Curtains of mist closed over the bright lights of Charmant. The mystical island blinked from existence as if I’d imagined it.
I was fond of imagining things.
Roger pressed his flask into my hand. I shook my head.
“You sure? It’s going to be a lot harder to find booze on the mainland.”
“I don’t want to drink another drop of his alcohol.” Bad enough that we were on his ferry.
Dewey was her hooch man. Her landlord. Her fiancé. And I was the guy whose parents killed her mother.
Roger held the flask upside down, letting the last meager droplets fall to the ocean. “Well, that was a whirlwind of a trip.”
That was an understatement.
Trys rubbed her temples. Dark shadows marred her ivory skin as she stared into the night. We’d found her waiting by the ferry, pale and dazed, but ready to go.
Once we reached New York, we’d have to splurge for a hotel so she could rest.
“We shouldn’t have left,” I said for the millionth time.
“It’s over.” Roger perched on the railing, the moonlight illuminating the boat’s wake behind him. “If you try to jump overboard one more time, I just might let you.”
We were much too far now to swim back, especially with those swirling tides.
Roger studied me as I backed away from the railing. The ordeal with his family chasing us away had rattled him.
“I should have told you about my parents,” I finally said.
“So tell me now.”
I did. I told him everything, from the déjà vu I’d experienced the moment I spotted Charmant, to the Night District orphanage and its tire swing, to Mag the Hag and the story she told that would haunt me forever.
By the time I finished, Charmant was long gone.
“Wow.” Roger shook his head. “I’m sorry, Jame-o. I really am.”
“No, I’m sorry. For what my parents did and for not telling you right away.”
“You’re no more responsible for their actions than Trysta is for the Chronoses’. Besides, it doesn’t sound as if they had much of a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” I gripped the side of the bench, staring at the moonlit waves. It’d been easy to idealize my parents, especially while I was still at St. Douglas’s. But they’d given in to the Chronoses’ demands. They’d killed three innocent, beloved women. For me.
“Do you blame Rose Effigen for trying to take your life in order to save her son’s?” His forehead crinkled. “Eerily similar method, now that I think of it: kidnap a child to make the parents do your dirty work. Is that your family’s preferred strategy, Trysta dear?”
Trys shot him a look. “We’re not monsters.”
“But George is.”
“And Dewey.” My blood boiled as I pictured his joyful smirk when the Revelles had turned on me. The possessive way he’d held Luxe close.
“Leave Dewey out of this,” Trys warned. “Luxe turned on you for her own reasons.”
“She didn’t turn on me. Dewey threatened me, and she thinks sending me away will keep me safe.” I was a fool for leaving, for letting her chase me off the island. “We have to go back.”
“Did you forget the angry mob? Or the fact that she’s marrying him?” Trys stared at me pointedly. “He gave her a diamond engagement ring. A huge one. If this was really about keeping you safe, she’d just charm him into leaving you alone.”
Her words cut like a knife, but she was right.
Jewel magic would be easy for Luxe. It wouldn’t even hurt her. We could have kept seeing each other, and Dewey would never have been the wiser.
But she’d sent me away.
Dewey’s my equal in power, Luxe had said. My equal in magic. My equal in life. In the end, had that mattered more than whatever there was between us?
Trys ran her palms along the wooden cane Roger had found to replace the sleek black one that had burned. “I don’t mean to kick you when you’re down, I just—I shouldn’t have left.”
“How did you know to meet us on the dock?” Roger asked.
“I don’t know. I felt like I needed to find you guys and make sure you were okay. As much as I don’t want to blame my family, someone blackmailed Rose to kill Jamison. And it couldn’t have been Dewey. He was knocked out, too.”
I slumped on the bench beside her. Not only couldn’t I protect Luxe, but I needed my magical friends to take care of me.
Gone were the whimsical tides surrounding Charmant. Instead, the waves lapped against the hull in straight, lazy lines, carrying us back to New York, where booze was illegal and magic was hidden and weak. Three hours and a world away.
Roger slid off the railing and sat on Trys’s other side. “You and Colette really hit it off?”
“Do you know how she got me out during the Swap Trot?” A heavy smile fought its way to her lips. “Somehow, she unhooked one of my suspenders. I almost lost my pants.”
“So you like my sister because she tried to undress you?”
“I like her because she puts her heart into everything she does, even winning a ridiculous competition. But I didn’t even say goodbye.” Trys’s voice was flat, her eyes expressionless. “It doesn’t make any sense. I had every intention of staying longer and then catching up with you in a few weeks, but I just . . . left.”
Neither of them had been ready to go. They’d been lying to themselves about leaving since the moment we’d set foot in Charmant.
I jumped to my feet. “Let’s go back. Trys, you and Colette deserve a happy ending. And you, too, Roger. You didn’t end up speaking to Margaret, did you?”
Roger’s face fell. He’d finally been ready to see Margaret, to tell her family what we’d learned about Rose’s fate. “We left before I had the chance.”
