We’re completely exposed, out in the open, arriving beside a large, stone arch monument that sits at the entrance to a paved square in New York. Lucian called it the Washington Arch when he described it to the rest of us. The monument is so large that I have to crane my head back to see the top of it way above us.
Even though it’s nighttime on this side of the world, and we’ve arrived in the shadows near the edge of the paved area, the keeper is ready with his magic to compel any passing humans to forget they saw us.
But I’m thrown when there are no people milling about. No humans. No supernaturals.
The place is unnervingly quiet and deserted.
“It’s early evening,” I whisper. “Shouldn’t there be humans about?”
The dark elves and Lucian have immediately fanned out around me while the keeper stays close to my side.
Before we left the island, the keeper conjured sunglasses for both Lucian and me to hide our golden eyes—real sunglassesusing his dark magic. He also quickly placed an illusion on the elves’ ears so they appear rounded. He left their unusually-colored hair alone since Lucian was adamant that humans color their hair all different shades so it shouldn’t matter.
At least, now that the elves aren’t stuck in panther form, the keeper doesn’t have to camouflage them as pets.
“This isn’t normal,” Lucian says. “Even at night, there should be people around.”
The human statue carved into the nearest side of the arch seems to glare down at me from above.
“We need to leave.” Anarchy’s teeth are sharpening and her eyes are changing to a silver color as if she’s on the verge of shifting into her panther form.
“I agree.” The keeper growls. “There’s magic at play here. Warlock magic. I can sense it.”
I don’t disagree. My skin is crawling and for once, it’s nothing to do with my wings. But I spin to Lucian. “How long will it take you to find Jonah’s lighter?”
When I first met Jonah, he was carrying a small, golden object with a lid that he seemed to enjoy clicking open and closed. Inside it, a tiny flame would light up that burned brightly every time.
He apparently hid that lighter here in the arch as a way for Lucian to contact him. One click of the lighter’s flame and Jonah will sense it from afar. I’m not entirely sure how that magic works, and Lucian wasn’t, either, but he was adamant Jonah wouldn’t have lied to him about it.
“Ten seconds,” Lucian replies. “I can be quicker because there aren’t humans around.”
“Do it.”
Once we have the lighter, we can get of here and find a safer place to summon Jonah.
Lucian doesn’t waste time. His wings thump out at his sides and with a single beat, he carries himself high up near the top of the arch. He coasts there for all of three seconds before he seems to spot what he’s looking for, darting forward to pluck it from between the stone crevices.
Rapidly retracting his wings, he drops to the ground again, holding the lighter up for me to see.
“Good,” I say. “Let’s get out of here.”
The keeper’s translocation magic bursts outward, ready to sweep us away, but not fast enough.
At the side of the square, only twenty paces away from our location, a male figure suddenly appears from out of nowhere.
He’s in a crouched position, his hands outstretched, both palms covered in tattoos that gleam in the darkness. He’s dressed in a suit, the shirt unbuttoned at the top, and has neatly-cut hair, a strong jaw, and eyes that are bright with magic.
I recognize him as the warlock named Orlan, who works for Halle.
The misty haze of transportation energy forming around the keeper streams instead toward Orlan’s glowing palms. Within seconds, the warlock has sucked the magic away and continues to do so as fast as the keeper can produce more of it.
“Fuck,” I whisper, since it looks like we aren’t going anywhere just yet.
My family quickly forms a protective circle that fans out on either side of me, each of them facing outward.
“Okay, Orlan,” I call. “What do you want?”
The warlock slowly rises to his feet, his focus on the keeper. His palms hover close together. When he used his magic on the train to produce daggers from thin air, he clapped his hands together to trigger the magic first.
