“I can’t.” Rory closed his eyes, remembering the water rising to catch him, the feeling of the current bearing him up to the surface. “I think Gwen saved my life.”
Arthur groaned. “Ofcourseshe did.”
Rory tried to sit up enough to see over the edge of the boat, remembered he wasn’t wearing his glasses, and gave up. “Is she coming back after us?”
Arthur struggled up to his elbows, chin raised as he squinted into the dark. “No,” he finally said. “Their ship is far down the Delaware, almost lost around the bend.”
Rory blew out a big breath. “And where are we?”
Arthur craned his head to look over his shoulder. “The current has brought us almost back to the pier, safe and sound. There’s a crowd waiting for us. God, I hope someone has a towel.”
Rory snorted. He stared up at the blurry sky, soaked and freezing but alive. “They’re letting us go.”
Arthur sighed. “I really wish she and Ellis would do us the courtesy of deciding whether they’re baddies now or not.”
Rory couldn’t help it; he laughed. He rolled onto his side, Arthur close enough he could see him even without glasses. “If we didn’t have an audience, I’d kiss you right now.”
Arthur smiled as the crowd grew loud. “Hold that thought for me,” he said, just as their boat came into range of the pier.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The crowd on the dock was a mix of angry passengers demanding new tickets, angry dockworkers who didn’t understand how the ship had sailed away on its own, and two frustrated police officers trying to keep the peace and solve the mystery of the disappearing ocean liner and the two men washed back up in a lifeboat.
Rory knew Arthur wasn’t quick to throw his name around. But he’d had taken one look at Rory shivering and mentioned, “my father, Congressman Kenzie,” and the next moment, the police had backed off their questions and someone had tracked down a pair of glasses that were close to Rory’s prescription. Sort of close. Close enough to get him back to New York, at least, and then he’d save up for a new pair. A new cap was just gonna have to wait even longer.
“Consider my statement given,” Arthur informed the officers, in a haughty tone entirely unlike himself. “It’s three sentences long:I went on a ship. I was hit on the head. I woke up in a lifeboat.I’m afraid I don’t know anything else.”
One of the officers frowned and pointed at Rory. “And what about your little friend here?”
Rory hunched his shoulders, but Arthur rolled his eyes imperiously. “My nephew, and the poor lad has dreadful luck every time he leaves the countryside. Now, are we free to leave? I’m afraid if you’re planning to arrest us, I’ll be calling my lawyer the first chance I get, and he’s also a Kenzie.”
The police exchanged an irritated glance but didn’t press. The crowd started rabbling again, upset Arthur and Rory weren’t talking, but Arthur just snagged Rory by the arm. “Come on,” he muttered. “Before they decide they have probable cause or the reporters find us.”
Rory was shivering hard by the time they made it down the waterfront street to the Cadillac, which still had one wheel up on the sidewalk. “Did you bust your car?” he said in surprise, squinting ahead.
“It’ll get us to a hotel. I’ll call a garage in the morning. Let’s just be glad the police were too distracted to investigate.”
“But how’d you hit that lamppost?”
Arthur cleared his throat. “When the link broke.”
Oh. Rory bit his lip as Arthur tugged at the passenger door and finally got it open with a grunt and a jerk. “I didn’t know you’d feel it.”
Arthur paused, hand on the open car door. “Why did you break it?”
His voice was neutral, but something in his face was more vulnerable than normal. Rory quickly shook his head. “It, um, it broke itself. Right before Hyde put that pomander on me.”
Arthur glanced down at the lead-lined box in his hand, which still held the pomander relic.
“That’s terrible magic,” Rory said. “And my magic wasn’t gonna let it touch you again.”
Something softer flitted over Arthur’s face at that, then he frowned. “I know you wanted to give it to Pavel—”
Rory shook his head rapidly. “I meant what I said to Gwen. We can’t unlock it, we have to destroy it.” He swallowed. “Pavel would never pay the price to unlock it anyway.”
There was gratitude in Arthur’s eyes, but also sadness as he said, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
The screams fill the mansion as the man strides toward the balcony.Rory quickly shoved the remnants of the vision away and shrugged.
