Roderick touched the brim of his top hat and vanished. I was left behind in the rushing wind, pretty convinced my stomach was about to force itself out my throat. What was Roderick’s last name again? Roderick… Roderick Byrne?
“Yeehaw!” Vince howled. We’d already torn past the Empire State Building. He raced up a slanted, mirrored roof and leapt off the tip. I think that was the Bank of America building. Had anyone inside seen a centaur running up the windows, a faerie riding on his back?
Trees surrounded us. We were in Central Park now. People out for a midnight stroll or jog were scattered here and there. We raced through the rustling trees, headed north. Great Hill was in the northwest corner of the park.
“Here’s good, Vince,” I said.
I had him stop near Park West and 103rd Street. I put my feet on the ground and staggered, feeling dizzy. Vince hadn’t been able to cut loose like that in a while, and clearly it hadn’t been enough to take the edge from his energy; his hooves stamped restlessly, and his tail flicked this way and that.
“One more favor: Let some alchemist leader know that Dean is trying to pull a fast one on everybody. You probably know who’ll need that information. They’ll definitely want to stay out of anything involving Lindel.”
“Lindel?!” Vince stopped pacing for a moment, blinked a few times, and nodded. “Wow. No wonder that leaf was so powerful. Right, I think I know an alchemist who lives over on Gramercy. They find out, word’ll soon spread to the other alchemists.”
“Thanks. I’ll go face down the bad guy.”
“Careful, Jack,” Vince said, bending down. He pulled me in for a rare hug. “I mean it. You watch your back.”
Vince turned and dashed off into the city again, the treetops thrashing in his wake. I took a deep breath, waiting for my head to stop spinning, then turned toward the trees.
There was no one around. The alchemist must’ve been warding them off. Even the lights outside the park seemed dim and the air oppressive. I figured I’d have to search for Dean, but as I took one step forward, a threatening voice emerged from behind a tree.
“I said not to use magic, Jack.”
“I didn’t. I just got a ride,” I said, trying to sound dignified.
Evan Dean stepped out of the darkness, surrounded by gangsters in black suits. Bound, gagged, and blindfolded, they shoved forward Jeffrey, Laura, and…
“Larry!”
A silver cord bound his feet together. They’d gagged him, but my brother was here. He’d clearly tried to change into wolf form and fight, but they’d pinned him down. That silver cord must’ve sealed his faerie magic. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. I felt tears welling up. How horrible!
“You brought it? Let’s see it,” Dean said.
“Hell no. Release the hostages first.”
I folded my arms and stood firmly, legs apart. Inside, I desperately hoped my backup would arrive soon. Either Roderick’s ghost army or a group of flustered New York alchemists would be just dandy. For now, I had to buy some time and wait for my chance to teach this disgusting dirtbag a lesson. The leather pouch burned against my skin.
“I should have realized why you were so insistent about me handing the dragon egg over, Dean. You heard about the egg and planned on using me to make off with it yourself. You pretended to sell it to Diefenbaker, gave Jeffrey the fake, and when you learned he’d made off with the real one, you had me fetch it, planning to slip away with it once I delivered. You think you could fool Lindel? Or were you planning on telling him I’d screwed up and failed to recover it?”
“Stop running your damn mouth off, halfling,” Dean said. Even in the dark I could see the sweat pouring down his face. “I never liked you two. You’re just changelings, but you waltz around like you own the place! ‘Jack the Flash’? Gimme a break. I’m done being yanked around by everybody! They can all go to hell! If I’ve got that egg, I can be the most powerful alchemist on earth! Lindel? An old mage holed up at the edge of the world? What can he do to me? Now gimme that egg!”
“Come and get it, if you can.”
“I’ll shoot them!” he cried.
“Then I’ll throw this egg so deep into the faerie realm even I won’t know where it is. It’ll be somewhere untouchable, packed with the kinda faeries that swarm around sleigh beggy. They’ll take it away where you can never get it.”
His underlings definitely looked nervous. Several had guns but seemed unsure where to aim. Dean had clearly hired them without explaining anything about magic or alchemy. Given what he was trying to pull, he didn’t have much choice.
“Um, Mister,” one said, unable to wait any longer. “Would you mind explaining just what’s going on here?”
“Shut up!” Dean snapped, veins in his neck throbbing. He waved a hand, and the speaker reeled backward as if punched in the face. The guy slammed into a tree and didn’t move again.
“Stay still!” he yelled, when the rest of them began backing away.
He looked at me again, his eyes bloodshot.
“Gimme that egg. Now. Give it here before it’s too late!”
