“But I doubt he’d choose his life over the rest of yours.” Nevertheless, Mrs. Brodigan climbed into the driver’s seat. “Very well, I’ll try not to kill us all. Where are we going?”
“I’ll tell you in a moment.” Rory met Jade’s gaze. “I hope.”
Rory had freed the ring from the safe, and now Jade pulled the box out of her purse with a flinch. “I’m never going to like the feel of lead.” She set her teeth but held the box. “You all right there?”
“Not even a little.” Rory let out a breath and stared at the small box as Mrs. Brodigan fired up the car’s engine. “But I’m gonna find him.”
“Of course you are,” Jade said firmly. Her gaze went to the box. “He’s going to kill me when he finds out I let you near this.”
“If he didn’t want us coming for him, he shoulda looked out for himself too.”
“Hear, hear,” Zhang said, from the front seat.
Rory put a hand out to hover over the box. “You and Zhang gonna be okay if we open this?”
“We’ve been around the ring before, we’ll be fine,” she said. “We don’t receive magic like you do and neither of us is fool enough to touch it.”
Rory nodded tightly. “I’m gonna talk a lot of bunk,” he warned Jade. “’S all right if you can’t follow, just shut the box before I’m too far gone.”
“You bet I will.” She squeezed his hand with an encouraging smile. “You can do this. For Ace, you could do anything.”
Despite his nerves, he smiled back. Then, as Mrs. Brodigan cautiously inched the car forward from its parking space, Jade opened the box and Rory reached for the ring.
The ship cuts through the black waters, no land to be seen, the night sky and the stars stretching endlessly in all directions. The ring glints on the finger of the man in clothes from history books, the long blue coat with gold trim, the white cravat. He’s standing beside the ship’s captain at the wheel, hard and unyielding as the ship rises and falls with each swell, his face to the bow and the ship’s course due west.
But the sky’s brightest star glints in the south.
The man from the past raises his hand and a gust of wind sweeps down the ship’s deck, billowing the linen sail with a thunderclap. The ship lurches forward with sudden speed, and a cruel smile twists his mouth. He wants more practice, wants to watch others beg for mercy. And with the galley full of worthless prisoners, no one will miss a few more mouths blown out to the sea—
But out in the sky, a southern star beckons.
That’s the way out, the way to Ace, Ace who needs Rory—
Rory’s eyes popped open. He blinked hard for a moment, still seeing the pale man with his cruel smile.
Then the man’s ghost was gone, banished by Jade’s beauty and worried eyes. The box was in her hand, closed now. Zhang’s astral projection had come through the car’s seats and almost seemed to be holding her hand.
“Rory?” she whispered, with guarded hope, as the city’s lights twinkled like stars behind her. “Did you get out of the ring’s past? Are you with me?”
He was. Best of all, the vision of the ring was gone, but somewhere deep within himself, he could still feel the faint path to Arthur. “They took Ace south. I can find him. But what’s south of Manhattan where you’d take an amulet that controls the sea?”
Zhang exchanged a look with Jade. “Long Island?”
“If it’s Brooklyn,” said Jade, “they could have gone to Coney Island.”
Chapter Thirty
Arthur woke from the blackness in a jarring instant to find himself in even more jarring circumstances: chained to the base of the Wonder Wheel on a freezing January night in nothing but trousers, a silk shirt, and his waistcoat.
Wonderful. He rested the back of his head against the wooden support beam behind him and looked around. Four armed guards scattered around the platform and Gwen, sitting inside the Ferris wheel’s closest passenger car. She was wearing a thick, long coat, her eyes closed and her legs drawn up and crossed under her. Ellis was nowhere to be seen, but Arthur knew better than to assume he wasn’t around.
“So.” He cleared his throat. “Once a friend, now a prisoner at an amusement park. Do I have you or Ellis to thank for this?”
“What do you think, Ace?” she said, not opening her eyes. Beside her was a small box, narrow and long like a pencil case. The amulet.
“My money’s on Ellis.” Arthur’s hands were cuffed behind him and he arched his back as he flexed his arms, testing his chains. He got only the cold bite of metal against his wrists and the painful jab of the wooden support beam digging between his shoulder blades. “Choosing Coney Island has his flair for the dramatic.”
“Dramatic?” There was a small pop and Ellis was suddenly visible on the loading platform just a few feet away. “Bit rich coming from you.”
