Isqueezedmyeyesshut. Afterimages burst behind my eyelids. I opened my eyes and glanced at Mom, who was squinting out the window. “Mom, don’t stare at the sun.”
It wasn’t the sun. I knew it wasn’t, even as I jammed the accelerator down and Victorine’s SUV lunged through the intersection.
“Zelda,” Berron said.
“What?” I snapped. The barrier had gone haywire, Mom couldn’t leave, and now I was trying to pilot this behemoth through what was rapidly turning into rush hour.
“It’s coming closer.”
“Oh, no…” Poppy said, as she pressed against the window for a better view.
“What?” I nearly yelled. “What’s ‘Oh, no’?”
I didn’t need to ask. I just didn’t want to see.
The light turned green and horns blared behind us. I made them wait.
I made myself look.
Golden robes crackling with magic like electricity. Golden hair, floating unnaturally; locks curling in and out at the tips like octopus arms. And a face I never wanted to see again, turning toward me with glowing eyes. Smiling. A beautiful smile, on molten glass lips.
The Arcade.
I could have kept driving. I could have gotten out and walked. Over a bridge, through a tunnel; far, far away. Fat lot of good it would have done—it didn’t matter ifIcould get off this island, because none of the people I cared for could come with me.
“Berron. Poppy,” I said. “I’m going to drop you off. Take Mom home and keep her safe. I’m going after this…thing.”
“Zelda Hawkins, you will do no such thing,” Mom said.
“Mom, you are not getting involved in this.”
“Try getting me out of this car,” she said. “Just try. You won’t have any eyebrows left.”
I squeezed the steering wheel. “Please.”
“No.”
“It looks like it’s coming up 40th,” Poppy said. “Or maybe 41st. I can’t tell.”
“That’s the Manhattanhenge alignment,” I said, turning down an avenue. Skyscrapers made the Arcade disappear, and for a few moments, I could imagine that everything was normal—until I made another turn and saw the Arcade floating over the New York Public Library, high in the air above the two famous lions. “What’s she doing?”
“Nothing good,” Berron said.
“Oh, youthink?”
“What are those silver swirly things?” Mom said.
“What silver swirly things?” Then I saw them: fine threads of silver wrapping themselves around her, turning gold.
“That’s magic,” Poppy said. “She’s… absorbing it?”
“From where?” Mom said.
“New York,” Berron said. “Like the Forest of Emeralds.”
“Not if I can help it,” I said.
“She’s floating in the sky,” Poppy said. “How are we going to reach her?”
