“That ring isn’t coming out of that sphere unless you’re incorporeal or you’ve got something that will let you slice through brass,” Zhang said dryly. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Rory eyed the sphere for another moment. He was pretty sure the tingling in his finger wasn’t his imagination. “Yeah,” he said, with feeling. “It’s definitely for the best.”
Jade traced a finger along the spine of a book on the lowest shelf. “Rory said the pomander relictastedwrong. That it left scorch marks where it rested.” She looked up. “What did that mean to you, Jianwei?”
Zhang looked uncomfortable. “Violation magic.”
Rory shivered, not really knowing why. “What’s that mean?”
“Most magic is neutral enough,” said Zhang. “You can’t see a person’s past with psychometry, for example, and you can’t violate an antique. To hurt someone with your magic, you’d have to decide to cause harm. But violation magic is a trespass against another person, no matter how pure the intentions of the user.”
Rory sat in one of the cushioned chairs along the wall, green velvet with gold trim. “What kinda magic are we talking?”
“There’s a few things,” said Zhang. “Magic that violates privacy, like telepathy or dream-reading. Magic that violates control—not telekinesis, control of things, but mind control, control of a person. Magic that violates the body’s agency, like blood magic.”
“Bloodmagic?” Rory glanced at Jade, hoping she’d tell him this was a bad joke, but she was staring into space with a troubled look. “And you think that’s why it tasted wrong and scorched the air? Because this pomander’s, what? Full of violation magic?”
“Not just full of it,” Jade said softly. “Strengthening it. Feeding it on its own magic until, like the ring, it takes whatever the original magic was and turns it into the equivalent of a tempest.”
Rory sat back in the chair, wide-eyed.Violation magic.Magic that could act on someone whether they wanted it or not. His stomach suddenly lurched. “Is my link with Arthur violation magic?”
Jade and Zhang glanced at each other, their silence lasting a moment too long.
“Aw geez, it is.” Rory buried his face in his hands as he remembered his last visit here, when he’d asked if Pavel could make a link like his. “That’s why Pavel might not want to make a link with someone else even if he could.”
“Rory, no,” Jade said, just as Zhang said, “It’s not the same.”
“How’s it not the same?” Rory demanded, not looking up. “I made the link without Ace’s permission. It violates his aura—”
“He says he invited it in,” Jade said firmly. “Do you really believe that your magic would stay in Ace’s aura if it wasn’t welcome? If it was hurting him?”
“It hurt him this morning,” Rory whispered.
“You don’t know that,” Zhang said. “It could have been the pomander’s magic traveling through the link, not the link itself.” His face was set in lines of frustration as he took a seat at the table, reaching for the biggest book. “Did you see anything else in that vision that could help us? Any other magic that could be the reason I can’t find the other paranormals?”
Rory pursed his lips. “Miss Shelley was wearing a necklace. It wasn’t anything special, but you couldn’t help but notice it. That Barnes fella pointed at it, said it must have been powerful if Shelley was wearing it. He called it the lodestone.”
Jade and Zhang looked at each other.
“Oh geez,” said Rory. “Don’t tell me Ace kept something else from me.”
“Just that Edgar Barnes was Luther Mansfield’s lawyer, and we recovered all of Mansfield’s supernatural items save for one: an item from a safe-deposit box.”
“A lodestone?” Rory didn’t have to guess, it was obvious from their faces. “So, what, this lodestone lets them disappear?”
“Maybe.” Jade sounded doubtful. “But you saw them at the library, and then at Grand Central. Was Shelley wearing the lodestone then too?”
Rory thought back to his scrying and nodded.
“So if they could use the lodestone to hide, then why not hide the entire time?”
“It sounded like someone else showed up at the information booth,” said Rory. “Right before they disappeared. But who’s got a power to hide people from time or the astral plane?”
Zhang sat up straighter. “Maybe it’s not from time. Maybe it’s from magic.”
Rory furrowed his brow. “What d’you mean?”
“You see history, but you need magic to do it,” said Zhang. “I can see the city from the astral plane, but that also needs magic.”
