

### The Signs of Sound

### by

### ATLAS IRELAND

atlasireland.com

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Copyright 2018 Atlas Ireland

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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All rights reserved.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

For K and V

with all my love

and for R, because he's such a good boy

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Epilogue

Connect with Atlas Ireland
CHAPTER 1

The only treasure little Jacy Marwick had managed to keep a secret all his life was a picture he'd once found in the attic when he was very, very little. All he remembered of that first house was the intense smell of roses that had seeped through the windows whenever the breeze found its way in. And when they'd moved to London, the photo was the first thing he'd tucked into his socks — so that his mother wouldn't find it.

The focal point of the image was the myriad of fireworks going off above the lake. They reflected in his father's eyes and the sparkling water behind. It must have been a celebration, with a bunch of people in the background and two in focus on either side of his dad — a girl and a boy in their teens. All three of them were grinning at the camera. The pang of jealousy he'd felt in his early years had dulled a little, only to be replaced by sad wondering about who those people were and the bittersweet hope that maybe, one day, Jacy would spot their faces in a crowd and ask them about his dad.

So, standing in London's Victoria & Albert museum, one of the largest in the world, looking at a photo covering half the wall of a cavernous hall, Jacy blinked.

There it was, the winning entry of the national photo competition, which his mother had helped organise — dragging him along after school in the process. The fact that he might have been grasping at straws didn't even cross his mind, it looked that familiar.

The picture showed a misty lake, sitting below stormy clouds, shielding the setting sun from view. But it was the outline of the mountains on the edge of that lake that Jacy now traced with his eyes, as he has done so many times before — only on another, more worn photo, almost identical to the one on the wall.

Jacy stepped closer, careful not to draw attention to himself, reading the caption below it.

_Japan. The photo is entitled_ Hunting Dreams _, representing the idyllic ..._

This photo had exactly the same viewpoint, as if someone had been standing in the exact same spot taking both pictures. It was in Japan.

With a craving need to hold the picture, Jacy took his backpack off and fished his photo out with his fingertips. He smoothed it out with his palm. The years were becoming visible, especially in the corners, however much he tried to look after it. Carrying it around with him wherever he went didn't help.

Through all the times he'd searched for a clue that would bring him closer to his father, he had analysed every little detail of the photo, from the little book pattern on the girl's scarf, the mountain in the background, to the square shape of a man's glasses in the crowd. At times he entertained himself by creating stories around it.

Maybe it was the birthday party of a relative? Maybe ...

Well, he had thought of it all, but he so wished he could ask his father. Sometimes he was lucky — sometimes he managed to talk with him in his sleep. He was even luckier if he could remember the conversation the next morning — talking about school, mean classmates, bad grades and getting real advice from his dad, even if it was just a dream.

The high museum windows let the still moonlight shine through, only the shadow of the gentle wind rustling a few leaves danced on the walls. The half-term holiday was supposed to start soon and Jacy was set on enduring the remaining time with as little human interaction as possible.

But he couldn't drown out the sound of Vincent, his step-father, fake laughing while rubbing elbows with the buyers in the adjacent hall, so Jacy pulled on his headphones and stared at the photo on the wall some more. He had clear instructions: don't run around, don't leave the building and don't cause trouble. Simple enough.

A rustle sounded from behind him. He slipped off the headphones and turned around, but no one was there. Shrugging, he was about to turn back to survey the mountain range, when something caught his attention.

One the windowsill of the north-facing wall, there was a leaflet which Jacy hadn't noticed before. _Strange_ , he thought, _that's the only thing in the room apart from the art pieces exhibited_. Shrugging, he went to it to pick it up and throw it in the bin — but his hand froze above it.

It was a small, one-page leaflet with a paragraph and a large phone number across it.

' _International Family Tracing — British Red Cross | How can we help find your missing family?'_

It might have taken moments, Jacy wasn't sure, but eventually, he forced his mind out of its stupor and slid the leaflet into his backpack, right next to his father's photo. He didn't dare hold it in his hands, openly.

He walked out of the room very slowly, meandering around the building just to do something. All his thoughts were on that little piece of paper on top of the mess in his backpack.

* * *

Somehow he found himself on the second floor, a bit lost, trying to collect his courage to call the number. It was better not to think. The phone he had borrowed from his mother was in one of his hands and the leaflet he had fished out from the backpack in the other.

What did he have to lose? Jacy started pressing the numbers one by one. He had to redial twice because his fingers were slippery and slightly trembling. A few tourists threw him concerned glances but then got sidetracked by large Ancient Greek columns, showcasing the three major decorative styles of their time.

Finally, there was a ring. And another one. Listening to the sound in the receiver, through the sounds of his beating heart, Jacy was ready to hang up and drop it at any second. But then there was a click and a smooth voice.

'International Family Tracing, how may I help?' the voice was so perfect that it had a robotic quality to it. Was Jacy talking to an automated machine? He was so confused that he forgot that a reply was expected of him.

'Hello?' the voice said again.

'Hi ... Um ...' A blush was creeping up Jacy's cheeks, which was stupid because it was just a phone call.

'Are you looking for a relative?' the voice coaxed gently.

'Oh, no. No, no. Not me. Maybe.' He had to get his head in order. 'I was wondering ... what is it that you do?'

'We find lost relatives around the world.'

'Anywhere?'

The voice paused. 'Anywhere.'

'And if I don't know where he is?'

Another pause, a longer one. Jacy shook his head and looked around to see if anyone could have heard him — his father was a touchy topic at home. He should really think before he said things out loud.

'I think _you_ might, and that I can help,' the voice said.

Something in the tone of the voice made Jacy pause and repeat the sentence in his mind. 'Pardon?'

'Think, Jacy.'

_Jacy?_ Dread crept up his spine — he'd never said his name. Without thinking, he hung up and stuffed the phone in his pocket, getting rid of it as quickly as possible. Someone was playing a trick on him.

Yet, now, with it motionless and silent in his pocket, Jacy began to regret the reaction. Who could it have been? He almost expected it to start ringing any second. Surely, whoever it was would want to continue the joke. But nothing happened.

'There you are,' Jacy's mother appeared on the stairs. 'Do you still need my phone? I need to call our caterer. We're running out of wine.'

There were many questions whirling around his mind as she looked at him.

'You know when I asked you about my real dad?'

She slowed her steps and looked at him, pursing her lips.

'I didn't like it then and it's not going to be pleasant now, Jacy. Out of respect to Vincent, you shouldn't really ask. Where is this even coming from?'

'Vincent's not here now, Mum,' Jacy said.

'That does not change the facts,' she said. The facts were what Jacy heard many times before: that his father was in prison, that he was an awful person, that he deserved to be there, that he was never interested in Jacy, that he didn't even visit him on his birthday before he got locked up, and that everyone was better off without him.

But to Jacy these facts blended with what he felt every time his father talked to him in his dreams. Where he told Jacy the real facts — that he was innocent, that he loved Jacy very much, and that once he came out of prison he'd be there for Jacy, no matter what.

In his dreams, Jacy was not a murderer's son.

'But —,'

' _Do not even think about mentioning anything to her._ ' The whisper of the same voice that spoke to Jacy on the phone reached his eardrum.

He spun around. The hall was empty, he glanced behind the columns, but no one was there.

' _Jacy, act natural and stop arguing with your mother_ ,' the whisper came.

He looked back at his mother. She was regarding him in bewilderment. He angled his ears closer to the headphones — but the voice wasn't coming from there, either.

' _She'll get suspicious_ ,' the voice said.

Should he tell his mother there was a voice speaking to him?

' _If you tell her anything, I won't be able to help you help your father._ '

Yeah, he should probably say something to his mother ... Or he could just pretend everything was fine. Jacy cleared his throat.

'Sorry,' he said, trying to calm his voice. 'I won't ask.'

Thankfully his mother's expression softened. 'Thank you, dear. Are you alright? Keep the phone, I'll borrow Vincent's.'

Jacy nodded and quickly excused himself and rushed back to the room with the photo of the mountains. To be sure, he peeked behind every door, around every little hollow-eyed bust where someone could have been hiding, but found nothing.

'Are you there?' he whispered.

There was no answer.

He sat on the windowsill, with the phone in his hands. Dialling again, Jacy sighed.

There was a click, then there was silence.

'This is not the number for International Family Tracing, is it?' Jacy tried.

'No. But it is one that can help your father.' It was the same voice, this time more cheery.

'How do you know me?'

'I don't. And you don't know me. But I have a message from your dad.'

Jacy frowned.

'From prison?' was all that came to his mind to say.

'He's worried about you,' the voice said.

'I don't understand — he left.'

Somehow, the pause felt disapproving.

'You did pick up the leaflet, Jacy. You did call. So, I'm quite confident you don't actually believe that. What your mother choses to believe is her choice. '

Jacy did not remember his father. He had been about four years old when Ian Marwick had been sent to prison. And yet, what if this stranger was right — what if all those dreams were right?

'So, he ...'

'He needs help. He's in trouble. I will do what I can, but I need you to help me. And I can help _you_ , but if you chose to do nothing, then you're on your own.'

Now Jacy raised his eyebrows. He didn't understand how those things followed logically. But, they did mean that there was a chance that he could see his father.

'How do you know about me?' he asked.

'Same way I know about the photo in your bag.'

That was not an answer, but it didn't sound like the voice was going to elaborate. His hands shook slightly as he looked around the room once again. The emptiness of it echoed around him. No one was coming in to look at the artwork, and somewhere in the back of his mind it registered that his mother would not be happy with the no-show.

As his fear settled, Jacy felt somewhere in between disbelief and confusion. A stranger was telling him what he had wanted to believe as long as he could remember. Jacy couldn't stop himself from narrowing his eyes.

He lowered his voice and shifted his weight.

'How do I know you're telling the truth? You could be anyone. Why do you hide?'

There was a chuckle. 'You mean, why don't I just stroll up to your mother and ask her for a cup of tea and a helping hand in exonerating your father, maybe even breaking him out of prison? Besides the obvious, I'm not sure you're ready to hear.'

'I am,' Jacy said straightening his back. 'What do you mean?'

After a loud sigh, the voice spoke.

'Vincent has put a perimeter radar on you. If any form of magic comes within three meters of you, it will trigger an alarm.'

Yeah, no. He wasn't ready to hear that after all.

' _Magic?_ ' he glanced around himself. 'Vincent has it? I'm sorry, but that's not ... it's not really —'

'It is. But that's not the point.'

Jacy felt it was time to hang up right then. But he didn't.

'Um ... okay. And how do you know my dad?'

'I want to pay him back for helping me when I needed it. Plus, what happened to him was not right.'

This time Jacy didn't speak for a while. He watched as the ancient museum dust eddied past him.

'What I don't understand is how I can help, when he's in prison.'

'I'll be the one helping him, you will be helping me.' There was a sound of a gentle slurp, then a gulp, and whoever was on the other end of the line waited for Jacy's next question.

'Do _I_ have magic?' he added, hoping his voice did not reverberate off the brown stones too loudly.

'I don't know,' the voice chuckled slightly. 'But you can train. If it turns out that you do, it will likely be linked to your father, making it easier to help him.'

'Can you do magic?' he asked.

'I can.'

'Right ... So why don't you just teleport my father here ... or something?'

He hoped that wasn't too stupid of a question, and he listened in case they hung up.

'That's not what my power can do. Maybe yours does. But we don't want your mother and Vincent sending you to a psychiatric facility for trying, now do we?'

'You just said Vincent used magic on me. So he should know about all this stuff already, right?' Jacy wasn't sure why he was trying so hard to poke holes in the voice's argument. Maybe he was afraid to believe in something he'd been hoping for for so long.

'Good luck making him admit it and your mother believe it.' Then, as if a thought just came to the person's mind, their voice sounded. 'Has your father ever managed to contact you in any way?'

Surprised by the question, Jacy shook his head.

'Okay, so why do you think he's innocent?'

'What do you mean?' Jacy asked. 'I don't ...'

Then Jacy realised that he'd just shaken his head and had not actually said anything.

'Sure you do. Would you still be talking to me if you thought he murdered four people in cold blood? What I want to know is why you don't believe Vincent and your mother.'

Jacy turned his head slowly and looked around the room in dread once more. Supposedly, if there was magic, and someone could communicate with him through his mind, could this someone also be invisible?

'Don't you want to ask me whether it's true?' the voice asked. 'Whether he really did kill those people.'

Heavy silence echoed after those words. Jacy was still staring around the room.

'If you're wondering, I'm not there.'

Jacy stopped looking around. Then frowned, now looking out the window.

'They told me,' he said slowly. 'About my dad.'

'Who's "they"?'

'Everybody,' he said quietly, not really daring to. He'd been teased about his father, no matter how much he had tried to keep it a secret. But some of his classmates were Vincent's friends' kids, so he supposed they would have heard about it from their parents anyway.

'Jacy, I think you might have asked the wrong half of "everybody".'

Strangely enough, Jacy's stomach felt like it was being filled with butterflies.

'So he didn't do it?' he asked.

An awkward silence settled for a bit.

'I believe it was self-defense. Whatever he did, he did to protect his family.'

Not sure what to do with the information heap that had fallen on him, Jacy stared blankly in front of himself. He felt lost — he knew he shouldn't have listened to a stranger in the first place. And yet ...

'So, you're saying that your father never got to you? There were never any strange calls when you were alone in the house?' the voice asked and Jacy was shaking his head to almost all of the questions with sadness. 'No letters addressed to you? Any whispers? Never? Hmm ...'

'I don't even know what he looks like, apart from this picture, and that's where I get the image of his face from when he resurfaces in my dreams ...'

'So he does contact you.'

'It's a dream. Other people do it too. Don't you dream? It's just that in my dreams I talk to Dad.'

There was an exhale after that, but the voice did not say anything further. Jacy felt like someone was going to jump out shouting 'Surprise!' at any moment, but as the lightly gilded clock worked through the minutes, no one did.

'I could try helping. But how?'

'It's not that simple, they will stop any of your attempts to communicate with your father or anyone else.'

This person, whoever they might be, could be his ticket to his father and he didn't want to lose that. Even if it felt utterly crazy. He decided to try to persuasion.

'But I'm talking to you now.'

'Let me be clear about what we're talking about, Jacy. Your dad won't make it out of prison if someone doesn't help him.'

Jacy stood in silence after that, looking out through a large, arched window onto the courtyard's fountain. This meant a real chance to reunite with his father.

'Okay,' he finally said. 'So, you're telling me there is magic, right? I mean every magic I've heard of in books and stories is different. Werewolves, vampires, magic wands, spells —'

'All those come from someone using their energy creatively. That's all it really is,' the voice said. 'We have a more pressing issue here. Think about the fact that your dad needs your help. Think about it carefully. Your father would kill me if he found that I didn't try to help you two reunite when I could.'

'Does that mean you have powers to help him?' Jacy asked, hope squeezing his lungs, just as a slight movement caught his eye. The window on the opposite side of the courtyard had a strange looking shadow. The longer he looked at it, the more it looked like an outline of a person in the darkness.

There was a brief pause before the voice said, _'I'll try my best_.'

But it wasn't coming from the phone at Jacy's ear — it was coming from the window opposite, where a woman's shape was moving with the words.

'I don't even know who you are!'

' _My name is Thessa._ '

'Can I at least meet you?'

After a slight delay, the voice sounded. ' _I'll see what I can do_.'

'Okay,' Jacy frowned. 'But ... but ...'

' _Hold on._ '

### CHAPTER 2

Jacy had no idea how long to hold on. But the pause gave him an opportunity to think and to observe. He kept watching Vincent from behind the threshold — where he went, whom he talked to, what he said — for any sign at all that he had magic in him, or that he was using it on Jacy. But there was nothing.

The possibility of reuniting with his father felt too surreal to even consider. But Jacy still thought about it. He thought about what he would take with him, in the very unlikely case of actually being able to live with his dad sometimes — his mother would likely fight that. Probably the photo, clean clothes and his favourite pajamas. Just because. He wasn't actually thinking of doing it. Nah.

He looked out towards the entrance hall through the shop, in case the woman was there, but instead was hit by a huge gust of wind that blew prickling droplets on the back of his neck as the door to the courtyard behind him opened and closed.

Jacy frowned among the sculptures, which were more like wire sticks and slabs of metallic plate glued together. Jacy remembered making similar ones in kindergarten.

He was making up excuses to say to the woman about wanting to know more about his father first, and maybe more about magic, when his mother suddenly appeared.

She pressed a ten-pound note into his hand. 'I need you to get a cup of tea from the garden café and take it to that lady over there,' she hastily pointed at a tiny woman with short hair who looked like she was going to burst into tears. 'Actually, make it a chamomile tea — she's a valuable client, we need her calm and happy. And maybe surprise Vincent with an iced coffee while you're at it.'

Jacy wanted to grimace, but decided not to start a fight so, turning around, he just waded through the mass of bodies to the glass double-doors leading to the enclosed square courtyard.

It looked like everyone had decided to have coffee just then, as the queue from the little coffee bar almost spiraled onto itself. Jacy took up his place, looking around the windows of the museum that lined all four sides of the garden, wondering when he'd be able to hear the voice again. The wind kept ruffling a copy of that day's free newspaper on a wet chair nearby, page by page, as if with an invisible hand. There were articles on a faulty alarm at the Natural History Museum that annoyed residents in a half-mile radius, a puzzle, an interview with the winner of a baking competition —

' _Don't turn around_.'

Jacy's senses sharpened to the environment, looking for the woman named Thessa. He glanced very slowly at the windows to his side but there was nothing that he could make out there.

' _You wanted to talk._ '

He paused, fearing he would sound ridiculous, before whispering and trying not to move his lips too much. 'I have to tell you right now that I am probably not helpful at all. Um, when you said that thing about magic ... was it ... what I mean is, I don't know if I can really do it.'

' _Me neither,_ ' her voice said. ' _But if you don't try, that will remain to be the case._ '

There was a tiny movement in the reflection in the window in front of him, at which Jacy squinted. Somewhere behind him, towards the end of the queue, was a woman talking. Her face moved with the words Jacy was hearing, but he couldn't see much apart from the deep cherry-red hair and a same-coloured scarf snaking around her neck, obscuring her chin and parts of her cheeks. It wasn't that cold though, Jacy thought.

'What could my power be?' he asked, watching for the woman's reaction.

' _I don't know. In any case, it will need a lot of practise._ '

'What kind of practise?' He hoped there was a way to speed up the process. The quicker he could find his power, the quicker they could help his dad and make sure his mother wouldn't discover him lying. 'What about my dad — you said he could use my dreams?'

' _Obviously, something happened if he hadn't contacted you for a while_ ,' she said and suddenly glanced right into the reflection of Jacy's eyes, which made him jump and turn around.

Her eyes widened, then she shook her head at him. She looked at her wrist, as if checking the time, then at the queue, shaking her head — as if she was annoyed by the waiting time for the coffee cart, and started for the double doors on the opposite side of the courtyard. Jacy momentarily panicked that he had scared her away before her voice sounded again. ' _Follow me in a few moments_.'

Jacy exhaled and waited until she'd disappeared through the doors. Abandoning his place in the queue, he followed after her.

His swift steps took him inside a dining area with high ceilings, an ancient fireplace, and a piano which sounded with a familiar melody dancing through the space. He just about caught a red figure disappearing to his right. She was following the halls around the garden that they had just come from, so Jacy hurried along.

Out of nowhere, Thessa fell into step beside him. She watched a couple coming out of the 16th century German hall as they walked, not paying much attention to Jacy, so he cleared his throat. She didn't stop, continuing to the corner of the building, where they trotted up the stairs. She peeked inside the empty library wing as they reached the top landing.

'What would you need from me next?' Jacy asked.

'You'd need to sit down with us and answer a bunch of questions — anything we'd need to know — and that can take a while.' Her real voice sounded different, as if she had been disguising it before.

'With _us_?'

'MOVE!' a man's steely voice sounded behind them. 'Mooooove!'