“Too late, how? Hell, it doesn’t matter, because I’m not ever giving this to the likes of you.”
I pulled out the pouch and knelt down. It spun at the end of the glittering gold thread. “You come to me.”
Dean howled. He lowered his head like a wild thing and charged. Magic energy rose up within me, crumbling his spell. Dean’s chant became a roar, spell after spell growling like thunder, the magic stitched together like a quilt. The spell shattered, vanishing into the earth.
Dean knocked me aside. Naturally, he’d cast faerie wards on himself. He tried grabbing me, but I ducked under his hand and jumped backward. I looked for help from the spirits in Central Park, but he must have driven them off beforehand since none were in sight. Dean knew well enough that the spirits of nature would take my side.
I jumped and swung from a tree branch, concentrating my magic in the center of his goons. They were already shifting on their feet, and this knocked them down like bowling pins. Trussed up, Jeffrey and Laura collapsed to the ground.
“Jeffrey? Laura!” I cried.
The ropes around them fell away. They were fine; still breathing but unconscious.
I looked at the giant gray wolf lying next to them. Larry’s eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. I tried reaching out but winced at the pain, like an electric shock. The silver cord gleamed, writhing in a threatening way. It reacted to faerie magic, absorbing and reflecting it back at us.
“Larry! Larry!”
Enduring the tingling shock, I shook the wolf’s head. Dean had bespelled his gag. It felt like touching dry ice barehanded, draining all the heat in my body, sucking my magic as well as Larry’s.
“Jack,” he groaned, his eyes opening. The golden fires in his gaze had dimmed, nearly going out. He could only open his mouth a little, and a weak boy’s voice emerged. “No. Too dangerous. Run…”
Something shot past my face as I turned. Larry let out a shriek, and his head flopped to the ground again.
His fur turned red, his blood dripping onto the ground.
The gunshot seemed so drawn out. Behind me stood a man with his back to a tree. Broken sunglasses hanging off his face, he held a gun in shaking hands.
“You idiot!” Dean shrieked. “Don’t make her mad! If you do that, she’ll—”
Me?
What about me, asshole?
I think I turned around. Probably.
It felt more like the world spun in place around me, like I was standing between two funhouse mirrors. Dean’s tense face occupied the center of that world.
An incredible wind blew in my ears. The sound of my magic faerie blood ran wild. My twin was injured, and part of me screamed with pain and terror. The pain Larry felt, the chill of the blood leaving him, gripped my heart like a vise. The dragon egg that dangled between my breasts still burned with a powerful heat.
“How dare you?” I whispered. “How dare you!”
Dean screamed something, holding a hand out toward me. Too late; I’d totally lost control. An incredible amount of magic rushed out of me, all of it directed at Dean. The air swirling around me was as cold and sharp as a razor blade. The trees shuddered, swaying to and fro erratically. My hair stood on end, the fangs in my mouth sharpening. Goosebumps covered my skin; a golden sheen coated me. I was sure my face no longer looked human.
The silver cord that bound Larry thrashed, snapped, and disappeared. His gag vanished as well, unable to absorb the sheer quantity of magic my anger had unleashed. The man who’d shot Larry screamed and threw his gun away. It turned red on the grass, melting to nothing in a matter of seconds.
But something was odd; Dean continued screaming. He should have long been vaporized like the gun, the full force of my anger trained on him. Naturally, he’d chanted a spell to fight it, but against this much magic he wasn’t nearly powerful enough to stay standing.
I realized that something was rapidly draining my magic—something other than the cord that had bound Larry. As my anger raged, I tried to see what was absorbing my power. Something close to me, right next to me. Something warm, small, pulsing…
Something floating in the air, tucked into a leather pouch around my neck.
The dragon egg.
Despite the powerful magical dampener on it, the egg shone so bright I could see it through the thick leather pouch. I tried controlling the flow of magic, but I couldn’t stop it. The edges of the pouch began peeling back.
The robin’s-egg-sized opal inside was like a beating magical heart. It was an ancient crystal of power.
I saw an entire world within its depths, a world teeming with magic. Memories woven through an eternity of experience swirled within it, taking form and unfurling.
Without thinking, I reached out my hand. The dragon egg hovered over my palm, its light blinding as it slowly changed shape.
Tiny, thin, rainbow-colored wings, transparent as soap bubbles, unfolded. Droplets of light scattered all around as a narrow head reared, delicate as a baby bird.
Its eyes were like two night skies, each containing the full breadth of the universe.
It looked up at me and opened its still-soft beak.
“Jakku?”
Suddenly, the sky fell.