Rory deliberately shrugged. “That doesn’t sound special. And it looks like a rock.”
“It’spriceless.” Shelley leaned in toward Rory, holding the choker an inch away from her neck so his eyes were drawn to the gray stone. “This is magnetite, marked by lightning and magic, a magnet like no other.”
“You’re running your mouth,” Hyde started.
“I can say what I like,” Shelley snapped. “You forget your rank, dog.”
Hyde’s eyes sparked with what might have been red, and Rory caught a bigger flash of teeth. Then Hyde closed his eyes, and was taking a deep breath through his nose, loud enough to fill the space of the tiny compartment. Sebastian looked sideways at him, one eyebrow raised, like he was used to Hyde’s rages.
Shelley ignored them both. “A compass can use a magnetized lodestone to find north,” she said to Rory. “Butthislodestone is different. Special.” She held it a little higher. “It reverses the polarity of magic.”
Rory furrowed his brow. “Polarity?”
“It reverses the direction the magic goes.” She leaned in and whispered, “It makes subordinate magic insubordinate.”
Rory met her eyes in shock.
“It’s a marvel.” Shelley closed her eyes, hand over the stone. “I read the dreams of others. Before the stone, if I was near someone else asleep, their dreams came to me, whether I was awake or asleep, assaulting my mind whether I wished to view them or not.” She smiled again. “But now, I am the Sandman. I wield dreams—and nightmares—like weapons.”
Rory drew in a breath.Don’t react. Don’t let on that you know John Kenzie. Don’t connect yourself to Arthur.
“Your magic’s so useless,” Hyde said derisively, drawing Shelley’s glare. “So you gave a politician a few bad dreams. So what? You never managed to learn anything useful about Coney Island. You never helped us findGwen.”
Shelley made a fist. “I gave JohnKenziedreams of his brother. I would have thought you of all people would appreciate that, Hyde.”
Hyde ran a tongue over a fang. “I don’t care aboutJohn.” He stretched his hands, still in their black gloves. “It’s the youngest Kenzie I want andyoumade us leave before that happened.”
Rory clenched his fists, just managing to bite his tongue. He’d find a way to call the ring and a tempest from New York before he’d let Hyde get a claw near Arthur.
Sebastian huffed. “You two fight so much.” His eyes stayed on Rory, though, and when he pointed at him, Rory caught a glimpse of the tattoo on his pulse point. “I want to know more about Giovacchini’s magic.” Rory’s Italian name rolled off his tongue more smoothly than either Shelley or Hyde had said it.
Hyde smiled with a cruel edge. “If he won’t tell us, let’s put the lodestone on him and see what happens.”
Rory’s eyes widened.
“No.”Shelley covered the necklace with her hand. “It’s mine.” She sneered at Hyde and Sebastian. “I also told the baron about both of you. He knows of your reluctance to follow my lead.”
Hyde’s eyes flashed, but Sebastian spoke first. “Telepaths know too much,” he said, which made Shelley’s nostrils flare.
She sat back against the seat with a huff. A moment later, she was playing with the lodestone, seemingly oblivious to the way Hyde was now watching her instead of Rory.
Rory considered screaming. He took a shallow breath.
Hyde’s eyes immediately landed on him. “Give me a reason,” he said, showing his fangs. “I’m bored and angry and there’s a family in the next compartment whose children sound delicious.”
Rory choked down any sound and quickly looked out the window, lips firmly shut.
The landscape changed from snow-covered trees and scattered towns to a denser city, with gray snow frozen along the sidewalks and multistory buildings pressing in along the railroad tracks. The deeper they went into the city, the fancier the buildings got, with graceful arches carved over windows and domed peaks on roofs, until the buildings abruptly disappeared, replaced by neighboring trains as they pulled into a big station.
“Broad Street,” the conductor called from somewhere down the corridor. “Next stop’s Wilmington.”
Broad Street station. Rory wracked his brain, trying to think how long they’d been on the train and where he might’ve heard that station name. “Are we in Philly?”
Hyde leaned forward. “Just keep those cuffs covered,” he said, gesturing at the scarf hiding Rory’s hands. “We’re catching another train.”
The trains were covered by small shelters, a few fire-marked remains of what must’ve been a bigger train shed around them. There were trains on every track and people hurrying every which way, just like New York.
They took an elevated line out of the station, heading to the moon for all Rory knew. Hyde’s hulking figure was within inches of Rory at all times. His hand would reach out and rest on Rory’s shoulder in a way that would’ve looked easy and friendly to an outsider, but Rory could have sworn he could feel the claws even through the gloves and layers of clothes.