Before Jacy could get past the surprise or ask anything, he saw the figure running towards them. He tried not to gawk, but Jacy couldn't keep his eyes off the silhouette. Even though he resembled a human being, he reminded Jacy of a statue — like an ancient Greek monument stomping clumsily across the dimly lit hall in a torn suit.

His looks were too smooth, too artistic, too perfect — as if right from the imagination of a sculptor. He had high cheek bones, prominent eyes, and glowing skin.

Jacy took a step back. The goosebumps on his arms didn't help with the feeling that the man was distinctly non-human, either.

'We have to go,' he panted at Thessa from the middle of the hall, looking so pale and frightened that even Jacy's heartbeat accelerated. 'We need to leave, they spotted me.'

'What?' Thessa started turning, a bewildered look on her face. Jacy followed her gaze, palms sweating. If this creature was frightened, whatever it was that had chased him must have been bad enough. But both of them seemed to have forgotten Jacy was there. He really hoped they wouldn't leave him behind with whatever monstrosity was after them. 'What do —'

'Come on,' the creature extended his hand to Thessa. At the end of the corridor from which he had emerged, Jacy saw a light flicker. Then another. 'Let's —'

Paling, Thessa flung herself towards the creature and took his hand. In that split second, before being jerked away, she glanced at Jacy with a frown, as if checking whether he was still there.

Only Jacy _was_ there, and, whatever this monster was, he did not want to face it on his own.

On instinct, as Thessa was being propelled away, Jacy grabbed the creature's other hand. As he did, the museum disappeared and he felt a huge tug mid-air that jerked his shoulder with such a force that he thought it got dislocated.

* * *

'WHAT. THE. HECK. WAS. THAT?' Thessa's voice shouted.

'It was unsafe to stay there,' the creature replied.

Jacy's stomach was about to get rid of all of its contents and the world was tilting dangerously, so he leaned against something to his right and tried to breathe deep breaths. He blinked a few times, mostly, because they were standing in the middle of a countryside estate's driveway.

'You're banned from the V&A _too_?' Thessa had her back to Jacy, but he felt the anger reverberate from her without seeing her face. The shouting was also quite telling. The creature didn't answer, so she shouted more. 'You're banned _from all museums in London_?'

'No need to get upset,' the creature smoothed his plastic-looking hair down and looked at Jacy. 'I think there might be a bigger problem here.'

Thessa turned back and froze in place.

The next words that came out of her mouth were so quiet that they scared even Jacy. 'You have kidnapped Ian Marwick's son.'

'Well,' the creature strolled to the iron gate leading to a long driveway beyond. 'Technically, _we_ kidnapped Ian Marwick's son.'

'Domyk —'

'It's not my fault he grabbed my hand!'

Thessa now looked at Jacy in earnest. 'No need to panic, Jacy. Everything will be alright. Just don't panic.'

'I don't think the little human is panicking,' the creature remarked.

'Jacy, we just teleported from the V&A. And by accident you came with us. I obviously didn't plan it this way,' Thessa said.

'I'm pretty sure this would be evident even to this human's brain.'

Jacy was still more focused on the fact that he'd barely blinked and found himself fighting nausea in a sunny expanse in front of a dusty, tree-lined road instead of the entrance to the museum's library.

'I'm really sorry, Jacy.' Thessa looked at him with worried eyes.

'That's okay,' Jacy said, although he wasn't sure how okay he was. 'I won't tell anyone, I promise. And my Mum is pretty busy, so I'm sure she didn't notice me missing. As long as I bring her the tea soon, she'll be fine. Can you take me back?'

Thessa had a funny look about her. 'Not really.'

'Okay, I'll take the bus.'

'From the middle of Gibraltar?' Domyk said. 'Be my guest.'

Jacy slowly twirled, looking at the sun-kissed trees, the peaceful chirping of the birds in them and the slow breeze caressing both. They were in Gibraltar? Considering it was autumn, the late afternoon heat was indeed strong. Then, what had happened started sinking in. How on earth would he get home, and what would he do if these two just left him here, completely alone? He didn't know much about Gibraltar — actually, he knew nothing about Gibraltar.

'No. Jacy, listen to me. Please help me help your dad. This is not ideal but we have to make the best of the situation. I'll get you home the moment you ask me.'

'But why not now?' Jacy didn't like this at all. 'I'm asking now.'

'We can't reuse the portal for a while,' Thessa said.

'But my mum will worry!' Jacy said.

'We'll ... I don't know, we'll ... call her and let her know you're okay.'

'Really?' Domyk snorted. 'That's a _great_ idea.'

After noticing Thessa's glare, he suddenly found something interesting to observe in a tree behind them.

'If you come with us now, no one will be able to find us,' Thessa said to Jacy. 'I took care of the cameras, and eyewitnesses will just describe how I look now. To be fair, I suspect Vincent will automatically assume your father is behind it, but we can deal with that later.'

'Wait ... does my dad know about this? Will he get in trouble?'

'No. He doesn't know — it's safer for him this way. He'll be able to deny any knowledge of this even if they use a truth serum on him.'

There was a silence for a while, in which Thessa seemed to ponder their next move and Jacy tried to imagine what he'd do if someone used a truth serum on him. Then he looked around, trying to figure out if they _really_ , really were in Gibraltar.

'Well,' Domyk clasped his hands together, or at least tried to — it came out as more of a clap. 'You figure this out — I'll check if the coast is clear.'

Thessa nodded and the next second, Domyk was gone.

'But he just teleported! Why can't _we_ teleport back?' Jacy exclaimed.

'Because Domyk triggered that alarm, so they'll be monitoring for him around London for quite a while. And even though he's a poltergeist and their movements are almost impossible to track, there are ways. So he needs to hop around for a while, leaving traces everywhere, before coming back here.'

Jacy didn't want to embarrass himself by looking unsettled by supernatural beings or teleportation, so he nodded as if a poltergeist was the most natural thing to have a serious conversation about. But it was one thing to see on TV or read in comic books about how they were house guardians and supposedly quite evil, and another to actually meet one.

Then, as thoughts whirled around his mind, Jacy started breathing quicker, 'Do you promise to take me home if I ask you to?'

He had no idea why he was saying what he was saying, but it just came out.

She looked at him carefully. 'Of course.'

No matter. Jacy knew to find the police in case something went awry.

'Can I go home _any time_? If I go with you, I mean.' Jacy started saying, looking up at her.

'Yes,' she said. 'But that choice will be final. Once you go back, you'll never find me again. You probably won't remember me either.'

Strange, how would he not remember her? It's not like he had people coming up to him every day offering to help his father. Which is another reason he couldn't really let this opportunity go. He already got teleported to Gibraltar, it was unlikely that the situation would get worse than this.

'If I go with you, what happens next?' Jacy asked.

'You'll have to come with us, help find your dad and, once it's safe, you can come back.' Thessa started saying. 'So, are you saying ... ?'

'If you really think it's possible, I'd like to help my dad,' Jacy said. He had been dreaming of an opportunity like this for almost eight years, and he wasn't likely to get another one any time soon. Not many people walked around with a magical ability, willing to reunite him with his father.

'Okay then.'

Jacy nodded to that, feeling crazy.

Everything was mixed up in his head, but his father's face floated clearly in his mind. His calm smiling expression to which Jacy talked in his dreams so many times — telling him about school, life, home. And now he might have a chance to get an answer.

He hesitated a little, but then a good type of fear mixed with the residual nausea took over. Excitement. He decided that if this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he was going to try to make it work.

'I hope you have a plan B,' Domyk reappeared on the other side of the gate and started climbing over it — as if he had never moved a limb in his life. Then he noticed Jacy's gaze. 'What are you looking at? I haven't yet gotten used to this muscle structure.'

Thessa frowned, 'What happened?'

With a leg on either side of a base pillar, the ghost cleared his throat, or whatever it was that it had. 'A certain Sergeant Hollister from the City of London Police has just contacted a certain Calvin Bleeker at Interpol, who is in the process of finding a certain partner of his about, the — um — _situation_.'

With a little delay, the word 'Interpol' hit Jacy over the head like a hammer.

'Interpol? What does that mean? Do they know about my dad? Maybe I should talk to them? I'll tell them that it was all a misunderstanding? And we can try another day.'

Thessa laughed at that.

'It's not that particular Interpol that Domyk is talking about. There is an international supernatural police department, which deals with crimes that contain a magical trace.'

'But you just said you took care of cameras and teleportation traces?' Jacy said.

'Your pal Vincent was monitoring you.' Domyk cleared his throat again and mumbled to himself, 'These human voice cords ...'

'No — why would he?' Jacy asked.

'Just in case your dad broke out and came looking for you, maybe? I don't know,' Thessa said.

'I really don't think Vincent can do anything like that. He's harmless.' Jacy felt worried — being brought back to his mother and Vincent by Interpol wasn't a great prospect.

'Hmm.' Domyk tilted his head, as if listening to something Jacy couldn't hear. 'A trail search has been started for your boy here.'

'What? Already?' Thessa said, her posture shifting slightly, the news clearly interfering with her plans.

'What's a trail search?' Jacy asked — if Thessa was agitated, maybe he should be too, even if the poltergeist behaved as if he was reciting the weather forecast. 'I mean, I'm guessing it's a type of magic, but what is it — is it like superhero powers in movies and someone's using it against me?'

The question seemed to sidetrack Thessa. 'People have various talents. It seems whoever created your perimeter radar is also skilled at putting a trace on it, a sort of magical aura. Then again, perhaps, it was another person who did the trace separately. If so, Vincent must have gone to huge lengths to make it happen.'

Jacy started feeling more and more self-conscious about not knowing things about powers and talents and poltergeists. Thessa was clearly preoccupied with other things — she took a map out of her back pocket and started reading minuscule labels while tracing her finger along a route.

Domyk was now trying to jump off the bottom rail of the gate, 'It definitely wasn't a strong power, and they didn't expect a strong power, they didn't even think to ward against particular traits — I didn't detect much protection.'

Jacy tried not to get disheartened about how ineffective he might end up being in helping his father if he didn't even know the basics. He stayed silent, but Domyk strolled up to him, leaning in, squinting, scrutinising Jacy's eyes, and making him feel very uncomfortable.

' _Why —_ you'd ask,' Domyk was smirking at Jacy. Maybe poltergeists truly were mean. 'Have you heard of superstitions, young human? Superstitions ward against magic — very strong magic. Most of you humans don't even have enough magic to have powers, let alone enough to warrant the need of superstitions as protection, so I don't know why you bother.'

Domyk was now eyeing a bird on the same nearby tree he had been looking at before — his gaze more predatory than Jacy would consider normal.

Still seemingly mesmerised by the bird, Domyk spoke again. 'Oh and before you even think that you might have that kind of power — you have nothing to worry about, I haven't met anyone with true greatness in a decade, and you ... well, you're too ... _something_.'

'Something?'

'Indeed,' Domyk scrunched his nose. 'Something annoying.'

Jacy was about to huff and puff at the insult, when Thessa folded up the map and stepped towards them.

'Enough. You better behave Domyk,' he heard her say. 'Let's make two decoy stops, then we walk.'

She took Jacy's hand, then Domyk's. Even though he knew what was coming this time and braced his muscles, Jacy was thrown around with such a force that by the third tug he was ready to let go — not even caring where in the world he'd get spewed out mid-teleportation.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the light came back, sending a prickling pain through Jacy's eyes. _THUMP!_ His feet connected with the ground, feeling as if the ground itself was pushing back.

Jacy's stomach was in knots for the first few breaths, then a cool, soothing breeze hit his face and he heard something thundering rhythmically. His head was still swirling but he started perceiving the things around him in sharp focus.

They had teleported to a small road on a hill. It overlooked a highway which meandered in the distance. Beyond it, the ocean sparkled from the midday sun, mesmerising Jacy. The thunderous sounds he had heard before were the waves crashing below. Right next to them a dense wall of fiery-coloured trees stood obscuring what was beyond.

Thessa and Domyk were facing the trees and both started fumbling around in the vegetation, looking for something.

'Can I help?' Jacy asked,

Domyk was knocking on each tree around them.

'We don't know where the entrance is,' Thessa said, shuffling through golden autumn leaves on the ground. 'Neither of us have been here for a while.'

Jacy cleared his throat, a little apprehensive of the answer to his next question. 'Where exactly is _here_?'

'Nova Scotia, Canada,' she said. 'Hence the time difference.'

' _Canada?_ ' he asked.

She nodded.

Then a clang sounded. Domyk hit a tree that was different. In fact, Jacy realised, it wasn't a tree at all as the top of it lit up. It was a lamp post overgrown with plants and moss. And it was the only lamp post Jacy could see for miles.

A panel became visible at Jacy's eye level and Domyk put his hand on it. Almost instantaneously, a click sounded from further among the trees. They all walked over and stepped through a small iron gate between two trees — a gate which had not been there a moment before.

Jacy almost expected to teleport again, or step into a whole different world, but nothing happened. They kept walking and the trees were just as before, the sun stayed where it had been, and the waves were still audible from where they were.

'What's with the gate?' he asked, to which Domyk laughed, stopping the moment he saw Thessa staring at him pointedly.

'It allows us to find the road — that road,' she pointed to a small clearing in the distance where a dirt road started from, carving a wide path through the canopy of leaves. 'Otherwise, we'd be walking around in circles through the forest.'

Reaching that road, they continued along it, weaving beside fields, emerging on magnificent coastlines with white clouds stretching over the ocean, before finally reappearing in a vast plain. Jacy felt his jaw drop.

### CHAPTER 3

The plain that lay in front of them was so huge that Jacy could barely see the end of it. To add to his disorientation, the wind was now roaring and whistling in his ear so that no matter which way he turned, he couldn't shield himself from it. Even Jacy's nostrils felt cold, and he realised the open space wasn't doing much to insulate them from the weather.

'We're here,' Thessa said, looking at a spot in the distance. 'It's not much, but you are very welcome.'

There, an eerie house was towering over the plain, its edges blurred by shadows.

'It's so ... open.' That was the first word that came to Jacy's mind as he looked around. He spotted a faint light blinking periodically in the distance. A lighthouse maybe — but even squinting, he couldn't see much of it.

With every step they took, the outline of the house grew clearer. Then the detail appeared — the garage right under a tree which was leaning in whichever whimsical direction the wind was taking it, the shaky stairs leading up to the porch, the completely dark, dirty windows. The house seemed battered; its structure massive and strong, no doubt, but Jacy thought there was something brittle about it as well.

They climbed the rickety porch stairs which creaked under their feet one by one. Then Thessa knocked on the door. Was there someone else there?

The veranda screeched in the wind and, in the colourful mosaic glass panel in the centre of the door, Jacy noticed something move and felt the urge to step back from the door. Domyk went to it and put his hand on the handle.

But it didn't give.

Domyk rattled it, but still nothing. It was as if it was jammed.

'For goodness sake!' He banged on the door. 'It hasn't been that long.'

The moment Domyk shimmered and shifted to an almost transparent state, Jacy froze to the spot.

'Can't you wait with that?' Thessa hissed at Domyk, and then turned to Jacy. 'Apologies. It's just that he can't always control —'

'Can't control? Are you insulting me?' Domyk's steely voice rose a few notes as he shifted back to his previous shape. 'I'm right here, I'm not deaf, and I'm not dead.'

'You are not alive either,' Thessa said with an irritated tone.

'Well, what do you suppose I do? The house isn't recognising me,' Domyk hissed.

'And _whose_ fault is that, do you think?' Thessa's snapped.

'Well, it might just have to do with someone who decided to grab my hand when I was trying to save ourselves, giving me no time to prepare the house ahead of time —'

'I didn't do that on purpose!' Jacy exclaimed, butting in. It was really unfair of the ghost to blame him.

The lock clicked open.

'Don't worry, Jacy, come in,' Thessa said.

She walked in and shook off her boots as Jacy carefully stepped around Domyk and followed her.

* * *

It was as if Jacy had teleported again, for the inside of the house was in complete contrast with the dreary, cold weather outside. Jacy found himself in a small hall that opened to a living room on the left and a huge dining room on the right. The wide arch separating the rooms formed part of the same space, just like the stairs leading up to the first floor.

'Okay,' Thessa took off her shawl and hung it on the hook behind the front door. The hook promptly fell off, taking some of the wall with it.

She shook her head, went to the living room and started yanking off cloths from the old furniture — raising dust clouds in the process — revealing a sofa, a coffee table and an armchair. Only a blackened fireplace stood in the centre uncovered. 'There is a lot of work to do in the house. There's a room for you upstairs, but none of this has been used for years, so it still needs tidying up.'

'Whose house is it?' Jacy asked, looking around. The curtains were drawn at every window. The dining room was slightly darker and had a massive table with dried grass standing in a small mason jar in the centre of it, which Jacy guessed had been flowers at some point.

'Ours,' she said without further elaboration on why their own house didn't let them in. 'I suggest you sleep here on the sofa tonight. Are you hungry?'

Jacy thought about that for a moment but interestingly enough, he wasn't hungry. The space in his stomach that was usually occupied by food was taken over by knots and butterflies, so he shook his head. Then his eyes bulged, as Thessa reached to her cherry red hair and removed it, revealing her real deep chestnut hair, which cascaded down her shoulders.

'I'll make you a cup of tea, you look horrible. Desynchronosis can do that to you,' Domyk said. Then, catching Jacy's blank face, he added, 'Jetlag. It means jetlag.'

He moved around them and disappeared into the dining room, and from somewhere in that direction, Jacy heard water running and mugs banging on a hard surface.

He tried to hold his lips closed to stifle a yawn unsuccessfully. His legs felt heavy, and the sofa beckoned him.

'The bathroom is on your right as you go up the stairs,' Thessa said. 'There's a clean towel, a toothbrush and a pair of pajamas there for you. Domyk will try to get you some clothes tomorrow.'

However much Jacy tried to fight them, thoughts about what his mother was doing, whether they were looking for him, and how could he let her know that he was okay, crept into his mind. And yet, here was this one person in the world who believed what Jacy felt: that his father was not who everyone painted him to be. He couldn't let that go.

Thessa started arranging the sofa-bed for him. She turned off the main light, and its glare was replaced by the soft hue of a small lamp on the coffee table. Domyk walked into the room, carefully balancing two full mugs in his veiny hands.

The pleasant smell of the tea reached Jacy. 'Could I call my mother now?'

Domyk set the mugs down, disappeared, and barely a second or two later reappeared with a phone already in his hand, offering it to Thessa.

'Mistake,' he said, pointedly.

She pulled her mouth to the side, 'It's untraceable.'

'It has never been traced before. Big difference,' he said.

She dismissed him with a shake of the head and dialled what Jacy guessed was his home phone number, handing it to Jacy. He would have to ask her why it was that she knew the number by heart. But, it started ringing and continued, each time the ring seeming longer. Jacy's hand started sweating — what if his Mum was really mad? The ringing stopped, only it was the voicemail message that sounded.

That would have to do for now, and at least he wouldn't chicken out completely, as he might have done if he heard his mum's voice. Thessa discreetly occupied herself with a few pillowcases, but Domyk watched Jacy like a hawk. 'Hi Mum ... hi Vincent. I'm okay ... This was an accident ... I mean, I don't mean an actual accident, I am really fine. Please don't worry. I'll be home soon, I just need to —' Domyk snatched the phone out of his hand and pressed the button to end the call. 'Hey!'

'You're not giving them a motive that could tie us back to it,' he said.

'I wasn't going to!' Jacy said, indignantly.

Thessa took one of the mugs and plopped down in the armchair.

'Domyk, I'm sorry we couldn't visit Prague, I know it's on your list, and I promise next time we're close, we'll stop by. But that's not a reason to be this cranky and mean to Jacy.'

It took Domyk a few seconds to compose his features. 'Let us concentrate on next steps, so that we resolve this situation as quickly and efficiently as possible.'

Jacy wasn't sure if that was a diplomatic way of apologising or if it was a diplomatic way to insult Jacy. He ignored that thought and turned to Thessa.

