Bell. She was a Cast Member, in costume.
Maleficent stood in the open window, her robe fluttering, the fireworks flashing colors in the sky beyond her. Now Finn saw the metal wire secured to the wall.
“Silly boys!” Maleficent said in a raspy voice. “The end is near.”
She jumped.
Finn ran to the window.
But she hadn’t fallen. Instead, she flew off, away from them.
She could fly!
But then Finn understood: near the conclusion of the fireworks show, Tinker Bell flew from the castle. Tinker Bell was actually a Cast Member riding a zip line from the castle onto a roof in Tomorrowland. But on this night, it wasn’t Tinker Bell riding the zip line.