“Best of luck,” Gwen said to Rory, arms around Ellis’s neck as he yanked the cork out of the vial with his teeth.
There was an explosion of orange smoke—
And then Ellis and Gwen were gone.
“No!” Rory lunged forward, but there was nothing but empty space. Ellis and Gwen had vanished and the ocean was still in retreat, far enough he couldn’t see the water’s edge anymore. His stomach dropped into his shoes. “Tidal wave,” he whispered.
“Teddy!”
Rory ripped his gaze away from the water and looked up.
Arthur was sprinting over the boardwalk. “Catch!” He launched something into the air. It soared over the railing, over the sand, and smacked Rory right in the chest.
The ring box.
Without thought Rory opened it and slid the ring on his finger. Magic coursed like a lightning strike through his blood, and he called on the power, on his visions.
Show me how to unlock it. Show me how to make it work.
He closed his eyes.
The woman holds the ring out to the pale man in the blue coat and white cravat, her hands still coated with the blood of her victim. “I’ve made it ready to cage your magic,” she says, and smiles darkly. “El viento.It will be a tempest in a ring.”
The man matches her smile. He takes the ring and holds it to his mouth in cupped hands, then closes his eyes—and exhales.
Wind. Blood and breath.
And with Gwen’s blood still coating his own bleeding hand, Rory held the ring to his lips and blew.
Arthur stood frozen on the boardwalk. Beyond the too-big beach, he couldseethe wave building in place, unnatural as sin, magic stacking it higher and higher, stronger and stronger. It gave off a strange roar that vibrated the beach, like a dragon about to lose its fire. Rory had put on the ring, but there was no running from a tidal wave—
Jade’s and Mrs. Brodigan’s footsteps thundered on the boardwalk behind him, but it was too late; the wave was as tall as a building and it was starting to curl, nothing between the three-story tidal wave and Brooklyn except the tiny figure of Rory on the beach.
Rory suddenly swept his hands out in front of him.
The air went still.
Then, in the distance, there was a high-pitched whistle.
Arthur’s eyes went wide. “Get down!” He leapt for Mrs. Brodigan, flattening her to the boardwalk just as a gale force wind swept across Coney Island.
Jade hit the wooden planks next to him. “The lamppost—I’ll cover us!”
She seized Mrs. Brodigan’s hand and together they pulled her to the iron lamppost on the boardwalk’s edge. Arthur clung to the post and did his best to shelter both women with his bigger body, his shirt flapping like a sail on his back as the wind cut above their heads. The torn fabric of the booths’ bright roofs sailed overhead as storefronts splintered and the Wonder Wheel creaked and groaned. He squinted up into the sky in time to see a giant wooden duck from the shooting gallery spiraling through the air straight toward them—
Jade curled her fingers and the duck careened off to the left. “Magic’s back?” he yelled into the wind.
“Zhang is too!” She threw up a hand and a sign for honey-roasted peanuts changed course right before it collided with their lamppost. “Look at Rory!”
Arthur managed a look back at the beach, eyes watering from sand and wind. The magic wave was churning but restrained, kept at bay by the magic wind. Two forces of nature at war, and between them was Rory.
Arthur held his breath.
Rory abruptly threw his arms out to either side and the wave surrendered. It poured itself straight down, like water tipped from an upside-down cup. It spread in a thin layer as it ran over the sand all the way up to the three of them huddled at the boardwalk’s edge.
Not a tidal wave, just a too-high tide.
Then Rory toppled over.