'What do we do next, then?'

'I don't know,' she said.

Jacy blinked. 'You don't know?'

'I need more information before we can proceed, so I'm planning a trip to town tomorrow —'

'You need to take the child as well,' Domyk interrupted. 'I need the house to myself to be able to make this mess suitable for humans. And at least if something goes down in Celestial Hiss you can use him as your bargaining chip, or a hostage, or just throw him into their lap and run.'

Thessa scowled at him, 'Nothing is going to go down. And no one is throwing Jacy anywhere —'

At the same time, Jacy asked, 'Celestial Hiss?'

Thessa rested her head against the back of the armchair. 'It's a secret town. They say whoever doesn't want to be found, magically or otherwise, lives there. There are all sorts of laws in place to guard it, which they set themselves. For example, every visitor crossing its border is logged and no one else apart from the town itself has jurisdiction — meaning the international police can't investigate crimes there unless specifically allowed or invited by the town itself.'

'Meaning,' Jacy frowned as his mind caught up, 'that the international magical police who were after me can't reach me there.' To which Thessa nodded and smiled. It felt as if a weight lifted from Jacy's shoulders and he nestled into the sofa, 'So where are we going to start? Whatever information you need, I might help.'

' _We_ are not going to start anywhere. I'll take you to the library, where you'll wait for me while I figure this out. On a side note — in your dreams, has your dad ever mentioned anything about where he might be?'

'I don't think so.' Jacy shook his head, but his mind was still focused on the library part. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad if Thessa didn't take him wherever she was going — libraries contained archives, so maybe he'd be able to find some news reference to his father's case there.

'Ian had a particular talent for communication and deciphering it. But how he managed to even get to your dreams, I still don't know, especially with Vincent around you.'

Jacy avoided saying anything about that, as he didn't want to argue or offend Thessa — he'd lived in the same house with Vincent for years, and there was truly nothing magical about him. 'Do you think my mum has magic?'

'She probably does, but isn't using it. And some powers are more abstract than others.'

'What is yours?' Jacy asked. 'Is it opening locks? Or walking through walls?' It must have been something special if she was confident about reuniting him with his father.

'It's best to keep one's powers private — I'd advise you to do the same, if you find you have some. Not many talented people go around showcasing theirs.'

Jacy still had questions he wanted to ask, but his eyelids were burning with tiredness and once he blinked they didn't want to open again. All he registered before a soft rhythm lulled him to sleep was Thessa taking the mugs and turning off the light before softly wishing him good night.

### CHAPTER 4

Jacy blinked a few times when he awoke. He let his brain catch up on his surroundings, but his eyes felt like someone was poking them full of breadcrumbs. The entire house seemed different from the night before. All the curtains were pulled aside letting the sunshine in, the windows were open, so was the front door and a chilly wind was blowing around the entire house. It smelled of something damp and salty — they must have been close to the ocean.

He climbed off of the sofa, and saw that the dining room table was set with some fresh bread, croissants, porridge, and a cup of juice already. But only Domyk was sitting at the table — a large newspaper spread in front of his face.

'Thessa is helping upstairs You could make yourself useful too, you know,' his voice sounded behind the page.

Jacy sat down at the table while the draught tousled his hair. He tore a piece of bread and started chewing it, deciding he should make an effort to win the poltergeist over.

'Sure, what do you need help with?'

Domyk lowered the newspaper and looked up very slowly. 'You can dust the cupboard in the pantry.'

Jacy turned around and through the open door, saw the old green cupboard that had carved legs and faded painted flowers on its doors. Should be easy.

Domyk then added, 'The shed hasn't been cleaned in a long time.'

'Okay, I'll start right after breakfast,' Jacy nodded, but the look on Domyk's face suggested that, had it been up to him, Jacy would have to work for that breakfast first, so Jacy changed the topic quickly. 'Can I ask how old you are?'

Domyk didn't look up again. 'I'm a timeless masterpiece.'

Getting an answer, Jacy felt braver.

'So ... you're not a ghost ...' Domyk grunted at those words. '... not really a poltergeist ... but ...' there Jacy stopped, unsure. Domyk frowned.

'Jacy Marwick, I am a powerful guardian spirit, currently employed at this house. Your work won't do itself, though.'

Jacy ate quickly, finishing almost everything that was set out. He went back to the sofa, folded the bed covers, got dressed and went upstairs to brush his teeth.

As he got to the top of the stairs, he halted. Then one step after another, past bookcases, he started moving to the back of the upstairs hall. Glass covered the entire back wall looking out to the never-ending glistening ocean beyond.

The house was perched on the top of a high cliff. Jacy pressed his cheek against the glass and looking to the left, the only thing he could distinguish was that lighthouse on the rocky shore, signalling with a slow pace.

Jacy stood there amazed. It wasn't only the wind he'd heard the night before — because they weren't close to the water, they were right _at_ the water. With a smile on his face, he ran down the stairs and into the pantry — he wanted to finish cleaning as quickly as possible so he could go outside and explore.

The middle shelves of the cupboard were ordinary enough — dusty jam jars, dirty pickle conserves, some old looking cans — but the top shelves made Jacy pause. There were hundreds of small vials of different colours, and some labels were still readable, though faint:

Korean — Spanish — Swahili — ...

'You shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong,' Domyk crooned from behind Jacy, making him wince. 'I think it's best if I do this, and you do the shed now.'

Jacy didn't argue. In front of the house, the grass and the few lone trees rustled with the Atlantic wind. He could barely make out the treetops in the distance. Squinting, Jacy saw two goal posts of a football field on the distant plain. He made a mental note to go and investigate once he had finished with the shed.

He reached the shed door and, moving the bar aside, he opened it. Stepping in, he accidentally kicked a few boxes — and he was sure he could hear spiders scurrying away. There were maps, vases and a globe lining the lopsided shelves. Craft materials and battered chairs added a definite clutter to the dusty place.

The sea wind whistled around the shed as Jacy stepped closer to a particularly large pile of covered lumps. Knowing he had to start somewhere, he pulled off a golden shawl, revealing framed pictures leaning against the pile. He grabbed the nearest one and turned it around. It showed a mountain landscape. The other paintings were all quite different: a vase of lilacs on a windowsill, a snowy house, a rainy street in the evening with a few cars passing, the bleak gate of a fortress, an old man reading a book ... at this point, Jacy got bored. He realized that cleaning and organising this little place would potentially take him days.

'You made him clean the shed?' Thessa's voice snapped from somewhere close. She then called out for Jacy. 'Get out of there, Jacy — let's go to town.'

'You said everything was to be in order.' As Jacy came out, he saw Domyk wave a lazy hand around while calling after Thessa as she passed him. '"Everything" includes the shed. Next time, be more specific.'

'Don't make him do your dirty work.'

Thessa beckoned Jacy to follow her as she strode towards the field, and he hurried to catch up. The two of them ended up near one of the towering beech trees next to the edge of the dilapidated football pitch. Jacy was wondering how the leaves managed to stay on as they were battered by the ocean breeze.

But he didn't get much time to wonder, as Thessa touched a little darkened patch on the bark. Instantly, it lit up, making Jacy step back, then step closer. Thessa turned to him, pointing a finger at his chest.

'We need to establish a few things now that you're here,' she said, her eyes focused on Jacy. 'Don't talk to strangers in town, don't tell them who you are. Not only because you are now officially a missing person, but also because your father has a lot of enemies. Vincent does as well, by the way. And you have the immense privilege to be associated with both.'

Jacy nodded, glancing around her — it was a code panel that had lit up.

'That's where you enter the code,' she said. '8K63U. In case you ever arrive when Domyk is not home, you'll have to enter it again at the lamp post just outside the garage.'

She pointed to it and true enough, near the tall evergreen fir tree and in front of the dining room window, the lamp post was clearly visible.

She made him memorise the digits, and only when she was satisfied did she actually enter the code. A sheer, bluish curtain of air fell from a low-hanging branch and remained suspended from it. Jacy resisted reaching out and touching it as the colourful air swung in the breeze.

'Let's go,' Thessa said and stepped through, not checking if he had actually followed.

Taking a quick breath of reassurance, Jacy walked in. The air felt like cool mist on his skin as he passed under the branch. He blinked.

Then, just like with teleportation, as if a switch had been turned off, he found himself in total darkness smelling of damp. He blinked again, but the darkness didn't lift.

The floorboards creaked under his feet as he shifted.

'Why is it so dark?' he asked.

'Because we don't want to draw the neighbours' attention by suddenly lighting a lamp in a house that has been unoccupied since anyone in this town can remember, do we?' Thessa said, her voice receding into the depth of wherever they were.

Not only was it damp, but something definitely smelled rotten. Jacy's stomach squeezed.

Thessa evidently knew her way around the crumbling furniture. Following her voice in the dark, his eyes spotted rays of light only when they left through the back door. They emerged into the overgrown back garden. Even if someone had wanted to peek inside they wouldn't have been able to — thorny roses, unruly hedges, and stubborn shrubs blocked every path in sight. And everywhere around them, the leaves dripped with the rain that was now washing the ground in tiny streams.

Finally, they walked out onto the street. The crumbling house stood just outside the town's boundaries, marked by a cheerily coloured sign welcoming them to Celestial Hiss.

Opening a black umbrella — which Jacy could have sworn she didn't have with her before — over them, Thessa started walking on the pavement. The sun was different this time too, and Jacy realised wherever this Celestial Hiss was, wasn't just a different place. The time-zone shift had made the mid-day morph back into morning.

After a few solitary houses, they passed a petrol station whose neon signs offered various hot beverages through the sheet of rain. After that, the street widened into a boulevard lined with more houses and shops, and within a small orchard-like patch, a big white building with blue-framed windowpanes stood proud.

Jacy gaped at it all, at the few people hurrying past with squelching steps, at how this town could be so secret — could really no one find it?

They passed a butcher's shop before arriving at a crossroad with a huge library building in the right corner and a lively bakery on the left.

'I can't go in,' Thessa said, angling the umbrella over her eyes. 'Will you be all right for a couple of hours here while I run my errands?'

'Sure,' Jacy said. The more time he had, the more he would be able to research. A magical town should have more information on magical people like his father than a regular one — at least, he hoped.

'Do not step a foot outside the library, understood?' Thessa had her strict expression on.

'Yes.'

It's not like he had much else to do. So, lazily, he walked into the building. The automatic doors hissed open, revealing a reception area shining clean with a marble staircase leading to the level above — and two empty chairs stood where the receptionists should have been. Jacy couldn't hear anyone — it was silent, apart from a low rhythmic sound, a ceiling fan perhaps.

Then, a small thud and a tiny commotion made him look to his left, towards the rows of books inside. An urgent whisper echoed through the tiles and Jacy slowly stepped towards the sound.

As he reached the end of the first hall, he saw that the building extended to the side. This part of the library was occupied by dusty and incredibly boring looking volumes. The further he went in, the darker and gloomier it got.

'Hello? Excuse me ...' Jacy tried calling attention to himself but there was no one around.

He heard the slow sound again. From this angle it sounded more like a slow snoring, but Jacy could not pinpoint the direction it came from. Deciding that it would be best to explore the library unnoticed, he was about to turn back when a book on the top shelf to his right caught his eye: _Superstitions of the world._ The reason it did catch his eyes was because it was the one with a lit candle with a purple ribbon in front of it.

Before he had time to wonder why there would be a burning candle in a library when the lights were on, Jacy heard running footsteps approaching. The rhythm of the steps and the panting was panicked enough to make Jacy think twice. Instinctively, he rushed to the end of the row and hid, crouching in a small alcove between the shelf and the wall. He was fully aware that he would look really silly if he was wrong and someone discovered him there.

'The moron! I told him when to come. A hundred times. Half an hour. Half an hour,' a man rounded the corner, carrying a gym bag over his shoulder. But he was completely alone, still, in a mocking voice he continued talking to himself, '"Yeah, yeah I will be there in half an hour. Chill ..." For some reason I can't see him being here, while I'm being chased.'

Jacy felt himself trying not to breathe too loud. He was even worried about blinking in case it made a sound.

Peeking through two hardcover volumes, Jacy saw the man touch the candle and blow it out.

And then the man was gone.

Disappeared into thin air.

Teleportation seemed to be more common than Jacy had thought. Who had been chasing the man though? And what if they came back and found Jacy instead? Accidentally teleporting away with people (or poltergeists) who were being chased, seemed to be his new talent — one he'd rather not use again for a while.

Maybe it was best for Jacy to make himself scarce.

He stepped out of the alcove, and straightening, dusted himself off. Walking past the spot with the candle, Jacy wondered which way would be best to start his discovery — right as a body collided with his back, sending him face down onto the hard floor. Jacy's cheek connected with the cold surface, burning instantly. A booming curse followed, with a thud and a series of clangs. There wouldn't be any living being in the library left who wouldn't have heard.

'Aaaagh ... Oh, hell. This day could not get worse.' It was the voice of the same man that had just teleported away. Jacy tried to climb up, detangling himself from all the limbs around him, some of which were his own.

'Sorry, I didn't mean —' Jacy was going to help the man up, or even maybe assist him in collecting his belongings, but what he saw made him nervous enough to pause.

There was a pool of blood collecting near the man's right leg, Jacy followed it upstream, tracing the origin right to a small circular whole in the man's trousers. There was also a bright green liquid oozing from the same duffel bag the man had had over his shoulders — mixing with the red on the floor. He didn't seem to notice, and was staring at Jacy.

'Who are you and why are you here?' he asked from a sitting position.

Jacy realised that he was supposed to answer, but the blood was making him slightly uncomfortable.

The man then followed Jacy's gaze right to his feet.

'No, no!' he exclaimed, crawling and lunging for the bag, scrambling to open it and feeling around inside. Jacy could have sworn he heard broken glass being shuffled around. 'My St Elmo!'

'Sir, you're bleeding,' Jacy stood over him, horrified. The green liquid shouldn't have been the first thing the man had noticed — the more Jacy looked, the more details of his wound he could make out, and he really didn't want to.

'You don't say,' the man gritted out. 'As you can see, that's not the worst of my problems — what do I do now?'

It sounded like he fully expected Jacy to know about this green liquid and suggest things to do with it?

He massaged his temples. 'Think, think ... okay, hold this.'

He gave the bag to Jacy and rummaged in it some more, before finally pulling out what looked like a small first aid kit. He then started wrapping a gauze around his leg.

From somewhere further away, Jacy heard an excited whisper.

'Did you hear it?' a boy's hushed voice carried over to him. 'They must have been here, let's go!'

Then he heard running steps approaching. The man seemed preoccupied with his wound, so Jacy was about to warn him, when at the far end of the row he saw two boys about his age rounding the corner.

One was tall with brown hair, and the other was strikingly blond. The brown-haired boy directed his huge, frightened eyes at Jacy, then at the man, and then at the mess on the floor.

'Stop right there!' The blond one called out. 'You're the thieves they're looking for!'

This man was a thief? Jacy suddenly felt conscious standing next to him. But then the words rang in his ears again. _Thieves_. As in — plural? Did they think Jacy — _Oh, no_.

'No, no. This is a misunderstanding,' Jacy huffed. 'I was just —'

The man interrupted. 'I would really appreciate it if you all would just stop talking, this wound is bad enough as it is.'

'How did you get into Celestial Hiss? What are you trying to steal here?' The brown-haired boy asked, his brow furrowed.

The blond boy was now looking at the floor. 'What is that?'

'Nothing,' the man said. Jacy just saw now that while they had been talking, the man wiped most of the green liquid with some shirt looking material, but faint, yet wide smudges remained.

'No,' the blond boy insisted. 'That's definitely something.'

'All right,' the man stepped closer to the two boys. 'I didn't want to resort to threats, but —'

As if he hadn't just been almost threatened by a man who had clearly been in some sort of chase or shootout, the blond boy shouted over his shoulder. ' _Over here!_ '

Before anyone could say anything else, a girl's voice shrieked from somewhere close by. 'Who's there?'

' _You_ —' The man looked ready to murder the blond boy.

Just as the candle suddenly lit itself. Somehow.

And the man disappeared just as quickly as last time, only this time, the candle went with him, leaving an empty spot in front of the same book.

The last image that Jacy saw of the man was his agonised face transforming into surprise. Then, with horror, Jacy realised that the man's duffel bag was still in his hand — and the man was gone.

The three boys looked at each other.

'Did he just leave you here?'

'I don't know him,' Jacy said hastily. 'I just happened to be here when he fell.'

'Okay, so let's say we believe you and you're not a thief — did that man say anything about why he was here and what he tried to smuggle out?'

'No.' And Jacy wasn't about to tell complete strangers everything.

'And what about the candle then? It's illegal to buy those candles.'

'It's not my candle.'

The boy still looked skeptical. Jacy was about to leave when an unpleasant voice sounded from behind the two boys.

'What do you think you're doing here?' the girl emerged from the aisles in front of them. Her dangly earrings kept making a sound as she talked — which bothered Jacy more than it probably should have. He was just able to make out her name tag from behind the patterned scarf around her neck. _Bianca Mayer, Assistant Librarian._

'Trying to catch the thief you weren't able to,' the blond boy said.

She narrowed her eyes.

'Should I presume you're _not_ those thieves,' she cast a glance at the boys, none of whom were barely older than about twelve years old. 'Because the longer I look at you the more it seems that _you_ were the ones breaking into the library, like petty criminals.'

'That's a lie.' The blond boy said and cast a quick glance in Jacy's direction. Maybe he still thought Jacy was involved. But why was he then not ratting Jacy out to this Bianca?

'Well, I have a feeling your parents don't know where you are, so I guess we'll just have to go ahead and call the police, won't we?' she said with a spiteful voice. With a small smile she turned to the door of the office behind her. 'Let me just get my supervisor.'

Only then did Jacy see the door behind her, with a sign _Head Librarian's Office, H. P. Gogol_ written on it. The more he looked at it, the more obvious it became that that's where he had heard that strange noise from when he'd first entered the library — snoring.

'We didn't do —' The blond boy was pale. But the dark-haired boy kicked him in the middle of his knee and after the responding whimper, whispered,

'Stop arguing.'

Bianca's eyes snapped to Jacy, narrowing as her glance travelled along his arms to the bag still in his hands and the mess on the floor. 'Why are you so dirty? Is that —?'

'Um ...' Jacy searched his mind for a plausible explanation as he looked down. Now the boys were also looking at him, making him even more self-conscious. Especially, the blond boy who was now staring.

'Actually,' the blond boy said to the assistant librarian. 'He's my cousin, visiting —'

'I thought Raffy was your cousin,' she said.

Why was he lying suddenly? Jacy wondered. Just a few seconds ago, he had accused Jacy of stealing.

'Raffy's my _other_ cousin.' The blond boy chuckled nervously and offered, 'You know what? We'll even help you clean the mess up.'

'We will?' the brown-haired boy said.

'Yes, we will. I know where the cleaning cupboard is, don't you worry, we'll be right on it.'

'What? No, that's not —' Bianca protested, but a tug on Jacy's elbow started pulling him away. 'Hey!'

The two boys turned around and started running, pulling Jacy along.

They ran through the library, in the opposite direction from where Jacy had come from, turning left and right so many times that Jacy lost his sense of direction, until they arrived at an emergency exit door with a small cupboard door next to it.

Even though he was grateful that the boys managed to get themselves and Jacy out of trouble with the police, he wasn't really in the mood to clean up, especially something that wasn't his fault.

'What was that?' the brown-haired boy asked.

Strangely, the blond boy was still looking at Jacy.

'I'll be going then, I think. See you around —' Jacy was about to turn around when the blond boy angled his head.

'Jacy Marwick,' he simply said.

### CHAPTER 5

Jacy looked up at him, and at the same moment realised he shouldn't have. His expression must have mirrored the confusion he felt — what would he do?

