the dessert cart rolling down the hall. The floor trembles as heavy boots run behind me. When I look over my shoulder, the same friendly werewolves that lovingly chucked me out the first time are coming for me.
They growl and snap at the air, teeth crunching like the grind of a bear trap. Yellow eyes and snouts elongating from their faces. I pull my scepter from between my shoulder blades. The light of the quartz fills the dark and doorless hallway. Their howl turns into a laugh, and I wonder if I’m heading out the right direction. I have a vision of two gnarly wolves tearing me to pieces, and I point the quartz over my head.
The charge comes quickly, from my chest, up my arms. The blast hits the ceiling, illuminating the falling debris. The bouncers howl and curse at me. A small fire builds quickly in the narrow hall. Smoke fills my lungs and the sprinklers rain down. I can see the red exit sign, and I push harder and harder until I’m out on the street.
I don’t know how big the Second Circle is, but I’m not where I started.
It takes me a second to orient myself.
Despite the familiar buildings, the area doesn’t look right without the usual crowds. I stand in the middle of the street. The lights change from green to yellow to red. There are no cars. No sirens. No passersby.
Instead, there are dozens and dozens of birds all along the fence that marks the New York Aquarium.
Ravens and golden eagles and even bats are beating their wings against the drizzle. Their cries form a united melody, a warning in song. I head straight for the aquarium, but I ram against an invisible barrier. I press my hands on the barrier, and every time I hit it, a tiny shock of electricity jolts me.
One of the ravens turns into a girl no taller than my chest. Her arms are wings and her hair is as black as her feathers. “Announce yourself.”
“You’re kidding me.”
The steely black look in her eyes tells me she isn’t.
“I’m Tristan Hart,” I say. I hold the scepter in my hand. The crystal emits a soft glow.
The raven girl dips into a short bow and opens her wing to the side. The force field opens. I can’t see it, but I can feel the temperature difference, like a line of heat separating the aquarium from the outside world.
When I take a single step forward, someone screams my name. Gwen is running down the street, soaked through and through.
I take her by her shoulders, concerned about the fear in her eyes. Gwen is never scared. “Are you okay?”
She nods and attempts to smile. There is no way she would ever admit to being nervous, so I take her hand and try to step through the doorway. But the raven girl closes it again and a sharp caw flies from her throat. “Frederik says only the Sea Prince is to enter.”
“She’s with me,” I growl.
The girl becomes a raven again and pecks at my hair before lining up with the others on the fence. But she does not stop us. We cross through the gate, where the cold, wet night doesn’t follow.
“Where were you?” I ask.
We sprint across the parking lot, cutting across to the entrance to the aquarium.
“The princesses,” she says. “They’ve all gone.”
The guard at the door doesn’t stop us. I don’t know what he is—human, android, ghost—and I don’t care. He nods at me once and opens the door.
This leads to the reef portion of the aquarium. Tanks are backlit with white and blue light. The ceilings are so low to the ground that I feel like I’m swimming through a tunnel. I look into the glass of the contained ecosystem. My breath fogs. The giant turtle swims directly at me. He presses his nose to the glass. There’s something in his eyes that is old and so eternal. A creature of the past. How do you survive, I wonder. How are you still here?
I snap around to see Gwen. It makes me laugh. She’s twisting her fingers with her own hands. She refuses to look at me. She’s staring at the tank of jellyfish. They bloom and glow like shimmering ghosts across the water.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I tell her.
“Tristan.” She touches my face. Her hands are so cold. I’m not ready to talk about what I’ve just seen, and whatever is on her mind, she isn’t going to