“Then it’s settled. We stay on the ferry in New York and go right back to Charmant.”
But we’d be too late. By morning, Luxe would already be Mrs. Dewey Chronos. Soon they’d be standing on the stage of the new theater, hands clasped, declaring their love for all to see. And if watching them together didn’t kill me, the Revelles certainly would.
Another Wolffe punch to the gut would hurt less.
Roger arched a brow. “Might I remind you of the angry mob again?”
I waved a hand. “That was Luxe’s doing. She made a scene to keep Dewey from coming after me.” It was the only explanation—to accept that she didn’t care for me, that she truly preferred him . . . I couldn’t bear it.
Trys gave me a hard look. “If a time traveler wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
“You did die,” Roger mused. Seeing my blank look, he shrugged. “That crate on the promenade. Technically, it killed you, and Trys saved your life.”
My heart slowed to a stop.
“Charmant wasn’t kind to you, Jame-o.”
The roar in my ears drowned out his teasing tone, the crash of the waves against the ferry, everything. “How many times have I almost died since we arrived?”
Roger frowned. “Quite a few, actually.”
I ticked them off on my fingers. “The shipping crate on the promenade, which fell off Dewey’s ship. A Chronos tried to pummel me to death in that alley, but he turned into a corpse before he could finish the job. And then the fire . . .”
“. . . when a Chronos blackmailed Rose to shoot you.” Roger held his fist to his mouth. “A time traveler really has been after you all summer.”
“Dewey’s been after me all summer. No other Chronos has any reason to want me dead.”
“As convenient as it is to blame my brother for everything, he’s not a murderer.” Trys glared at us both. “Maybe he’s a little corrupt, like all politicians, but he’s not morally bankrupt.”
“He threatened me,” I reminded her. “He told Luxe he wanted me gone.”
“Look at you! You’re obsessed with his fiancée. You’re turning her into this innocent girl who’s marrying him against her will. But the truth is, she’s had him wrapped around her finger all summer, and she likes it that way.”
Another dry cough seized her, shoulders trembling as she struggled to regain control. She waved away the water Roger offered. “It can’t be Dewey,” she rasped. “If he’d been time traveling all summer, he’d be ancient.”
“He is ancient!” I exclaimed.
She rolled her eyes. “He looks like he’s in his thirties, not dead.”
That snake had spent the summer trying to convince everyone he was the benevolent benefactor. Like he’d just happened to catch Luxe when she fell that first night. Happened to have a new theater ready to go when the Revelles’ burned to the ground. When he burned it to the ground, making them even more reliant on him.
He was dangerous—and Luxe was about to tie herself to him irrevocably.
“It is rather suspicious,” Roger conceded, “but Trevor Edwardes confirmed that Dewey aged because he traveled back seven weeks. I asked Trevor myself.”
“You see? He couldn’t have done all those things,” Trys said. “Magic has strict, unbendable rules.”
“Magic doesn’t always follow the rules,” I pointed out. “How do you explain Rose Effigen turning into an old lady before she died?”
“Maybe you inhaled too much smoke and hallucinated. Or maybe her mother slept with a Chronos. It’s strange, but it doesn’t make my brother a murderer.”
Roger leaned against the railing. “Trys is right; the laws of magic don’t bend. Trust me. I’ve tried.”
“We’ve all tried,” Trys said. “Every single magic wielder in Charmant. It’s impossible.”
And yet Luxe had bent the laws of magic. I stared at my friends, the words lodging in my throat. It was her secret. But if Dewey had discovered it, she was in trouble. They all were.
“Luxe’s-magic-doesn’t-follow-the-rules.” The words rushed out of my mouth in an incoherent jumble. “She can charm without jewels or gems.”
Roger stilled. “Say what now?”
“She can charm without jewels.” They needed to believe me, needed to understand.
“How?”
“All I know is that it hurts. She experiences intense pain, then she can charm at will.”
“Impossible.” Trys waved a dismissive hand. “Magic requires checks and balances. Pain is too temporary.”
“That’s how she charmed Dewey all summer. He didn’t give her a jewel until today.”
Trys knew her brother well enough to believe that, at least.
Dewey’s my equal, Luxe had said, her eyes boring into me as though she wanted her words carved into my broken heart for eternity. My equal in power. My equal in magic. My equal in life.
I leaned closer, my mind spinning. “What if his magic bends the rules, too? What if he could transfer the cost to someone else? Like Frank Chronos. Or Rose Effigen.”
Roger paled.
Trys jumped to her feet. “You yourself just mentioned that he’s aged a decade!”
“I know how it sounds—”
“It sounds insane.” She shook her head. “You know I love you, Jamison, but it’s time to face the facts: You fell for a girl who likes pretty, expensive things. She fancied you for a bit but is marrying someone who can give her pretty, expensive things. You did the same thing with Betty. After so many years alone, when someone shows you a little love, you get stuck on them.”