'You're alive!' the brown-haired boy blurted. 'I mean, not that everyone — anyone thought you wouldn't be, but — what I mean to say —'

'The police are looking for you.' As the shock worked its way through the blond boy's face, Jacy saw his brain connecting the dots. He started whispering and looking around them, as if danger lurked right around the corner. 'Was it that man who had kidnapped you?'

'What? No.'

He needed to get Thessa. The blond boy must have misread Jacy's hesitation.

'Don't worry, we'll keep you safe.'

'I'm not worried,' Jacy snapped.

'My name is Kai, and he's Georgi,' the blond boy said, ignoring Georgi's shocked expression at his words. 'Now you can trust us.'

He darted his eyes around the aisle, as if expecting the man to come back and kidnap Jacy all over again. Which gave Jacy an idea that, maybe, it would be best to let them believe the man was his kidnapper.

'Kai!' the brown-haired boy's eyes bulged out. 'What are you doing?'

The blond boy, or Kai, ignored Georgi. 'He didn't trust us. Now he does.'

Georgi shook his head, 'That's not how this works.'

Kai dramatically turned to Jacy, 'You do trust us now, don't you?'

'Um ...' There was a pause where both boys were looking at Jacy expectantly. Jacy guessed there was just one right answer. 'Well, s ... sure.'

'That's settled then,' Kai said and opened the cupboard door, shoving Georgi and Jacy inside, and then locked the door behind them in complete darkness. The little walled-in recess was barely able to contain all three of them. Kai rummaged in his backpack and lit a yellow ribboned candle in front of the door, at least illuminating the space, before turning back. The candlelight now shone on the worried eyes of the two boys. Jacy squinted at the candle.

'I thought you said candles were illegal?' Jacy said, and trying to clear his head, recovered enough to ask. 'What are you doing?'

'I said buying them was illegal — I found them. Which isn't illegal ... I don't think ... Anyways, we are rescuing you,' Kai said with a serious face.

'You're what?' Jacy looked from one to the other, but both of them were wearing a solemn expression that baffled Jacy.

Kai's grey eyes shone and Georgi nodded to reinforce Kai's words.

'Jacy, you are a missing person. Internationally. They say whoever kidnapped you is working for your father. The things this guy could be involved in ...' Georgi said.

But what Georgi was saying only meant good things to Jacy — things where Jacy could see his father, talk to him, where Jacy could prove his innocence to help him get out of prison. Jacy felt his own sharp intake of breath and was stunned enough to lose those few seconds of opportunity before Kai started talking.

'I saw it in my dad's police files. I wasn't supposed to, but,' Kai said, 'they'll try to get ransom for you. That's how kidnappers operate. I know, my dad told me once.' Kai finished the sentence with a triumphant straightening of his shoulders. 'We're going to help you get home.'

'No, no!' Jacy exclaimed.

'You don't have to be afraid. No one can find you here, I sealed this room. My dad is at work, so we can just run there very quickly — he'll know what to do,' Kai said.

'Listen, guys, you have the wrong idea.'

'It's natural to be afraid,' Georgi said.

'I'm not afraid!' Jacy snapped.

'Jacy! He lured you away on purpose. If he's working with your father, that's really dangerous. He might want to use you somehow,' Georgi pleaded.

Jacy interrupted holding up his hands. 'Guys, no. Seriously. I am not kidnapped! It's actually my fault I ended up here.'

There were a few seconds of silence.

'You ran away from home?' Georgi asked although with slower speed. 'Well, it still doesn't make him innocent. He should not have kept you here.'

'Yeah, that's not cool.' Kai shook his head in disapproval, but at least he was concentrating a bit more on what Jacy was saying.

'First of all, I really don't know that man. Secondly, I didn't run away, nor was I kidnapped. I kind of accidentally teleported. And I want to find my dad,' Jacy said, but they did not understand. He saw the hesitation in their eyes, so he tried to explain. 'My dad is not who everyone thinks he is.'

At least Jacy hoped. He definitely felt that way, but now trying to convince two strangers — somehow he wasn't as confident. He tried to make sure it didn't show.

The two boys looked at each other, Kai scratched his head. Whatever they thought, Jacy had to try. What he really should have been worried about was getting back before Thessa noticed he was missing. Also, he should probably make sure the two boys wouldn't tell anyone what they had found out.

'I'm going to help my dad, and please don't try to stop me. You don't know everything.' Not that Jacy knew that much more, but Thessa would be furious if she found out he was talking to them.

'But Jacy —' said Georgi.

'They're helping me — helping to prove my dad's innocence.'

'They?' Kai asked.

While at the same time, Georgi still had a determined shimmer in his eye, 'You can do that from home too. It's illegal what they are doing.'

'They promised to take me home whenever I asked. But I want to try finding my dad and helping him first.'

He glanced at Kai, looking for support.

Kai cleared his throat, and had the undivided attention of Georgi and Jacy. He grimaced apologetically at Georgi.

'Actually —'

'You can't be serious, Kai.' Georgi looked like he wasn't liking the shift in the conversation.

'My dad did talk about this once ...' Kai said slowly. 'I overheard him saying that the evidence against your dad was just too perfect. He said that it was very convenient for a few people that he was put away.'

'That doesn't mean anything!' Georgi exclaimed throwing up his hands.

'He's not a bad person.' It was difficult for Jacy to say those words. He wasn't exactly sure why, maybe because he had hoped for so long that someone would say them to him.

'Maybe. But that still doesn't mean that these people are who they _say_ they are, or that they aren't dangerous,' Georgi said.

Jacy thought for a moment and realised that even though he couldn't be sure about many things, he felt safe in Thessa's house.

'There's no one else who is willing to help my dad.'

'So you're really going to look for him?' Kai asked as Georgi looked at them both with dilated nostrils.

Jacy nodded. Kai shrugged at Georgi, who hung his head in defeat.

'And we can't convince you to come away with us?' Georgi asked.

Jacy shook his head.

'Okay, then. If they don't actually take you home when you ask, just let me know. I'll make sure you get back — my dad can help, he's a police detective.' Kai said, clapping his hands together. 'So ... when do we start?'

Both Jacy and Georgi looked up at him in confusion.

'Come on! Don't look at me like that! If Jacy's dad is really innocent, then we need to help him. First, we need a plan.' It seemed Kai's verbal floodgates had opened. 'Just make sure these people of yours are not some psychopathic maniacs collecting children, you know, like in that children's tale with the boy and his little sister and the cookie house or something.'

All three of them jumped at a gentle knock on the door. Then it opened.

'Well, I'll try to live up to that standard,' Thessa said. 'But your main problem at the moment is that the police captain is looking for you and he doesn't look too happy. I'd suggest you move.'

Kai's eyes bulged out. Jacy tried to read Thessa's expression to see how angry she was about him telling things to these boys.

She was about to close the door, but then turned back, motioning to the burning candle. 'Just for future reference, in case you actually need it, it's the volcanic red candles that seal a room. This doesn't work here.'

The only sound breaking the silence after Thessa left was Kai's loud gulp.

* * *

' _That's_ who kidnapped you?' Kai whispered.

'No! I told you before I wasn't —'

'Yeah, yeah, you weren't kidnapped. I got it. But still.'

Thessa was waiting for Jacy a little way away.

'Anyways, we still have to finish our quiz,' Georgi said. 'We're actually here for a reason.'

'Oh right,' Kai pulled his mouth to the side. 'Who cares what colour St Elmo's fire is.'

'That's not the point — we need to get the location of the legendary ship, which was linked to St Elmo's Fire, and then we'll get its colour.'

'It's for the group project. They gave us a puzzle and St Elmo's fire is the last bit. No one can figure it out, and whoever is the quickest gets most points for the group project. We'll fail otherwise.'

'Well, that's that,' Kai said. 'Let's spend our time with something more valuable.'

Were they talking about the same thing the man had been? Maybe Jacy could help the boys out — after all they seemed to want to really help him, and hadn't yet given Jacy up to the police. 'Um, I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about, but the man called the liquid coming out of his bag "Elmo" '

'Really?' Georgi asked, eyes bulging out. 'Are you saying my spell worked?'

'Did you actually see it?' Kai asked without waiting for an answer, with a spark of curiosity in his eyes.

'That thing was definitely green.'

Thessa's expression went blank and she came closer.

'St Elmo's fire is blue,' she said her voice dry.

'No, I'm pretty sure it was green.'

Thessa shifted. 'It's supposed to be blue.'

'I don't know,' Jacy shrugged. 'It might have been something else then.'

'Where did you get that bag from?' she pointed at the bag still around his shoulders.

Jacy squirmed on the spot, no way could he spin what had happened in a positive light. 'This? ... Um ... this is —'

'That's mine,' Kai suddenly said. 'Thanks for holding on to it, while I, um, tied my shoelaces.'

He reached over and almost snatched the bag off Jacy's shoulder. As he leaned in, he quickly whispered, ' _We'll keep it safe._ '

'I think, we'll get going then,' Georgi said with a grimace that he probably intended to be a smile. 'We'll see you around.'

Obviously, the boys felt uncomfortable around Thessa, likely still not believing that she hadn't kidnapped Jacy. He said bye to them, but they kept looking after Jacy and Thessa as the two walked back to the tottering house. Making sure no one noticed them slipping in through the garden, Thessa keyed in the code on the panel that appeared as she put her hand on a cobwebbed door's handle.

Stepping through it, Jacy found himself standing next to the tall beech tree basking in the crisp sunshine, its leaves quivering just as before.

* * *

With nothing else to do, Jacy spent the rest of the day wondering why Thessa would be so sure that he had a power. Maybe he didn't. But he'd thought of something to try.

He put one of the glasses on the dining room table and poured in it the only liquid he could find — orange juice. He placed it in front of him and concentrated. He squinted, placed his elbows on the table and waved a hand towards it. Nothing happened. In a minute he gave up, sinking his head onto his propped-up hand.

Then the orange juice inside the glass moved. At first, gently, then it started twirling around and around. Jacy sat up, blinking. It didn't stop. Rhythmically it continued its swaying around the rim of the glass and Jacy's heart quickened.

'Domyk!' Thessa's reproachful voice pierced the silence of the dining room from the entrance. Jacy looked around and saw Domyk standing behind him with a smirk on his face, clearly moving the water with a lazy move of his finger.

Thessa had her hands on her hips as she practically hissed, 'Stop doing that!'

Domyk lowered his finger and walked off to the kitchen with a bored look.

Thessa approached Jacy. 'You have to give it time and a lot of effort. Ignore every outside influence. Forget about the world.'

'What if I don't have a power?' Jacy said, looking at the glass of juice.

Thessa got up to clear up the food from the table. 'You do. Only Vincent was blocking it, so it will take a while to surface.'

'But if I haven't found it yet, it must mean that it's very weak,' Jacy said.

'Well, powers aren't very common, you just happen be around people who have them, so it might seem otherwise. And there are also people who think that they have a power but they actually don't. Yours however, manifests weakly only because you're not actively using it. You don't yet experiment with it or push the limits. And that's the only way to strengthen a power.'

The door to the kitchen banged opened as Domyk glided into the dining area. He put a steaming tomato soup with some bread in front of Jacy, and it only took a sip of the hot soup to turn his attention to his empty stomach. For a grumpy ghost, Domyk was very good in his domestic tasks — the soup was delicious, or Jacy was too hungry to notice otherwise. He gobbled it up in a matter of minutes.

'So, I have the rest of the day off, right? I need time before I start preparing for our next ...' Domyk's words trailed off and he started dusting himself off. Jacy wondered if dust actually stuck on supernatural beings or if there was something else going on.

'Have a nice evening. I do not want to hear that you were anywhere near Stockholm,' Thessa said, her tone clipped. 'Your ban isn't lifted.'

'Is it, ever?' Domyk waved a majestic goodbye and disappeared from the middle of the living room with Jacy watching the empty air after him.

'Domyk has finished cleaning up your room, do you want to see it?' Thessa asked Jacy.

He nodded and followed her to the upstairs corridor which opened to the view of the starless sky — the ocean too dark to see much of it. The light emanating from the house let Jacy see that the building was actually set slightly inside the cliff — part of the wall was one with the stone.

He pressed his face to the window. It was too dark to see below, but to the left a soft light shone from a balcony. Thessa opened the room belonging to it.

'Whose room is this?' he asked stepping in. It was decorated softly, with billowing, long, white curtains that covered the entire glass wall opening to the ocean.

'Mine,' Thessa.

Through an arch, it led to a tiny office room, with a massive ocean-view desk and a wide lilac armchair. Jacy couldn't decide whether the blue light from the dark night made the room feel haunted and cold, or soft and magical.

Then Thessa turned around and ignoring the door on the other side of the corridor, pointed to the one next to it. 'That one is yours.'

The door stood between sturdy, crammed bookshelves which continued all around the landing.

Thessa opened the door and flicked the light switch on. As amazing as the house was, to Jacy it seemed like this room was the best of all. Yellow light came from the lamp that sat in the corner.

'I really like it,' he said as he walked in. The cosy room was much smaller than Thessa's, yet spacious enough for the large bed and a huge wooden desk in front of the window. The wooden furniture combined with the dark emerald colours of the bedsheet, curtains and the little rug at the side of the bed made the room private enough to feel safe and make Jacy wish he had something similar in London, starting with the view.

'Domyk got you a few clothes. Not much, but should be enough as a start,' Thessa said, while Jacy went to the window.

It was looking out to the front of the house. He didn't have a view of the ocean; instead, he saw the beautiful plain with the football pitch that lay beneath the sparkling dark sky and the faint outline of the hills in the background. A warmth spread over Jacy — just before a nagging feeling of guilt settled in his stomach.

'Do you mind if I try calling my mum again?'

'Of course,' she said, leading him back down to the phone in the dining area. 'Just be careful not to give anything away.'

He took the phone and perched on the armchair in the living room idly gazing out to the front of the house.

As the call connected and the rings sounded one by one, Jacy was ready to leave another voice message. But why wasn't his Mum picking up? Then, a faint change of background noise, and,

'Hello?'

Jacy knew the voice. 'Hi, Vincent. Can I speak to Mum, please?'

As if he was too shocked to speak, Vincent's hushed answer came with a delay and after a little bit of shuffling in the background. 'Jacy? Tell me where you are, this instance.'

'I can't — but can you just give the phone to Mum, please? I want to talk to her.'

'What do you mean you can't? Who's keeping you? Who did your father hire to kidnap you?' Vincent was whispering, which was strange enough, but the background noises sounded like multiple people were there.

'What? No, my father has nothing to do with this.' Not directly anyway, but Jacy wasn't about to tell all that to Vincent. 'Please, I'd like to tell my mum that I'm okay, I don't want her to worry.'

'She's not at home,' he said. 'Listen to me, you have to tell me where you are, you're causing your mother a lot of stress. You're being ungrateful for all that we've done for you.'

'Oh,' Jacy frowned, he could have sworn he heard more voices on the line. 'Aren't those wine glasses clinking in the background?'

Vincent never ever touched alcohol.

'You're hearing things,' Vincent said.

'Please just tell her not to worry, I —' Jacy started to say.

'No, listen to me —'

There was a ping somewhere upstairs in Thessa's house.

Then a full-blown alarm went off — like the one Jacy had heard during fire drills at his school.

'No,' Thessa's voice carried to Jacy. 'No, no, no, no.'

Jacy frowned, wondering about what could have happened. He heard the commotion and Thessa cursing under her breath upstairs.

'I'll call you back,' Jacy said into the receiver and hung up. He just about heard Vincent taking a breath, no doubt to scold him, but whatever was happening took precedence.

After sounds of a shuffle across the upstairs floor, Thessa hurled herself down the stairs and out the front door.

Jacy ran after her, but by the time he passed the threshold, Thessa was skidding to halt at the beech tree, hitting the code on the panel. 'Thessa? Wh—'

His words trailed off when she disappeared, leaving barely a ripple in the air after herself. Walking down the porch steps, Jacy looked around the quiet plane, the cliffs, the forest in the distance. What was he supposed to do? It felt like he should be helping whatever situation that had caused such panic, but Thessa could be on the other side of the planet by now.

Jacy paced, trying to think of something creative. This would be the perfect time for a power to materialise and save the day.

But there was not an inkling of anything supernatural. The ground hadn't shaken, Jacy hadn't started flying, the future had not revealed itself.

Only, somewhere far, far away a tiny voice was shrieking. Jacy wished he could squint with his ears to hear better. A whistling sound, as if a kettle was beginning to boil — and just like that, it was getting louder and louder. Jacy whirled around.

WHAM!

A huge crash, then a thud.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a mass with light hair falling from the tree near the shed, right next to the house.

A grunt and a gasp sounded as Jacy rushed to the heap on the ground. It was a small girl, clutching what seemed like a notebook to her chest. She must have been only a couple of years younger than him.

'Are you okay?' He tried to help her, but looking up, she pushed his hand away and scrambled to her feet.

'Who are you?' she asked, eyes wide, nursing an elbow — likely hurt in the fall. Whether because she was surprised at who she saw or what she saw, he couldn't tell — her eyes started darting around, the house, the dark ocean, then back at Jacy.

'Who are _you_?' Jacy countered. Thessa did say he shouldn't tell people who he was.

'Nadine,' she said. 'Is Thessa here?'

He had not expected this. He wasn't even sure what _this_ was. He really hoped Thessa wasn't a child-hoarding kidnapper. Okay, that was unlikely. But the girl knew Thessa at least. 'No, she — she just left.'

Nadine looked worried and started pacing, almost the same way Jacy had a few minutes before. 'I need to help somehow, I think she might be in trouble.'

'What happened?'

She looked at Jacy a moment too long, then said, 'A detective came around asking questions at school, and then a silver-eyed demon chased me before Thessa and that, that ... poltergeist mister showed up. Thessa pulled me out and then somehow I just fell. But now I don't know where she is. What if the demon attacked her as well?'

Surely, a demon wouldn't just start attacking people randomly, and Thessa must know how to handle herself. She was handling Domyk well enough. The girl must have been overreacting, so Jacy felt it to be his duty to calm her. 'Don't worry, she'll be fine. Is she your relative?'

'No,' the girl said with wonder in her tone and then paused. 'I think you are.'

She gave him time, time he much needed, to process this information. In a few moments his shock has turned into indignation. Jacy frowned. 'Sorry, you must be mistaken.'

'Well, Ian Marwick is my dad. So if he's not yours then you're right.'

Outside, the ocean kept washing the shore with whispering waves. Jacy blinked, waiting. For a joke maybe.

'I don't have a sister.'

Then he tried to look for something familiar in her features, something like his father in the photo, but as far as he could tell they didn't look much alike.

Jacy didn't know what to say.

'Dad showed me how he remembered you, which was when you were much younger, but you haven't changed that much ... I haven't talked to him for a while,' she said quietly, taking a leaf out of her hair.

'You're not joking,' he said, stepping back at the realisation. She gave him a _what-do-you-think_ look. He felt a pang of uneasiness in his chest — his father had a daughter and they _had_ talked regularly. He tried to suppress the flash of doubt. What if he wasn't the best person to help his own father? 'How did he contact you?'

'My dreams, of course,' she said, shrugging. 'He tried to reach you too, he told me himself. But Thessa said your stepfather blocked it.'

The sound of thunder sounded somewhere far away, and even though the sky was clear with the stars twinkling overhead, Jacy hoped the storm wouldn't arrive before Thessa did.

Jacy wondered if the girl had a power. If Thessa was so sure that Jacy had one, that must have been one of the reasons she'd contacted the girl as well. Maybe Thessa was starting to believe that Jacy didn't have a power after all, and the girl was her last hope of a connection to Ian Marwick.

If Jacy hadn't known better, he would have thought he was being jealous. But why should he be worried about having a sister who could also help his dad and maybe quicker or better than he could? He himself had told Thessa that he might want to leave soon.

'My power is not that special, or reliable. I'm not even sure it's a real power,' she said.

Whoa. Jacy frowned. If she could read minds, Jacy was seriously in trouble, in so many ways. He tried not to think of anything he shouldn't be thinking about.

'I can't read minds, if that's what you're wondering,' she squinted. 'But I can see a field of colour around you. It changes as your mood changes.'

'Oh ... What is it like now?' Jacy mused, that was one cool power to have.

'Blueish green, but it went a bit yellow just now.'

Jacy felt like he should maybe apologise, in case that was his jealousy breaking through.

'Don't feel bad, it could be worse. Plus, the more intricate the feeling the more beautiful it becomes. Very basic but very strong emotions are just bright.'

One thing was certain, Jacy needed to be careful about what he thought, and what he felt around his ... sister. Like when, the next moment, something like a ripple shifted in the air which made the hairs on his arm stand up.

'Domyk!' it was Thessa's hushed voice, and it sounded from ... from everywhere really.

Jacy blinked a few times. It was very dark, and he could see no one anywhere, yet it was as if Thessa was speaking from hidden loudspeakers.

'What's the matter?' Nadine asked him.

'Can you see her?'

'See whom?'

'Thessa,' Jacy said, still twirling, and squinting into the darkness. 'Maybe your power can pick up — whatever it picks up.'

'Why would I see Thessa — is she back? Can you see her?' Nadine was now twirling around with Jacy.

'No, I can hear her,' Jacy thought that was pretty obvious.

And then, Thessa hurled through the space between the porch and the two of them, crash landing in the lavender patch.

'Ouch ...' she grunted first, unmoving. Then slowly, slowly, rolled over and lying on her back, panting, looked up at the sky. 'That was close.' She then seemed to remember them, and twisted her neck to look at them, 'Everything good here?'

Jacy wasn't sure how to answer that question, Nadine seemed a bit lost too. Thessa read the situation, and scrambled to her feet. Jacy saw a few cuts on her cheek and her hair was sticking in all directions — he could have sworn there was smoke coming from the left side of it, and it now seemed shorter than the right.

'Obviously, this is not how I planned this. And, I guess ... you two now know —'

'Yep,' Jacy said.

'Where is Mister Domyk?' Nadine asked.

'Here,' Domyk's voice sounded displeased to say the least as he walked up the steps of the porch and into the house. 'And no, I don't want to talk about it.'

He banged the door shut so hard, that the entire house shook. Jacy saw a few bits of the roof falling onto the garage.

'Domyk, wait,' Thessa walked after him, beckoning the two of them to follow, trying to stifle her laboured breathing, as if she had just run a mile. She probably had.

'Are sure I can stay here?' The girl's voice sounded much more timid.

'Both of you can stay as long as you need. You'll be safe here,' Thessa said opening the front door and walking into the dining room, where a single candle now burnt on the table.

'I'm really sorry this is how you had to find out, it's not how I planned it.'

'This is my fault,' Nadine said. 'I'm sorry, I don't know how that detective and demon found me. Are they working for Dad's captors?'

'Don't say that this is your fault, and definitely don't think that — it's not,' Thessa said. 'I don't know what that detective has to do with that demon and I really don't know what that detective has to do with you.'

'And what do _you_ have to do with us?' the moment the words left Jacy's mouth, they sounded confrontational even to his ears, although he didn't mean it that way. 'What I mean is, who are you to my ... our dad?'

Thessa frowned. 'No one really. As I said before, he helped me once, massively, so I want to repay the favour.'

The three of them fell into silence — engrossed in their own thoughts. Jacy wondered if all of them were thinking about his dad.

'What did my father do for a living?' Jacy asked, taking the opportunity now that they were on that topic. 'Mum never wanted to talk about it.'

Thessa looked up at him, a strange shadow crossing her face, but it was Nadine who spoke. 'He's a cryptographer, a codebreaker and a codemaker — a very good and very unique one.'

That was pretty exciting. Jacy wished he could ask him about it.

'What types of codes had he been breaking?' Jacy asked.

'Obviously, whatever code his captors now want broken,' Thessa said.

Another heavy silence.

'So what do we do now?' Nadine asked.

'We think and then regroup,' Thessa said. 'There are options, but we need Domyk for all of those, so I need to make sure he's okay first.'

As if he knew they were talking about him, Domyk stomped downstairs. 'Right. The room is clean — I don't know if we should haze the windows. It's quite high, the little child might get scared or have vertigo. Or maybe we should swap the two. She might like the field view better. And, I don't know what to do with the tooth mop. There aren't any more and —'

Thessa waved his words away. 'It will be fine. Nadine, just let us know if something isn't working okay?' The girl gave a short nod. 'And we'll get a toothbrush tomorrow.'

'Follow me, child,' Domyk said to the girl, and after a reassuring nod from Thessa, she cautiously followed Domyk up the stairs.

He almost ran in front of Nadine, looking back, keeping enough of a distance that he had to raise his voice for her to hear. 'You need to sleep. Those pillows under your eyes are black as cinder. I'll bring some tea in a second. This is your —'

As they disappeared upstairs, Thessa sighed and leaned against the arch.

'Any more siblings I don't know about? A twin brother, maybe?' Jacy wasn't even sure where that came from. She blinked a few times, then smiled.

'Who knows.'

'Funny.'

Why hadn't anyone told him?

'How?' was all Jacy asked, but Thessa understood.

'Your dad met her mum after your parents separated. All you should know is that her mother, Zoe, was captured a while after your dad was, but unfortunately she got injured and has been in a coma for years now. So your sister had no one to take her in.'

'What happened to her then?'

'She grew up in an orphanage.'

Jacy let out a breath. That was bad.

'Why did no one ever tell me?'

'For that I don't have an answer,' Thessa sighed, exhaustion now etched across her face. 'I didn't want this to blindside you. And you will have many questions. But, let's do all that tomorrow.'

She meandered up the stairs, just as Domyk rushed past, hurrying down once more. He started fumbling inside the cupboards in the dining room. Opening them, closing them. Sighing in a way that sounded like grunting.

'What are you doing?' Jacy asked.

'I need to get some morning food for the child. I can't give her these stale oats.' He shook the dusty package for emphasis.

Jacy frowned. 'Isn't that what you've been using to make my porridge?'

Domyk threw him a dirty look that implied that if Jacy wanted any type of food in the morning, it was in his best interest not to ask any more questions.

* * *

Amid the crashing waves of the ocean he heard the sound of Thessa's movements upstairs seep through the dining room window. He heard her speaking to Domyk, though he wasn't able to understand about what exactly.

Jacy camped down in the armchair, wrapped in a blanket, happy that Thessa wasn't telling him to go to bed yet. He felt as though sleep would elude him completely that night, so he settled in to watch a comedy show on the new TV which Domyk had brought into the house. Hoping it would distract him from his thoughts — but it didn't.

He thought about this alleged power, he thought about the call with Vincent, and he thought about his sister's arrival. He played back his conversation with the boys in the library. He remembered hearing Thessa in the V&A museum. He recalled the feeling of the wind blowing over his face the first day he had arrived at this creaking house. A small flicker of suspicion started forming, but it remained just out of reach.

Slowly, with the lull of the softened wind blowing through the tall tree outside his open window, Jacy fell asleep.

He realised it was a dream when his father sat down next to him on the wrought iron bench and started talking to him like to an adult, with a solemn expression. The sun was shining wherever they were — among trees and bushes.

'It wasn't supposed to be like this, Jacy,' his father said. 'Be careful, and don't trust anyone.'

When Jacy tried to talk back, he couldn't get a word out. His father carried on like he wasn't there.

'Dad! Listen to me!' Jacy shouted, or tried to shout. He wasn't sure if he had.

Ian Marwick looked at Jacy. 'You can hear me. You have to listen.'

'Yes, yes, of course, but, Dad —'

'Jacy, you can hear me.'

'I can.' Maybe this was just a regular dream, but his father usually made more sense.

Then everything disappeared and Jacy was running away from heavy footsteps sounding somewhere far away — Vincent's footsteps — he could hear them.

Jacy sat up in the armchair on which he'd fallen asleep, wide awake, his heart beating, as he realised something. Sense of time had completely eluded him in his disorientated state.

Somewhere, outside the house, Domyk was closing the post box attached to the lamppost.

'Oh,' Jacy jolted as the realisation hit him. 'Oh ...'

Jacy heard it squeak.

And that was it. He probably shouldn't be able to hear it from here. Domyk was on the other side of the garage, amidst the sounds of the thundering ocean, while Jacy was in the house.

Maybe it wasn't normal to hear Vincent snoring all those nights when he had been up. Maybe it wasn't Thessa who could speak to him, but it was him who could hear her speak all those times in London. And maybe his sister hadn't heard Thessa's shrieking the night before, because she couldn't — maybe, Jacy heard things that other people didn't.

With a resolve to test the theory out the next day, he walked to his room and nestled into the fresh sheets with his thoughts keeping him up only a while longer.

### CHAPTER 6

He woke up with a headache and a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. The wind was tearing up the trees, the few remaining sunrays were dancing through a massive black cloud, but even those were not enough to lift the darkness — and then it all came back to him with a crash.

Yep, he did have a sister.

Jacy wondered how long he could hide in his room under his blanket and avoid having to deal with the emotional heap that had fallen on him. Maybe Domyk would teleport him some food. Although, who was he kidding — even if Jacy was ill with a sky-high fever, Domyk would still probably make him replant the camellia bush below the porch. With his bare hands. In a snowstorm.

Following the revelation the night before, Jacy decided to practise his hearing on whatever he could find.

That day was the rainiest Jacy had experienced in the house — the fresh smell of the rain even reached the top floor. As he walked down, he saw that Domyk had already taped up a rift under the bathroom window and put buckets under a leak on the top of the porch — where Thessa was already nestled in the rocking chair.

With sleepy eyes and disheveled hair, surrounded by newspapers and what looked like old documents, she was typing on an old laptop which looked as though it would fall apart any moment.

Domyk was bringing her a tray of tea and biscuits, when Nadine snuck down the stairs and started moving around the house, examining the floors, the walls and, it seemed, everything. She then repeated the patrol outside, joining them while shielding her notebook from the stray raindrops that found their way under the porch roof. That piqued Jacy's interest.

'What are you writing in there?' he asked.

Startled out of her thoughts, Nadine instinctively clutched the notebook to her chest. 'Everything important.'

'Why?'

'So I don't forget.'

As if that was entirely obvious. She might also be thinking of leaving Thessa and writing everything down in case she wanted to come back. Jacy glanced at Thessa who was slightly frowning at whatever she was reading. It was likely that she'd given Nadine the same condition of not being allowed to come back once she left.

Domyk started explaining the breakfast choices to Nadine.

'So, I have jam, honey, croissants, fresh rye bread, bacon and eggs ... I think that's it.'

'All that out of boredom?' Thessa commented, not even looking up from the screen. 'I must not give you enough to do.'

Domyk chuckled. If a chuckle could be deadly, that was it.

'That reminds me,' Thessa said and only when she lifted her head did Jacy notice the deep dark circles under her eyes. 'There is the matter of your education that we have to discuss.'

Jacy wasn't sure if he sounded, or Nadine looked, more horrified. 'School?'

Suddenly Domyk was looking at Thessa with horrified eyes. 'Please, please, tell me that you aren't saying what I think you're saying?'

'Why not? We can't leave them without an education and we don't know how long they'll be here. Home-schooling is the only option I see, until they're back to their normal routine.'

'They'll be here, under my feet, _all_ the time?' Domyk looked at Jacy with distaste. 'Can I resign?'

Thessa rolled her eyes. 'No, they'll be going to the library in Celestial Hiss, I've already registered them.'

Thessa chewed on her bottom lip for a few long moments. It seemed a lot was being decided on right then. 'If something happens and you need to contact me, look up the number for _Raspberry Thicket Bakery Ltd, Paris_ anywhere. Call the number but dial starting from the end, and ask for a Figaro slice for collection.'

'I don't have a phone,' Jacy said.

'The town bans unregistered phones, apart from its phone-booths. Each of those has a phonebook, and the number for the bakery is free, so just do as I told you before.'

'They have phone booths?' Jacy asked.

'An almost untraceable way to call and receive calls. Serves the town's purpose well, so they keep them around.'

She hesitated, but then went on. 'And thank you, Domyk, for volunteering to be their tutor.'

Domyk looked like he could have strangled her at that moment, and Jacy wondered what really stopped him. Nadine settled in a chair on the other side of Thessa with her notebook and Jacy realised that if he was going to be in Celestial Hiss, he could find Kai and Georgi again. Kai had mentioned that he might be able to help look for Jacy's father.

Nadine, on the other hand, seemed to be preoccupied with Domyk's stories and interrogated him about his past even though he claimed he had to clean the garage whenever she asked something he didn't want to answer. Somehow, she changed her questions just at the right moment, so he stayed and told them about how it was to live in Europe during the 15th century, about what kind of food he ate and about how many demon friends he had.

'I either have admirers, or enemies. Not much in between.' The fact that he'd answered all these questions, albeit with his usual reluctance, was already surprising in itself.

'But, every demon has a weakness, right?' Nadine asked.

'Hmm.' Domyk paused.

That got Jacy's interest, so he asked him, 'Do you?'

Domyk narrowed his eyes, and looked Jacy over with suspicion, 'What do you need to know my weakness for?'

'No, no, that's not what I meant,' Jacy hurried to explain.

'I think Jacy just means to ask about how common these things are,' Nadine calmly added. 'He didn't have the exposure to demons before, so I'm sure you're very interesting to him.'

Domyk glanced at Jacy again, clearly suspecting him of wanting to cause trouble. Jacy tried to keep his expression neutral.

Domyk waved a hand. 'Well ... I don't concern myself with such trivialities as my alleged weaknesses. I'll leave that to more inconsequential folk.' Domyk cleared his throat.

'Tea, anyone?' He looked around and then headed for the kitchen. 'I think I'll bring some anyway. And then de-bird the garden ... I hate birds.'

An echo of thunder sounded from near the horizon, where Jacy saw dark clouds making their way over.

### CHAPTER 7

It was Halloween, and for the hundredth time, Thessa gave Jacy and Nadine detailed instructions about how to behave in Celestial Hiss: no names, especially not hers, better not to mention Domyk either, be suspicious of anyone who asks too much, and if anything at all happens contact her or Domyk straight away on the numbers that they had to recite to her at least five times that morning. Nadine and Jacy nodded in unison at every sentence.

Domyk had set off on a pumpkin gathering expedition — but not before getting offended by Thessa daring to suggest that he should avoid getting into trouble this time.

Thessa only took Jacy and Nadine to the abandoned house, from where they walked on their own. The time difference meant that they left home just after lunch time to arrive at the library at nine in the morning.

It didn't even take an hour for Nadine to find the massive newspaper archive the library had, and disappearing for hours, she started researching their father. Jacy had no idea where to start, so he roamed the rows and rows of books while trying not to raise the suspicions of the two assistant librarians. Bianca watched him like a hawk, and seemed to turn up at the exact same spots he was loitering around. The other assistant was reading her own books at the reception, not caring in the slightest, never looking up, her feet on the desk — Jacy could probably have ransacked the entire library while she finished her chapters.

Nadine gave him half the pile of the newspapers that she had found to read — while she worked on the mathematical problems that Thessa had made up for them as homework. He sat at one of the desks near the corner window on the second floor and started reading, but most of the articles were uninteresting, so his attention wandered to the window where, overlooking the crossroads, he saw a post office, a small bakery and a butchers. The library was almost completely empty, and so quiet that he could hear Nadine's pen as it flowed across the page, when something caught his eye. Two boys were hurrying up the street towards the cross-roads. A brown and a blond head bobbed as they stalked side by side.

Jacy was out of his seat in barely a second. 'I'll be right back.'

Nadine frowned at him and might have said something, but he didn't hear it because he was already halfway down the wide stairs, the quiet librarian not even turning her head to watch Jacy whizz through the automatic doors.

School was not over yet, so Jacy had no idea why the boys were out and about. He looked both ways before running across the road.

'Georgi! Kai!' he called to them as his feet slapped on the sidewalk.

Kai turned his head first and his eyes widened. 'Jacy?'

'Hey,' Jacy panted.

'Good — you're here!' Kai said as they started walking. 'I'm just about to —'

'What are you doing here?' Georgi asked.

Jacy merely pointed to the library, where he saw a blonde patch disappear below a windowsill.

'You're in the library? Our library?'

'Yeah, Thessa sends us for a few hours to study,' he said.

Kai frowned. 'Us?'

Jacy had forgotten that they didn't know about Nadine. He glanced to where he had seen the movement in the window.

'My sister is also here.'

'I didn't know you had a sister,' Kai shrugged.

There wasn't a soft way to put it, so Jacy went with it. 'Until a while ago, neither did I. Thessa told me, but everyone else kept it a secret from me.'

'Oh,' Georgi said, stunned.

An awkward silence continued and Jacy was about to turn back when a thought went across Kai's face. As if seeing Jacy reminded him of something.

'Halloween!' he said with a gasp.

'What?' Georgi turned to him, frowning.

'We're doing it, tonight, on Halloween,' Kai said with a dramatic effect of his voice.

'Doing what?' Jacy asked.

Kai rolled his eyes. 'Finding your dad and proving he's innocent, of course. So, I thought and I thought, and obviously your dad's case is sealed, and the magical aspect means it's not going to be in regular sources, but there might be a paper copy at the archives. The only way his case will be archived here is if there is anything linking it to Celestial Hiss or its residents. But if there was any information request, any investigation, or if any detectives entered the town in relation to his case, it will be documented. Celestial Hiss is one of the few magic hubs in the world — it's worth a try. All we need to do is to get to it and read it. There is no guarantee, but we have nowhere else to start.'

Georgi's face turned a shade of horrified Jacy had not seen on anyone before. 'You're joking!'

Jacy's thoughts slowed down though. It wasn't as if anything in the news section of the library was helping much. And if Kai was willing to help ... 'So, where is this archive?'

Kai paused ominously. 'It's at my dad's work.'

Jacy furrowed his brows. 'Didn't you say your dad was a policeman?'

'Yes, but it's not as bad as it sounds!' Kai said hastily. 'Everyone knows me there and I know them too. I know their schedule for example when they have coffee, when their children call them — it's like a big family. And no one ever goes down to the archives. Really. The only problem would be if anyone saw us in the town. So, that's why our only chance might be tonight. It's brilliant!'

Jacy hesitated, it was a good idea, but it might just be too good. Sensing Jacy's indecision, he continued.

'Think about it — how many other days do we get to run around in masks without being noticed? No one will know who we are! I have a costume, and I'll just get you the one I wore last year and Georgi can cover for us.'

'I'm not staying behind!' Georgi snapped.

Kai shrugged, 'I didn't think you'd want to be involved.'

'Well, I don't,' he said, looking around the street as if a teacher would hear what he was about to say. 'But if I'm not there, you're just going to end up in more trouble.'

'We are going to be just fine.'

'Really? And how exactly are you planning on explaining where we all disappeared to?' Georgi challenged. Kai opened his mouth to, no doubt, reply with something witty, but then he seemed to realise that Georgi was right. 'Exactly. I have an idea, though.'

'Thanks, Georgi, but you don't have to do this. He's my dad and I don't want to drag you into this.' Jacy said.

'At least if I'm there there's less chance of you getting caught. Never trust Kai with anything like that, I'm telling you.'

'Hey!' Kai looked outraged.

'Anyway, the idea is, since your dad is on call, we can ask for your cousin Raffy to cover for all us and tell your dad that Raffy will keep an eye on us.'

'He's not going to do it. He got into so much trouble the last time he covered for us, he almost killed me. He's the only normal relative I have, and he'll hate me forever,' Kai said with regret.

'Yeah, but I heard that your aunt apparently doesn't like his new girlfriend, so he'll want us to cover for him too. It's a win-win situation.'

'How do you know who likes whom in my family?' Kai looked at Georgi suspiciously.

'It's not that difficult to keep up with, you just never pay attention to what your dad says.'

'Yes, I do.'

'No, you don't.'

'Yes, I do.'