The truth of her words hit like a punch.
But that wasn’t Luxe, was it? That was one of her masks.
My equal in power. My equal in magic. Those whiskey eyes burning with meaning. But her power was unparalleled. Her magic, unique.
Unless she was trying to tell me that Dewey’s magic was just like hers.
Her worst fear was a Chronos discovering her secret. If Dewey had realized what she could do, if he’d figured out a way to avoid the cost of his own magic, the Revelles were in deep trouble. We all were.
Dewey wasn’t just jealous; he was unfathomably dangerous. That’s why she was tying herself to him. Why she had me chased out of Charmant.
My body thrummed with the need to get back to her before she married the bastard. “We have to go back. We have to turn this ferry around now.”
“What? No!” Roger shook his head emphatically. “If it’s true, and Dewey has found a way to make other people age instead of him, that’s even more reason to keep you out of it.”
“But Luxe—”
“Jamison.” He gripped both my shoulders, forcing me to stop pacing. “When a time traveler is trying to pop you and you scram, you stay scrammed. You don’t go back.”
“She’s going to marry him.” I’d let her chase me away so easily, even though I knew this was what she did, over and over: self-sacrifice.
“By the time we get off this ferry and onto a new one, the ceremony will be done.”
“We have to do something!”
I hardly felt Roger let go of my shoulders, hardly heard Trys as she groaned, “You can’t be serious.”
“Look at him, Trys. A thousand time travelers couldn’t hold him back.” Roger glanced toward the captain’s room. “Maybe I’ll see if I can . . . convince the captain.”
“What are you waiting for?” I practically pushed him toward the staircase.
Roger took the stairs two at a time.
Trys glared at me. “I want no part in this.”
“I know you think I’m being ridiculous—”
“I do think you’re being ridiculous, but I want to go back. Not because my brother’s a murderous arsonist, but because I shouldn’t have left in the first place.”
“That could have been Luxe’s magic,” I said carefully, “charming you into wanting to leave.” To protect me. Everything Luxe did was to take care of the people who mattered to her.
I mattered to her. And I’d fallen for her act, just like everyone else.
Roger slid down the railing, out of breath. “So the bad news is I’ve definitely met this captain before and he definitely holds a grudge. No way he’s giving me a jewel.”
My heart sank. “What’s the good news?”
“There is no good news. There’s literally no way for us to get back to Charmant in time.” He winced. “I’m sorry, Jame-o.”
I scrubbed my fingers through my hair, ignoring the heavy sense of defeat. If only I could travel back in time. Or charm people into doing as I pleased. But I had nothing of value, except my mother’s brooch. And my words.
And, as Trys was fond of reminding me, my innocent face.
I stormed the stairs to the captain’s deck, calling to Roger over my shoulder, “Stay close behind, but don’t let him see you.”
The captain grimaced as I entered uninvited. His skippers jumped to their feet.
I raised my hands. “Sir, I’m sorry to disturb you, but you need to turn this boat around immediately.”
“Two in one night? Get ’im out of here.”
The skippers lunged for me, but I sidestepped them. “The girl I love is in danger and I know you have no reason to care, but I need you to turn this boat around so I can help her.”
His stern expression didn’t change, though he adjusted the gold band around his ring finger. “Dewey Chronos will have my head if I mess with the timetables. We’re due in New York in two hours. You can stay aboard and turn around then, if you’d like.”
“I don’t have two hours; I need to be back in Charmant in an hour, tops. Please, sir.” I reached into my pocket, and the skippers stiffened again, but I produced my mother’s brooch. “This is the most valuable thing I own. I’d like you to keep it. For your troubles.”
I lobbed the brooch at him. Frowning, he let go of the wheel to turn it over in his hands.
“I’m no Revelle,” I added hastily.
“If you were, you would ask for this back.”
“Keep it, sir. Please, help me get back before I lose her forever. I can’t breathe, thinking about what she’s going through. She’s the sweetest girl on the planet, sir. The most selfless, stubborn girl I’ve ever met. So help me keep her safe. Turn the boat around.” I backed toward the door again, moving slowly.
He sighed. “What’s her name?”
I blanched. “Excuse me?”
“Her name. The girl you love.”
I kept my gaze steady as I replied, “Luxe Revelle.”
Laughter bubbled from deep in his rounded belly. He turned to the skippers, their faces dripping with mirth. “Did you hear that? The Radiant Ruby herself. Even if we turned around right now, there’s no way you’d be back in time for the wedding. And no offense, but your pockets aren’t deep enough to compete with our new mayor.”
With my head hanging low, I continued my retreat.
“A piece of advice, fella. Save your money for a nice mainland girl. A Revelle will bring you nothin’ but trouble.”
I was halfway out the door when he tossed me back the brooch. I sidestepped the jewelry just in time.
Roger’s waiting hand reached out and grabbed it.