'No —'

'Guys!' Jacy interrupted. 'I have to go back to my sister, or she'll get suspicious. I'll talk to you soon.'

Georgi stopped arguing. 'Yeah, I need to go post a letter.'

He turned around but then stopped as old man in a brown, old-fashioned suit and a matching hat rounded the corner. The two boys instantly looked guilty, as if they were about to commit the crime of the century.

'Mr Kobak, Mr Hrsak,' the man nodded to the boys, speaking with his hands folded together in front of him and looking like he savoured every word he said before he actually said it, harmonising his difficult breathing to it.

'Hello, Mr Malina,' both boys said in unison as the old man fixed his gaze on Jacy.

'And you are, young man?'

Jacy felt himself redden. How was he going to get out of not saying his name? And for the life of him, he couldn't think of a name to say instead.

'Our friend,' Kai said quickly.

'Well,' the man said, eyes cloudy with age and an ancient-looking kindness. 'I hope these boys will not tempt you into too much trouble.'

'We won't, Sir,' Kai said, smiling at him broadly.

The man tipped his hat to them, and carried on his way, the smell of old books wafting after him. He looked as he was relishing every single thing around him, including the sound of his feet shuffling on the ground.

As he got out of hearing distance, Georgi shook his head. 'Mr Malina. He's our history teacher, not that he actually manages to teach anything ... No one ever listens to him.'

Kai nodded. 'Last year, he took us on a museum trip. We almost left him there, he blended in so well.'

Georgi snorted.

But Kai shrugged. 'He's not that bad, he showed me some stuff. Did you know museums have the highest concentration of magical creatures?'

'What!' Georgi swivelled his head around to Kai. 'You never told me that!'

'You kept running away from him,' Kai said, accusing Georgi. 'And, I mean, I didn't actually see anything magical. He was talking about hidden doors and stuff.'

'Riiiight ...'

'Wait, that means he has a power?' Jacy asked.

'Yes, although he's not allowed to teach us much. Collective teaching or training of magic was banned a while ago, but he's so old and harmless that no one pays attention. We just meet in the afternoons and research stuff like how to get out of a forest if you're lost, and he shows us some basic skills.'

'That doesn't sound magicky,' Jacy said.

'It usually isn't,' Georgi said.

'What is his power then?' Jacy asked.

'If we can call it a power at all,' Georgi whispered. 'It's his memory.'

Jacy wondered if _his_ power could be called a power at all — or even if good hearing really was one. He was about to check how much more he could hear than the others, when Kai spoke.

'He can recall every single conversation he's ever heard, every piece of information he has ever seen, and he's the only teacher that actually knows all of us by name and remembers what we tell him,' Kai continued while stuffing some papers from his pocket to his bag, zipping it up.

'Well, he's not that great. I heard someone say he's not actually magical, just a genius in the medical way,' Georgi interrupted.

'Yeah, I know, but it's still cool,' Kai said. 'That reminds me. We still have your bag.'

It took Jacy a while to realise that he was talking about the bag that he'd ended up with after that man teleported away in the library.

'I left it in one of the police station's lockers. Genius, right?' Kai's eyes sparkled. 'No one would look there, and even if they wanted to — they wouldn't have the keys.'

Georgi was frowning.

'How come _you_ have the keys?' Jacy asked. He didn't think even police detectives' children would be allowed.

'Don't ask,' Kai said, quickly changing the topic. 'Do you want me to get it now?'

'Um ...' Jacy glanced up at where Nadine must have been sitting. 'Maybe some time later?'

Jacy said bye to them and rushed back into the library building, having agreed to meet Kai and Georgi again at four o'clock. Nadine did not look at him or ask anything about the boys as he got back to his desk, so he didn't mention it either. He hoped she wouldn't spot his excitement — it was best for her not to know, in case she told Thessa. Then the entire plan would crumble. And there was no way Jacy would let an opportunity like this go to waste.

And maybe he'd even find a way to prove his dad was innocent, and then no one would be able to see him as a son of a murderer, as if he'd turn around and grow horns one day. Although, to be fair, it was Vincent's friends and their kids who had treated Jacy like that. The other half of his classmates thought he was just lying about having a real dad. And Jacy could not wait to see the reaction on all of their faces when he proved them wrong.

* * *

'What if they call each other?' Georgi's panicked voice seeped through the cold while Kai's teeth chattered in reply.

It had taken a while to persuade Nadine to wait for Jacy in the library and not go back to the house without him — which would raise suspicion about where he was. He told her he was going to visit the boys for some 'important business'. Even after explaining briefly who they were and how Jacy had met them, Nadine looked dubious but did not object.

He met Kai and Georgi in front of their blue-window-paned school. They put the masks and extra clothes on, and heading to their destination, they passed some students in the middle of collecting sickly sweet toffee apples from a particularly enthusiastic couple's horribly decorated house. It had taken them less than ten minutes to get from that street to the thick bushes behind the police station. Among all the people roaming the streets dressed up in costumes, three boys with masks and blankets tied around their shoulders as capes did not stand out.

'Relax, no one is going to call anyone,' Kai said, turning his covered face towards them.

'How do you know?' Georgi asked even more anxiously. It seemed that Kai's laidback approach didn't work for him. Kai was supposed to call his cousin and agree on a story that they could both later confirm to his dad.

The bushes were starting to get uncomfortable.

'I have to do this ... at least I have to try. But you two don't have to be here, really,' Jacy tried telling them again.

'That's not why I said that. It's just that we should have planned it better. This entire thing. I'll just check again.'

It was the fifth time that Georgi had run to the police building as a watch guard. From their nice big bush behind the building, they saw the lights come on in a few windows and turn off in others.

'Once this is over,' Kai said, his words wafting out his mouth in a mist, 'we are getting back to my house and we will start a furnace in the fireplace, and I'll make Raffy bring us pizza.'

It sounded pretty idyllic to Jacy — although, it was unlikely he'd be allowed to stay in Celestial Hiss that long.

'Ok, nothing's changed. Everyone is in the same position they were in half an hour ago,' said Georgi, stumbling back through the thicket and tearing his thin cape on thorny bushes in a few more places.

After a few minutes, one of windows on the ground floor lit up. Kai's head sprang up. 'She started! She's going! Let's go!' He stumbled to his feet hurriedly and then started shoving Jacy and Georgi along.

The guys had told Jacy about the extremely old caretaker lady; she was apparently sweet and had let Kai roam the corridors freely, until she found out that Kai had broken in with his cousin to the archives previously. Then, she started treating him like an impostor — which is why they were now climbing through a small fence leading to the dark alley separating the station from a brick wall of an office building — rather than walking in through the front door.

'Are you sure it's safe?' Jacy asked.

Georgi shook his head behind Kai's back, making Jacy a little worried.

'Trust me,' Kai said, leading the way. 'She always walks into every room and checks it. This takes her about forty-five minutes. Raffy calculated it last time. The alarms don't even pick me up anymore, so she won't even know we're there. If something happens, she'll think the guard let us in. Just don't go off my path!'

Jacy had no idea how reliable his maybe-power was, or when it worked, but it could come in very handy for this expedition.

They stopped at the first tiny window at the back of the police station. Kai rolled some bins closer to it and with a quick, agile movement he climbed on one of the bins and slid through the window.

There was quiet for a moment, then a thud followed by a few smaller thuds. Jacy and Georgi looked at each other in deadly silence, waiting.

Then they heard Kai whispering, 'Sorry. Just office stuff fell from her table. Come on up!'

After a pause Jacy started climbing. Compared to Kai's movements, he must have looked like a newborn hippo. Though he wasn't half as bad as Georgi. They pulled him in headfirst, then after all of them had won against gravity, Kai started the search.

'There!' he pointed to a small shelf with keys. 'It should be number twenty-one. I'll check the map for today's route.'

Jacy went to the shelf and saw all the keys hanging in rows — each of them had a number written above them seemingly in a random order.

'There is no twenty-one.' Georgi was reading the labels alongside Jacy so intently that his nose almost touched the board. 'There's DC — Document Cellar maybe?'

'No, should be the twenty-first one. I think. I'm trying to understand this blueprint, or at least locate where we are. The map shows whose office is where and their phone extension,' Kai explained.

'Didn't you say you did this before?' Jacy asked, slightly worried about the chaos.

'They've refurbished since then.'

Jacy's eyes slid over the cracked paint on the wall. But Kai left the map, opened the door a tiny bit, peeked outside and then turned back to them.

'Got it?' he asked.

'Nope.' Georgi was now rummaging through a little box with keys.

'Take them all, we'll just try them one by one.'

'We don't have time for that,' Georgi whispered back, annoyed. 'Let me try something. This has never worked before, so don't hold your breath.'

He closed his eyes, concentrating, and murmured. Jacy listened, sharpening his ears.

'Sorting through these keys, it is the archive one we seek.'

Nothing happened, so Georgi started rummaging further.

'I can't believe your power depends on the way you create poems and that is all you can come up with,' Kai snapped and Georgi's ears got red.

'I know what I'm doing. It just takes practise,' Georgi said defensively and murmured the enchantment again as his freckled nose scrunched up.

'Doesn't seem like it,' Kai said. 'You should at least try to listen to Mr Malina's advice.'

Their bickering put Jacy even more on edge, so he was about to divert attention when Georgi's voice saying the enchantment got more strained as his dark eyes glared at Kai. It sounded like a poem to Jacy.

Slowly, Kai reached around Georgi's to the shelf behind and, from between two books, picked something up that was lying haphazardly.

In front of Georgi's eyes, he waved a plastic card that glowed and flickered with a greenish colour.

'Thank you for that,' Kai said grinning, patting Georgi on the back. 'Get in tune with your emotions, Poet. You just solved our problem.'

Georgi didn't look much appeased. 'My power shouldn't depend on my emotions.'

'But it does,' Kai said, turning the card around in his hands. 'They've upgraded to an electronic lock. Interesting.'

'Does that change anything?' Jacy asked.

'I don't think so. Ok, take off your shoes,' Kai said, then added seeing their confusion, 'Socks make less noise.'

They followed him outside and made their way through the dark building. Only a few dim lights were on in the corridors. Through their seemingly never-ending wandering, they had almost reached the stairs when Kai stopped suddenly. He pointed to an open office door right next to the landing. To reach the stairs, they would have to pass the office. Kai knelt down, and very slowly, not making any rash movements, crept close to the door and peeked inside the office. He then stood up and with a sigh of relief motioned them to the stairs.

'False alarm,' he said.

They went down the stairs slowly, listening for every potential sound, Jacy specifically and, finally, after three flights of carpeted stairs they reached a massive metal door with the number twenty-one on it.

'That's it?' Georgi asked surprised looking around the squeaky-clean landing. 'No other security?'

'The alarm field knows me and as long as I don't go into the archive section it will be silent,' said Kai.

To Jacy it all seemed too easy and usually that wasn't good. 'What about us?'

'They also desensitized it for children after a kid got lost on a school tour of the station and got a bit electrocuted,' Kai said, flinching.

He presented the card onto the reader, and once it lit up green he leaned on the door and moved it open.

'I guess after we picked the manual lock, they thought an electronic one would be more secure,' Kai grinned.

Another corridor opened to them. Kai, knowing where to go, approached the second door on the left. Taking care not to make a sound with the handle, he made his way inside slowly.

Jacy listened in around them, but, apart from the pipes clicking and the air squeezing through the air vent, there were no sounds whatsoever.

'There's no one here,' Jacy said more bravely.

Kai flinched at the sound. 'As my dad would say, never assume anything.'

Still, his shoulders relaxed.

Jacy allowed himself to stop listening to everything for a while. The concentration of multitasking drained him, and taking in the room they had just walked into was overwhelming enough.

It was full of identical boxes with names, dates, and numbers on them.

Kai strolled along the rows of shelves, but Georgi was gazing at the gazillion boxes, mesmerised. 'What if there isn't anything here?'

'Too late for that.' Jacy felt the slight urge for hysterical laughter.

'We don't know,' Kai answered, 'but we have to start somewhere. We can narrow down the rough period to before Jacy's dad was sentenced. And my dad told me that they try to keep everything, even if it has just a tiny link to a case. Plus, everything in Celestial Hiss seems to be connected to the magical world. Apparently, the designer of the Ice Gallery in Georgia is the distant relative of one of the shop-owners here. I don't remember which one though.'

'Okay, just focus, Kai.' Georgi approached a random shelf and lifted a box lid.

'Can't we just find the right one, the same way as we did with the keycard?' Jacy asked Georgi.

'I can try, but I'm not sure my powers are good enough for this.'

Georgi started mumbling with closed eyes and tightly squeezed fists again. He peeked from under his eyelids, but nothing happened. The dark storage room was just as it was before, no glowing boxes of any kind. They waited expectantly but then Kai resumed his rummaging in one of the corners.

The three of them split up to check as many boxes as possible but after about fifteen minutes of no luck Jacy had an idea.

'Kai? Where is the classified section?' he whispered across two aisles.

Kai stopped mid-process and said with a musing expression, 'It's locked, but it won't make a difference because your father's case is not there.' Without any further explanation, he went back to reading the labels in front of him one by one.

'When Kai and his cousin broke into the classified section, they read all the cases there,' Georgi whispered from somewhere behind a shelf. 'They told me about some of them, and believe me, we don't want to go in there. I think he's now scarred for life. Mr Kobak only let him come to my house twice that summer. Apparently, there was a lot of sensitive information in the files and they could have been in danger if someone found out. They were really lucky Mr Kobak was the one who caught them.'

'Lucky is a matter of perspective. At that point, I didn't particularly feel lucky, you know?' Kai reached the row of boxes where Jacy was ferreting. 'Dad flipped out completely.'

'So, you're sure there's nothing there about my dad?' Jacy asked Kai, bringing his eyes back to the two pages about a case of an elderly man who claimed someone had stolen his cat, which made Jacy even less hopeful about finding useful information. He put the papers back in the box, shoved it onto the shelf and moved on to the next one.

'No, sorry.'

'Did he have any links to Celestial Hiss?' Georgi asked.

'I don't know. Probably not.'

They all had unsure expressions on their faces for a moment, but neither of them said anything and neither of them stopped looking. After half an hour, Georgi was getting agitated and looking at the door every few seconds.

'Stop fidgeting,' Kai said to him. 'She is not checking here yet.'

In another five minutes, Jacy heard Georgi's excited whisper exclaiming, 'Guys! Look! It says Mr Malina's name! Come here! Let's check what he's done!'

Kai's eyes lit up as he rushed to the box that Georgi had opened, almost slipping in his socks.

'Although, I'm not sure we're supposed to,' Georgi said, hesitating all of a sudden.

'Give it,' Kai said.

Georgi slid the box out carefully and placed it on the floor.

'Remember the order in which you take stuff out so that we can put it all back exactly as it was. That's how we got caught last time.'

There were so many folders in that box that Jacy thought it would be better to use the minutes they had left to look through the remaining boxes, just in case. The longer they were at it, the more hopeless their situation got. But he didn't feel like he could ask the boys to do more, they were already risking a lot to help him.

'Oh ...' Kai's disappointed voice reached Jacy's ears. 'He just witnessed a fire a while ago, nothing special. He was the only witness ...' Kai stood up to join Jacy. 'He got hurt from some debris falling on him as he walked down the street.'

Jacy was already thinking what to do next. There had to be another way to find information about his father, only how?

'Guys? Um, guys ... this says that the house was previously broken into and some valuables were stolen,' Georgi said, still kneeling in front of Mr Malina's house-fire case box, his sleeves rolled up.

'We need to go soon,' Kai said, not paying attention to him.

'... jewellery, some old paintings and rare wine. But the owner's name is blacked out and other details too ... _Guys!_ ' Georgi's voice got impatient.

'What?' Kai turned back to him while fishing out the keycard from his pocket. 'They do that when the case has sensitive information, they censor —'

Georgi just held the paper up for both of them to see. 'It says another case makes this one classified. Check the name.'

Jacy leaned closer and his heartbeat accelerated fourfold.

MARWICK case No. 2122MID CLASSIFIED- ARCHIVED BRNO

Jacy tore the paper out of Georgi's hands and pulled it up to his eyes as closely as he could as if there was something in the letters that he could miss from afar. Kai pushed his way through between them and buried himself in the box, elbow deep.

'Nothing else,' he concluded and jumped back to them. 'What is the date on that page?'

'Second of August, almost nine years ago,' Georgi said.

'I'm sure a house fire is documented somewhere, we can go from there. Although I have no idea how Jacy's dad could be connected to that. We could ask Mr Malina,' Kai said.

'We can't!' Jacy exclaimed. Thessa's warning echoed in his ears. 'He'll suspect something. How will we explain it to him that we know things from the archive? It might get your dad into trouble. And mine too.'

'Ok.' Kai's forehead creased in concentration. 'So, here's what we'll do: we'll try and find out as many things as possible. I'll just quickly write down this case number. I wonder what BRNO stands for ... Do you guys have a pen?'

Georgi shook his head. 'Who doesn't bring a pen to a mission like this?'

Kai didn't answer but fished out an evidence bag with a pen from inside the case box and wrote the information on his hand with it. They were running out of time, so the three of them hurried to put everything back to its place. Jacy would have to go on the little that they'd found.

Glancing back, nothing looked different from the way it had been before they'd come in. They rushed to the door and with snail speed Kai pulled it open. They crept back through the empty corridor, up the stairs and, as they were about to exit on the landing, Jacy's ears picked up two men having a discussion in front of the open office that had made Kai stop on their way to the archive. He pulled Georgi and Kai back behind the cover of the rails pushing them further down the stairs. At first they both looked confused, then Kai's eyes widened as the voices became louder.

'We'll have to go through the front door,' he whispered.

'Why?' Jacy asked. The three of them were already moving, only this time up the stairs, past the landing.

'It's my dad! He shouldn't be here.' Kai whispered anxiously.

'But we have to take the key back!' Georgi breathed as they moved past the voices with hurried steps.

'I'll climb back through the window again and put it back, once we're out,' Kai said. 'And that way I can also get Jacy's bag on the way.'

Right, the bag. Jacy had completely forgotten about it — he'd need to figure out what to do with it.

They raced up the stairs, emerging in a hall full of photos of wanted and missing people which led to the entrance foyer where the guard was standing with his back turned to them. The pirate, ghost and ninja passed him trying to walk, talk and look normal. The guard did not even raise an eyebrow, just glanced after them.

'The previous bunch took all the sweets, didn't they?' he called after them, mistaking them for trick-or-treaters. 'Nothing left for you?'

Kai just grumbled a 'yeah' and they walked even faster as the front door came closer and closer, leading the way to their freedom.

The moment their feet touched the ground outside on the street, Jacy was flooded with relief. Then he registered that something felt different.

The shoes. They'd forgotten their shoes.

They all started running on tiptoes to the back of the building, where they had originally entered. Kai was already halfway inside the window by the time they caught up with him.

'Hurry up!' Georgi whispered, his voice trembling. Jacy was trying to stand on one leg then hop to the other so that only one of his feet froze at one time.

'Georgi?' a man's curious voice sounded behind them.

Georgi froze. Or re-froze, only this time up to his eyeballs.

'What are you doing here? And why are you barefoot?' The man continued walking towards them. He was tall and he spoke in a soft non-threatening way, contrary to what Georgi's reaction indicated.

The man's eyes shone suspiciously between the two of them and Jacy wondered whether to answer the question on Georgi's behalf. A stupid hazy smile spread across Georgi's face. Then, with a whooshing sound, a shoe flew out of the window following an arc trajectory — which reminded Jacy of the one he had to learn in their physics classes — and landed in a box full of rubbish. The man's eyes quietly followed the shoe's route. He then crossed his arms in front of him, raising his eyebrows. Jacy glanced at Georgi, who was still smiling with a hint of panic in his eyes.

Another shoe flew and then four more, one by one. The last one hit Georgi over the head, bringing him out of his reverie. Then a bag thumped on the bin and rolled down to the ground, just as Kai's rear end was climbing out of the window.

'Got them all. But next time, seriously —' He panted, landed on the trash dumpster and then slid down straight in front of the man.

His eyes grew twice their size in those seconds. Then he laughed — hysterically.

'Next time, what, Kai?' the man asked.

Kai's giggles sounded like hiccups in the cold air as he managed to breathe out, 'Hi, Dad.'

### CHAPTER 8

'I can't believe that I'm right in the middle of liaising on an international investigation, when I see my own son breaking into the police station. _Again_.'

They were now standing in front of the main entrance, with their shoes on, and Mr Kobak was shaking his head. Jacy thought of running. But Kai's dad was preoccupied with Kai and seemed to not recognise Jacy in his costume, so he relaxed a little bit. Though, Jacy still pretty much avoided looking at him, just in case.

'Dad,' Kai started, but Mr Kobak silenced him with a look and glanced into the foyer of the police station at a man who was standing with his back to them, looking like he had just stepped off a motorcycle in his black leather jacket and heavy boots. His dark hair glistened in the dim light of the hall.

'Who's that?' Kai asked.

'A pain in my backside,' Mr Kobak said. 'Which is why I don't have time for this. There is a demonic disturbance at the hospital. I've called Raffy to take you home. Wait for him here.'

'I didn't mean —' Kai tried again, but Mr Kobak had already turned inside, waving him away. Jacy heard him tell the security guard to keep an eye on the boys. Jacy pulled the strap of the bag across his chest tighter.

Kai was suddenly very silent. Jacy tried to remember the times when Vincent had gotten angry, but it seemed like such an odd and faraway thought at that moment. Mr Kobak seemed more preoccupied than mad though.

'I know, but it's worse — I think he's really disappointed,' Kai answered as Jacy pointed that out.

Jacy tried to apologise once again — it was his fault this had happened after all.

'Kai — '

'Who's that?' Georgi pointed in the other direction down the street.

Jacy saw a blond head emerging from a side street and whooshing past on the other side of the road, running in the direction of the library.

She moved her feet quickly, but it was obviously Nadine.

Jacy was about to call to her, but what he noticed behind her made his voice catch in his throat.

In the shadows, between the lamp posts, something was following her. At first it looked like Domyk's transparent form. The second it became apparent that it wasn't Domyk, but some other demon, Jacy's legs started running after them.

He followed the path of the lamp posts which were flickering in pursuit of Nadine one by one. Jacy could make out two glowing spheres, like stars, or eyes, locked on her. What was she even doing here?

Over Georgi's panting, Jacy heard Kai's feet slapping on the ground right behind him. The security guard shouted for them to stop.

They barely reached the other side of the road with the bag swinging wildly around Jacy's shoulders before Nadine stumbled and fell. The moving abstract shape of the thing following her almost touched her, but before Jacy could even begin to formulate any kind of reaction, a stone flew past his left ear and rippled right through the metallic shadow. The thing trembled and then disappeared in an instant.

The stone then continued on, hitting a carved pumpkin perched on a fence, making it teeter and fall on the pavement, extinguishing the candle within it with a sizzle. Scrambling to her feet, not looking back and still running, Nadine did not realise what had happened behind her.

'Nadine!' Jacy shouted.

But by then, she had disappeared behind a corner.

Jacy looked back at the direction of where the stone had come from and saw that Kai was still trying to pick up some more, mid-run, before noticing that the shadow was gone.

Hurrying on, they rounded the corner where she'd turned, but Nadine was nowhere to be seen. They ran along the road further, checking behind bins and bushes and any other possible hiding places. Jacy felt the panic rising in him. What if the demon took her with him — how on earth would he explain to Thessa that he'd lost Nadine to some creature? He was the older one, he shouldn't have left her alone. And Domyk? It might be better not to go back home.

Jacy almost missed it as he rushed past a corner, but then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted her, with her back to the wall, sobbing. It was a side street opening to the school building where Kai and Georgi went to. The three boys slowed down when they saw that Nadine was not alone.

Mr Malina was patting her shoulder, pulling out a crisp handkerchief out of his pocket with slow movements and handing it to her with a shaky hand. Then his gaze fell on Jacy, Kai and Georgi —

'You there, gentlemen.' He folded his hands together in front of him.

Nadine looked up and noticed them. Her eyes widened, a silvery spider web hanging and falling from her hair. They came closer and Mr Malina gestured for them to sit down on the fence among the flickering pumpkin grimaces and dripping wax candles. Kai remained standing. When Nadine's sobs had died down, Mr Malina frowned and started asking the questions to which Jacy also wanted the answers.

'Why are you in town on your own?

Nadine remained silent.

'There was some shadow following her,' Kai said with his teeth chattering and pointed to Nadine.' A rogue spirit demon, I believe.'

'Did you see it too?' Jacy asked. It would be good to know he wasn't crazy.

'I — well, we will know for sure after Mr Kobak investigates. I think it is safe to say that it wasn't an ordinary creature.' Whenever he shifted, Jacy almost expected Mr Malina's bones to creak.

'But Kai made it disappear by throwing a stone at it —' Georgi mused.

'Mr Hrsak, you cannot make a spirit disappear by throwing a stone at it,' Mr Malina said.

'Correct.'

The voice carried through the air behind them.

Nadine peered up, looking behind the three boys. Jacy glanced over his shoulder too.

Mr Malina frowned and then his jaw went slack. 'Boian?'

It was the same man who had been standing in the police station. Leather jacket and all.

'It's _Detective_ Boian now,' he said with a small smirk as he slowly walked towards Mr Malina, ignoring all of them. At the word 'detective' Jacy's stomach dropped and he tried to sink back into the shadows. Jacy needed to get out of there as quickly as possible, and he needed to get Nadine out too. Kai's dad had said they were in the middle of an international investigation. There was one such investigation Jacy was actively trying to avoid.

The old teacher stole a quick glance in Jacy's direction before shifting his stance.

'What a rare pleasure! Forgive me ...' he said. 'I just ...'

Mr Malina gently tapped the detective's hand and softened his voice, although Jacy could still make the words out. 'It is good to see that you are well.'

Detective Boian looked down at Mr Malina's hand and something in his eyes flashed, then he started turning around to them. But Kai moved next to Mr Malina, forcing the detective's focus on him.

'Aren't you too young to be a detective?' Kai interrupted.

'Tell that to the rats whom no one could catch until I came along.'

The detective began to turn to look around at them in earnest, just as Jacy found his shoelaces in dire need of relacing.

But Boian's attention landed on Nadine, who was openly gawking at him with a look of concentration on her face. Jacy wanted to shout at her to stop — what was she thinking? First, she comes to town alone, and now she was going to give them away. Jacy would be sent home, and he could kiss his dream of being with his father goodbye.

Nadine turned her head one way, then another. Then she squinted. Detective Boian squinted back, making her stop and blush. But then, as if a thought struck him, he lost all expression in his face.

Mr Malina chuckled. 'Well, I think it's time for you youngsters to head home. I'll see you on Monday.'

'What are your names?' the detective asked, still looking at Nadine.

'My dear boy, I'm sure you're aware that you can't question them in Celestial Hiss.'

'It looks like they were questioning me first.' He stepped closer to Kai. 'Anything else you'd like to know, apart from my age?'

'Detective, I wouldn't want to have to warn you,' Mr Malina said humorously, but followed Boian as he casually stepped one step closer.

'What happened? Why is there an international investigation in town?' Kai asked, lifting his chin higher.

Detective Boian smiled.

'Boian, I suggest, you get away from my son, and think about what jurisdictional boundaries mean.' Mr Kobak walked briskly around the corner to them, Jacy shifted even further, behind Mr Malina.

'Of course, Captain. Just making sure they are alright,' he said with an arrogant smile. 'We don't want demons attacking little kids in this town, do we?'

He glanced back at Nadine just before a rickety car screeched to a halt in front of the group and reversed with a dissatisfied rumble. A boy in his twenties climbed out of it, shut the door with a bang, and approached Kai with his hands extended in question.

'What the hell were you thinking?' he emphasised every word, his prominent cheekbones slicing the air.

Kai sighed in response and stood up to go.

'Raffy,' Georgi whispered to Jacy, so the kids all stood up to follow, a little way back, giving Kai a little space to get shouted at.

'How many times? How many times are you going to get me in trouble? Are we family or not?'

Kai was actively ignoring Raffy as the latter shot his hands and brown eyes into the air and uttered some unpleasantness under his breath. Georgi looked from one to another shrugging.

Among all the upheaval, Jacy heard a faint ' _Psst_ '. Probably, a candle was going out.

But then, it sounded again.

Jacy slowly looked around the street. In the front garden of a small cottage, between some shrubbery, Jacy saw Domyk's hunched outline peek out at them. How was Domyk in the town if he was banned?

Kai, oblivious to Domyk and probably misunderstanding Jacy's confusion, whispered to him. 'Look at the bright side, we have something to go on now.'

Domyk was whispering at the same time. 'Get the girl, and get out of there.'

Jacy looked back at Kai who, keeping Raffy in a five-meter radius and avoiding his father's eyes, climbed into the back of the car with Georgi. Not waiting for the car to speed away, and the adults to notice them, Jacy grabbed Nadine's elbow and started pulling. At first, she frowned at him, but as she also noticed Domyk, she sneaked away and the two of them hurried away as quickly as possible — right into the bushes.

Domyk pulled them in deeper into the garden, then put his index finger to his mouth. They could still see Mr Kobak and Boian arguing, and only after a few minutes did the adults notice the two of them were gone. As a breeze went through the bush under which they were crouching, Jacy stilled completely. Boian's eyes seemed to dart right to where they were.

'Let the youngsters play, it's Halloween. You just need to make sure the demon doesn't return,' Jacy heard Mr Malina say in a soft voice to the other two, to which they turned around and headed back in the direction of the police department.

It took a while for Mr Malina to stop gazing after Boian's back, which was now disappearing with Mr Kobak. When he finally did and slowly walked away, Domyk extricated himself from the plants.

'I have to say Thessa isn't happy,' he said.

Nadine and Jacy glanced at each other. This felt like the most epic failure in trying to help their father.

* * *

When they appeared below the beech tree and headed to the house, Nadine gasped. The first thought, as Jacy noticed the bright light, was that the house was on fire. But coming closer, shapes started materialising among the flames.

There were burning carved pumpkins among clusters of candles all over the porch, the roof, and the windows. The various shapes within flickered incessantly and not even the rage of the Atlantic wind could extinguish them.

Looking up at the house, Jacy forgot all that was on his mind for a moment.

'Protection against the evil that comes to life on All Hallows Eve,' Domyk said. 'In case you were wondering.'

Then, a large gust of wind swept over them, the clouds scattered away, and decorated with thousands of tiny stars, the sky illuminated the night.

Going inside, Jacy plopped down on the living room sofa, carefully, trying not to draw attention to the bag from the man in the library. Nadine, following suit, pulled her own back pack to her lap and hugged it.

'Oh, don't worry, little humans, she calmed down.' Domyk grinned, then added, 'A bit.'

Jacy was about to answer with something mean, but he just sighed and sank back into the sofa, feeling the weight of his bad idea growing.

After a few minutes, Thessa walked inside the living room, checked them over from head to toe, including Domyk, paced a little, then leaned against the fireplace, rubbing a hand across her eyes. She smudged her make-up, but Jacy thought that this was not the best time to mention that. Domyk glanced in their direction from time to time, but remained silent.

'Tell me, step by step, what you did,' she said, her voice laced with a strained calm.

Jacy took it upon himself to tell her, using his most pacifying voice.

'We just checked what information was in the police archives about my dad. Nadine wasn't even there. I swear we didn't do anything else. That's all!'

She didn't look convinced in the slightest, but she nodded.

'Okay.' Her voice was icy. 'Who else did you tell?

'No one!'

Thessa raised an eyebrow in response. Jacy felt a rush of annoyance.

'I'm telling you, we didn't tell anyone. Only Kai, Georgi and I knew. We were careful.'

'Well, Jacy, you were not careful enough. Word has gotten out — to the wrong people — that you might be in Celestial Hiss.'

At first Jacy's mind was blank. Her sentence just flew over his head, and only a few seconds later he started feeling the cold creeping up his insides. If Thessa sent him home now, he would not be able to do anything about his father.

'You're grounded. Indefinitely. You study here from now on. Not a minute more in Celestial Hiss.'

'But —'

'No buts. Unless you are ready to go home to your mother.'

Jacy stayed silent.

'How?' Nadine asked. 'How do they know?'

'You tell me!' Thessa snapped again, but her tone was angrier than her eyes. 'Why do you think I told you to wait? You have no idea how many things can be used and abused by magic. You,' She pointed at Jacy, 'didn't even have the brains to take Nadine with you so that she can recognize it, if you can't! You have to know magic before you can interact with it safely.'

Jacy's mouth hung open. 'I thought —'

'The people that have your father don't play by the same rules as everyone else. Remember that. They can and will resort to things you wouldn't believe.'

'What does that mean? Shouldn't we be helping him more, then?' he asked.

Thessa looked like she was losing her patience. 'They need your father's mind intact. They are not going to jeopardise that. Meaning, we have some time. That is, unless they find someone else with the same power — which is unlikely, as his is an extremely rare and intricate talent.'

It must be the code-breaking, Jacy thought.

'If you're saying he's innocent and the only reason they are keeping him there is that they need him, why doesn't he help them already so that they release him?'

To that Thessa snorted and Jacy frowned. 'He has enough sense of responsibility to the world that he wouldn't do that. Helping these people would mean helping them torture, kill and terrorise innocent people. My guess? He's stalling as long as he can, and he's running out of time. And Jacy?' She looked at him with a solemn expression. 'They don't release people.'

'But the quicker we can find him, the better. That's why we decided to go to the archives —'

Jacy realised from Thessa's jaw clenching, that he should have let that topic go.

'On _Halloween_?! When demons are most powerful? Whose brilliant idea was that?'

Domyk snorted in agreement.

That was clearly a mistake as Thessa cut her eyes sharply to him. 'And where the hell were _you_? You were supposed to get there before they could get themselves caught by the police.'

'Stuck in traffic,' Domyk said, shrugging. 'It's not that easy to wield power there, although you wouldn't know, of course.'

Thessa shook her head, then went to a drawer under the bookshelf and pulled something out. She put it on the coffee table in front of them. A photo.

'I thought I had this somewhere.'

It was the photo in Japan. It was not the one Jacy had, but one that was obviously from the same night, with different fireworks colours and a different angle. On it, a young Thessa was showing something in her hands to a boy with his back to the camera, while the same girl who was in the picture with Jacy's father was looking over Thessa's shoulder with interested eyes.

'I'm not sure how you got the photo you have. Last I knew, your grandfather should have had it.'

'I have a grandpa?' Jacy looked up, surprised.

'You do, but you really don't want to meet him,' Thessa said, the paused for a while thinking. 'In light of what you did today, I have to ask you. But I will only ask you this once, after which you'll be responsible for your actions here — do you want me to take you home?'

It looked like she was only asking Jacy — as if Nadine would have never even considered leaving. Would have never considered giving up. While she was the one running around on her own being chased by a demon.

Jacy thought about what he wanted and clearly that entire day should have proven to Thessa that he was committed to finding his father. 'Not yet.'

'Then you'll have to play by my rules and give me time — both of you,' she said, 'I'm trying to get some information out of a witness but it's proving a little tricky.'

'You think this witness knows something?' Nadine spoke finally.

'That's what I'm trying to figure out. When your father arrived at his office after lunch that day, he says three of his colleagues were already dead. He then saw strange men roaming the building — he confronted them, which is when they attacked, so he had to defend himself. The prosecution is saying those were security guards, there to help. Whereas your father says he had never seen those men in his life, and he knew the security staff in the building.'

'What about cameras?'

'Disabled — and they claim your father did that to cover his tracks,' Thessa explained. 'Another peculiar point is that your father says some items were missing from the office when came back. The prosecution says he had smuggled them out and when his colleagues confronted him upon his return, he flipped out.'

'But that's not true.' Jacy felt himself deflate. It all seemed so hopeless.

'What were the items missing?' Nadine asked.

'According to your Dad, mostly irrelevant things. Photos from magical clubs, a half-burnt list from two centuries ago which he had been deciphering and some other knickknacks. So far, none of it has turned up.'

'So how do we prove he's innocent?' Nadine asked.

'First of all, the next time he talks to either of you, you need to ask him about his case — what he saw that day, what he heard that day, what he had for lunch that day. Every detail could be important,' Thessa said.

Jacy thought that through. 'But wouldn't he have said all this during his trial? I mean all details are usually discussed and the truth would have come out.'

'It was a closed trial — we don't know.'

'So his lawyer didn't do a good enough job,' Nadine added. 'Or didn't help him properly.'

'Or maybe couldn't,' Jacy said. 'And maybe —'

Nadine's head swivelled to Jacy. 'He's _not_ guilty.'

He didn't say anything, but with all the uncertainty he just couldn't shake the feeling that they didn't know much about their father. And having someone able to read his private doubts and emotions was really annoying.

'Let's take it a step at a time,' Thessa added slowly. 'I need to go back to see if I completely missed the event I was attending or if I can still salvage some contacts after your lovely adventure sidetracked me.'

She picked up a pair of high-heels lying on the stairs and headed upstairs, rubbing her eyes again.

Domyk stood up and went after her. 'Come on, Thessa, it's not that bad. Look on the bright side —'

Somewhere, Jacy guessed around the vicinity of Domyk's nose, a door was banged shut.

Jacy didn't know the right thing to do: go after Thessa and apologise, or just go to his room. Nadine chose the latter.

Domyk came back mumbling under his breath, '... she'd better be back before I fortify the door.'

She wasn't back by midnight.

Jacy felt like he was out of place everywhere in the house. But there was one more thing to do, which was figuring out a hiding place for the bag from the man in the library. There was no point in provoking unnecessary questions from Domyk or Thessa. He decided on the back of the wardrobe in his room — once he'd checked what was in it.

Crouching in front of the wardrobe, he unzipped the bag. He was shocked both by the contents, and the smell that hit his nose.

Dirty sweatpants, smelly trainers and a wet T-shirt made his stomach turn. The contents were not anywhere close to being worth carrying in the middle of a burglary. Going on a hunch, he felt under the clothes until he found one shoe that was a stranger shape than the other. His fingers caught something square and hard. He pulled out a tin box, small enough to fit in a pocket.

Opening it, Jacy saw numbered sticky bookmarks of many colours. They all had three letters and seven numbers on them in a random order. Maybe this was what the man had been stealing from the library — but why? None the wiser, Jacy still decided that no one was going to chase him around for their workout clothes and some random numbered pieces of paper. Besides, he had more important things to occupy him.

He stuffed the bag at the far end of the wardrobe and flung himself on the bed, and fell asleep without hesitation.

* * *

'They are fortifying the house. Do you think they think we'll be attacked?' Nadine started having unnerving theories that weekend.

'I hope not.' Jacy honestly had no idea. Neither Domyk nor Thessa were speaking to them much, but were running around the house, checking every microscopic spot.

'But this house is one of the most secure places around, and there's no way for anyone to find it.' Nadine shook her head. 'They wouldn't try, with Domyk and Thessa in it especially.'

'Well apparently, Thessa and Domyk don't think so,' Jacy said.

And truly, both of them were behaving strangely. Jacy had noticed that one of them was always in the house. Saturday morning, Thessa came through the front door with dark circles under her eyes, but she seemed more focused and calmer, unlike Domyk who got agitated at every sound they made.

While, Jacy, to start practising his power in more creative ways, had ended up sitting on a flat cliff, looking out at the ocean trying to hear dolphins. It was during a biology session that Domyk told them about dolphins and them having their own sort of language. But either there were no dolphins in their particular part of the ocean, or Jacy's power was not good enough to hear them. Finally, the rocks felt too hard and the wind too cold, so he went back inside to the warmth of the house.

Domyk also had taken particular enjoyment from making them suffer during his devised PE 'lessons' in his new teacher role. After about an hour of running around the field in front of the house, Jacy's lungs felt like they were on fire and he wasn't sure if he'd ever recover. He kept scowling at Nadine who had found her rhythm and enjoyed outrunning him every time she could. Even though she stopped much more often than him, her small legs shifted with mad pace during the bursts of speed. In the end, Jacy laid down on the grass, his eyes resting on the blue sky, not even minding the cold, hoping that the pain in his legs would subside by the evening.

It didn't.

Sitting cross-legged with books sprawled around him in the upstairs corridor, where all the books were, didn't help either — as now his legs also felt like lead. It's not that he particularly wanted to read, but the ghost on the cover of ' _The Most Valuable Things That Are Lost'_ made him open that first book, which turned out to be a great mistake as he then kept expecting ghosts to jump out of everywhere. The book itself was battered, with pages missing and round coffee stains decorating the outlines of the Carpathian Mountains. But from it, he had learned that stealing, apparently, was not looked upon favorably in the magical world — pages upon pages about decade-long investigations of stolen paintings, rare objects and gemstones illustrated that fact. And a nagging thought appeared, that even though he didn't technically steal that bag, it wasn't his, yet he did have it.

Before the archive adventure had happened, the plan had been for Jacy and Kai to work on homework at Georgi's house during the weekend. The nature of Georgi's power was creative enough for them to be able to experiment with their powers endlessly without getting bored as well as trying to find any information on what they had uncovered in the police archives. Obviously, that was not happening now.

They were finishing dinner — Thessa washed the dishes, Nadine dried them, Jacy wiped the table and Domyk coordinated. Jacy was about to excuse himself to go to bed as Thessa and Nadine headed to the living room, when the phone rang.

Thessa was passing through the arch to the hall just then and being closest to the phone perched on the wall to her right, she checked the caller ID.

'What ...' she mumbled under her breath and shot a strange look at Jacy and Nadine.

Domyk leaned in in front of her to look at who was calling. Then, he started guffawing. 'The castle of cards is tumbling, it seems.'

Jacy moved closer to take a look.

CALLING:

M.M. Malina

How did Mr Malina find them?

'Are you not going to pick up?' Domyk asked as the phone kept ringing. He picked up an apple from a bowl on the counter nearby and started munching on it. Jacy had no idea where the food ended up, considering all the facts about Domyk. But then he realised he'd better not think about that if he wanted to experience appetite again in his life.

Thessa cleared her throat and after pushing some keys, gently lifted the receiver.

'Yes?'

Jacy glanced at Nadine for some guidance on why Mr Malina would be calling, but her expression was just as baffled. Then Jacy realised it wasn't so much baffled, as it was engaged with her power. She was reading Thessa's mood, so he decided all was fair, and tried to listen in too. To his surprise he could, and he debated asking Nadine whether she could as well, but his own name being mentioned took his focus back to the call.

' _Good evening. Is this Jacy and Nadine's guardian that I'm speaking to?'_

'It is. Good evening,' Thessa said with the industrial standard of politeness, not giving away any surprise she might have felt. A receptionist of the fanciest hotel in the world wouldn't have been able to pull it off that convincingly.

' _I am a teacher at a local school in Celestial Hiss — Mr Malina. I got this number from our library's registration cards. I am a board member, so I have access —_ '

'How may I help you, Mr Malina?' For some reason, the excessive politeness was starting to sound more and more like condescension.

' _I do apologise for bothering you at home, Miss,'_ A slight pause but Thessa yielded nothing, locking eyes with Jacy. _'But ... but I am calling as I would like to stress the gravity of the situation that has transpired. We take the safety of our residents extremely seriously, yet we need youngsters to behave in line with the rules.'_

At this, Thessa frowned. 'We've discussed the issue with them. I believe they now understand.'

' _Oh, do they? That's ... that's reassuring,'_ Mr Malina mumbled. _'Even so, I am aware about their homeschooling situation, but I'd like to ask you to consider them joining some of our students for volunteering hours. These are essential for their development and they would benefit —'_

Jacy couldn't believe Mr Malina was asking Thessa to let them do that. From the look on Thessa's face as she put her fingers to the bridge of her nose, neither could she.

It took Mr Malina quite a while to rattle through all his arguments in his slow manner. Thessa probably suspected them of making Mr Malina call her, Jacy thought.

'Indeed.' she suddenly said.

' _You agree?_ ' there was surprise in his voice.

'Of course,' Thessa said sweetly, while the expression directed at them was anything but sweet. 'They will be there. Thank you for the offer.'

' _Will they?'_

Thessa laughed. 'Yes, indeed they will. They are not captives, after all.'

As Thessa replaced the receiver, she pointed at them with her finger, expression hardening. 'You'd better make this old man believe you have the most boring home life possible. I don't need him suspecting anything.'

'I will go out on a limb here,' Domyk said. 'But he already might.'

'He's trying to figure out if you're being kept here against your will,' Thessa said.

'Why would he even think that?' Nadine asked.

'I'm pretty sure he figured out who you are,' Thessa said.

'What!' Jacy exclaimed. He couldn't believe it, after how careful they were being. Trying to be. Mr Malina had barely spoken to them. 'But you didn't put anything vital on the registration, did you? This is bad.'

'Maybe you should have thought about that before you did what you did.' Thessa turned around to go upstairs.

The sounds of Domyk chewing stopped abruptly, as he said, 'How do you know he found you through the registration?'

Oh right, because Jacy was listening in, he likely shouldn't have heard the conversation.

Thessa stopped in her tracks and frowning, turned back to look at Jacy.

'You figured it out?' Thessa asked, eyes wide and dancing with humour — a complete change from her mood a few moments ago.

'I'm not fully sure,' Jacy said. 'But —'

'Well,' Domyk continued, 'is that truly a power? It's just good hearing.'

Thessa smacked Domyk on the back of his head — in his materialised state, the sound reverberated through the house. 'Don't interfere with his development!' She then beamed, 'But it's really good hearing.'

Jacy almost smiled too — it was the first time he saw Thessa truly happy and — he actually had a power! It didn't sound as cool as some other powers he had heard of, but it was more than nothing.

* * *

Thessa had decided to let them back to the Celestial Hiss library as otherwise, she said, Mr Malina would be more suspicious.

Nadine and Jacy were walking down the street in Celestial Hiss a few mornings later, when they came across him and a group of students huddled in front of the butcher's shop. The group was too busy talking to each other to notice Jacy and Nadine. They all had some form of kit on — from the dirt, the cuts, the fading, and the different colours Jacy had to guess they were either second-hand or thoroughly used. On the back of a boy closest to them, Jacy could almost make out the name ' _Sanchez_ ' from the scraped print. At least they tried to keep the team spirit.

'Oh, hello again.' Mr Malina noticed them. 'We're just in the middle of a day trip, with our friends from the other school in town — care to join us? Your aunt agreed to let you volunteer, as you probably already know, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind you coming along.'

A conspiratorial smile spread across his face, while the students looked at them curiously.

'It's a treasure hunt,' he added.

Nadine's eyes shone at the words. But remembering Thessa's expression from the night before, Jacy was quick to shake his head. 'Sorry, sir, but we need to go to the library.'

Obviously not caring, Nadine just elbowed her way forward. 'I'd like to, if I may.'

Jacy was about to pull her back by her backpack, but Mr Malina patted her on the shoulder. 'Wonderful.'

'But —' Jacy had nothing to say really.

'Mr Kobak and Mr Hrsak must be somewhere in the vicinity. I believe they were headed to the church, following a lead for one of the puzzles. Feel free to look for them, and good luck with your volunteering, young man.'

Jacy waited for them to leave and continued on his way to the library to start on Domyk's never-ending reading list but then, half-way there, decided that if Nadine was allowed to miss a day of study in the library, he would surely do so as well.

He went straight at the junction, past the library, along the other school in town when he spotted Kai and Georgi in the distance. He saw them rush past the wrought iron gate, up the grassy hill to the top, where a small church stood perched sadly over the town.

Jacy hurried after them, when, at the foot of the hill, a sudden gust of cold wind blew across the path.

Then something made Jacy stop. The loud whisper of the swooshing tree branches made a rhythmic sound, and that sound made Jacy tune out everything else.

' _Jaaaaa ... cyyyyyyyy ... aaaaa ... ccccyyyyyy'_

Jacy was sure he was hallucinating. He twirled around but there was no one visible who could be pranking him.

At the same moment, he heard a shrill sound. A phone was ringing.

Jacy looked around, but all he could see was an overgrown bush at the edge of the path. Lilac flowers bunched together in a high heap on it.

But the phone kept ringing insistently with no one but him around to hear it. Someone must have dropped a phone right into the thicket.

Parting the branches, Jacy's hands were blocked by something cold and metallic. Looking up, Jacy realised what it was. One of the phone booths Thessa had mentioned, looking very similar to the ones in London, only completely overgrown with plants — so much so, that Jacy could only make out a tall box outline.

Jacy fumbled in the plant to see where the phone was — but it looked to be behind the door of the box and the branches were so strong that he could only move that door a little. Still, enough that — after a moment where he thought his ribcage was going to get crushed — he managed to slip in.

Why was he even answering a randomly ringing phone, he didn't know. But not to would have bothered him irrationally — that he did know.

'Hello?' he said lifting the rusty receiver. Only very few sunrays managed to get through inside the booth.

There was a crackling, then a pause on the line, before a voice came on and Jacy almost dropped the receiver. 'Who's that?'

Jacy knew that voice. He didn't remember ever hearing it, but he knew it. From his dreams. But what if it was a trap?

'Who are you trying to reach?' Jacy asked cautiously.

Another silence. 'Jacy?'

But Jacy was too stunned to say anything.

'It's me, Ian.' Then his voice took on a more cautious tone. 'Your dad.'

What? _How?_

'How did you find me? How did you reach me?' It couldn't be happening. But it was.

'I have no idea,' he said and Jacy could imagine him shaking his head. 'Did Vincent leave, or something?'

It took barely a second for Jacy to realise that his father had also assumed that Vincent had been blocking Jacy's power and that he was still at home.

'No, but I did.'

'What?' Ian said. Then snapped. 'What do you mean you left? Where are you?'

'Bjfkg.' Something didn't feel right. 'But I'm fine, I-'

'Where? Jacy, I can't hear you.'

'Bjtsfw.' Something was super weird. 'Bjtsfw. I can't say it, I don't know what's wrong! I'm saying it!'

'Oh no. The bastards. They put a blocking spell on you. You won't be able to say it. It's probably no use asking who took you either. Does Charlotte know where you are?'

Did his mother not reach out to his dad about Jacy being missing?

But that was not what bothered Jacy most. He couldn't believe Thessa didn't trust him — she'd blocked him from saying things to his own father.

'No.'

'You need to leave.'

'I can't. I'm going to help you.'

Jacy could feel the reverberations of his father's frustration on the line. 'Jacy, get that out of your head. Go home.'

'But, Dad!' he said. 'You're innocent! You should be out — home.'

A rogue branch that had found its way into the booth somehow, kept tickling Jacy's ear. Swatting it away, he concentrated on the crackling sound of the line, eager not to miss a word.

'Son ... I'm not innocent. I did some bad things, but always for my family, for you. Never to intentionally hurt anyone. Don't believe that.'

'I don't, Dad,' Jacy said, now fiddling with the cord. 'But there is a chance you can get out. I'll help.'

'No, Jacy. You sit still and go back to your mother.'

'What about what you were working on? I can help you.'

There was a pause.

'How do you know what I was working on?'

'I don't. I just know that it was something important. And you need to tell me details. Also about what happened that day, your every move — it will help us help you.'

'Jacy! Did they tell you that?' he snapped, making Jacy pause. 'They are using you to get to the toxin! Do not listen to them — go back to your mother. I hadn't found anything all those years ago, and I can't find anything now either.'

'No,' Jacy said. 'Fbjferwr doesn't want anything. Just to help.'

He couldn't say her name — of course. He frowned into the darkness of the booth.

'Tell them I can't decipher it. They'll let you go once they realise you're not worth anything to them.'

'What is it that you're deciphering?'

'They didn't tell you?' Ian puffed. 'How are they going to make you spy on me then?' Jacy didn't answer, he didn't know how to. 'Alright. Listen, throughout history, there've been references to a weapon so cruel, that even the person who created it wanted to get rid of it. But couldn't and got poisoned before the weapon — which many believe to be a form of toxin — disappeared. Since then, many have tried to find it, few with good reason. I tried too, but all clues turned out to be a dead end. The first inkling I had of being on the right trail was my research disappearing that day they arrested me, after distracting and getting me out of the office on purpose. But nothing since.'

'Sorry to ask, but why not just leave it lost?'

'Because if the bad guys are looking for it, do you think that we should just let them have it?'

'Well, no,' Jacy said.

'Do you have a power, Jacy?' he asked.

Jacy's chest swelled with pride. 'I do. I can hear very well.'

Somehow it became too quiet all at once. Was his father ashamed?

'Dad?'

There was no answer.

'Dad!'

After a few tries of shaking the old phone, twisting the cable this way and that, Jacy climbed out from the booth, catching his coat on a prickly branch. Dazed, walking along the same path he had been on before the call, he listened to the trees, to the wind — both of which were now back to their timeless frosty movements.

Then he heard whispers from behind a small stone monument. Ants were crawling through the cracks on the surface, their little feet making a rhythmic sound maybe only he could hear.

'Do you see them anywhere?' Jacy heard Kai's voice. 'I can't believe they haven't expelled the little rats yet.'

'The principal won't allow it, with their power so erratic.'

Kai hummed his agreement, 'I know. But being isolated and going psycho would suit them. Apparently, it happened before.'

'Hey,' Jacy greeted them, distracted.

Georgi jumped and Kai dropped the papers and colourful glass balls from his hands.

'Geez, Jacy,' Kai clutched his chest. 'What did you do that for?'

'Sorry,' he said, not sure whether he'd want to tell them about the phone call. But after what had happened with Kai's dad at the police station, a small part of him felt like he owed it to them.

'You're kidding,' Kai gaped as Jacy finished reciting the call with his Dad. 'But — prisoners are not allowed phone calls. Especially prisoners like your father, especially phone calls like that.'

Jacy just shrugged. His dad had sounded surprised to hear Jacy on the line. Kai quickly scrambled to his feet and stashed the sheet with his answers in his pocket.

'It's good that you're here, — we need to talk,' Georgi said. 'There was nothing we could find either connected to the date that was on your dad's file, or the identifier code. It was as if somebody had taken the effort to find and delete all mentions of what had happened.'

Jacy just sighed.

'We need to think about this,' Kai said and started walking down the side of the hill, motioning for them to follow. 'Mr Malina already told us that we should take you with us to our punishment —'

'Volunteering,' Georgi amended.

'Right. Wanna join, Jacy? We can plan together.'

'Sure.' It's not like he had many alternatives.

Kai dragged out another piece of paper on which an address was hastily scribbled. His hands were red from the cold. 'I've never heard of this Lady Bird café, it can't be too popular.'

Heading through the narrow streets of the town in search of the Lady Bird, the three boys were now trotting along the hilly side from where they could see people bustling about in the main street as the workday drew to a close. They turned into an eerily quiet street.

'I think that's it,' Georgi pointed to the ground floor of a two-storey building that looked like a European-style café with a canopy above its entrance and ceiling-to-floor windows lining the front. A savage gust of wind blew the autumn leaves right into Jacy's face as he squinted against the twirling shapes.

They approached the entrance, but somehow none of them seemed eager to go inside. Kai went and pressed his face against the glass.

'I don't see much,' he said.

Suddenly, Jacy heard movement from inside and the front door was swung open before he could even react.

A woman with thick-framed glasses and blood-red lips was looking down at them. 'Yes?'

'Hello. We're here to volunteer,' Georgi said.

She assessed them with a critical glance. 'I don't need any volunteers.'

Jacy was taken aback slightly. And it was mirrored in the other boys' faces too.

'Um ...' Georgi was at loss for words, it seemed. 'Is this not the Lady Bird café?'

He looked at the thin decorative writing of the name on the windows.

'As I said.' she turned around and went inside.

Georgi let out a breath. 'What do we — Kai!'

Kai shook his head as he followed the woman inside. 'I like it here, we're staying.'

Georgi threw his hands up in the air, but Jacy was too curious to see how that would go and his chattering teeth would definitely appreciate the warmth, so he also went in. He was stepping over the threshold as Kai reached the bar stand where the landlady was leaning over a notebook, noting something down. She raised her eyebrows at him from behind her glasses.

Kai cleared his throat. 'Mrs ... um.'

After a short while of silence where the lady examined all three of them — after Georgi begrudgingly shuffled inside too — from head to toe, she put her pen down. 'Ms Miya.'

'Yes, sorry, Ms Miya. I'm sure we can help somehow. Maybe we can liven the place up,' he said, looking around the slightly shabby interior.

But it was warm and inviting, nothing a good dusting-session-a-la-Domyk wouldn't fix. A few tea candles burnt on the tables and, at one corner, a heavy, neat bookshelf was full of small and large tomes, old newspapers, a cat feeding bowl, and worn postcards.

Jacy almost jumped as he looked straight into the eyes of an old woman sitting in the armchair right underneath the shelf, chewing an unlit pipe in her mouth. She was sitting there so quietly, silence enveloping her in a way that got unnerving and Jacy had to look away.

'I don't want the place livened up. It's the way it is because I want it to be the way it is.' The harshness in her tone did not deter Kai one bit.

'We could help you get way more customers. Nobody even knows about this place,' Kai said.

'I have no interest in marketing the café to this town.'

The shine on the glazed bakewell tarts in the corner of the counter caught Jacy's eye and he suddenly realised just how hungry he was.

'But, but — you don't have customers.' Kai was frowning. Georgi started tugging on his sleeve discreetly.

'Sure I do.' Ms Miya put her notebook under the counter and leaned her elbows on it as the coffee machine huffed and puffed behind her. 'Listen to me, if this is some new idea of director Shortbread's to have you spy on me, he can forget it.'

Kai frowned and tilted his head in thought. Georgi shook his hands in denial animatedly.

'No, no!' he pulled Kai away, 'Again, so sorry to bother you, we'll be heading away.'

'Wait a second.' Kai cocked his head to the side a bit more. 'You don't care about customers in Celestial Hiss ... you think we are spies ... that's very distrustful, unless —'

'The door is behind you,' Ms Miya said.

'Unless, you don't have a license.'

The woman's eyes narrowed at Kai. But he went on.

'I remember a case years ago. Someone was accused of being an accessory.' Kai put his forefinger to his lips, thinking. 'Some fraud case or something. It was you, wasn't it?'

A cold expression was all Kai got. 'Are you trying to blackmail me?'

'No, it's genius.' Kai's eyes were actually sparkling. 'You're not actually operating in town, are you?'

He leaned to see behind her and she imperceptibly shifted, but there was a flash of amusement wrinkling her mouth.

'So, when can we start?' Kai openly grinned at her.

She shook her head. But Kai just stood there patiently.

'We start now?' he pressed.

'One wrong move and you'll regret it. And don't ever think of going to the back. I'll know.'

She flipped the notebook shut and disappeared behind the curtain.

They should have been careful with what they wished for — because they started then and there. She came back with a stack of things in her arms. Apparently, folding each napkin perfectly was essential to the running of the café. At least, Jacy hoped that was the case, otherwise doing it would have been even more depressing,

'What was that?' Georgi whispered to Kai in the midst of forming the perfect triangle, the moment he got a chance.

They were seated at one of the low tables, with Jacy trying to figure out what to do about his father's call and avoiding the unsettling gaze of the old woman.

'I would bet all of my yet-to-be-discovered superpowers that she has some kind of a window there at the back that is a port — so her customers call her from any other part of the world and she serves them while not operating in Celestial Hiss. I bet that's how she does it.'

'And they can't arrest her,' Jacy mused. 'As she technically isn't doing anything illegal.'

He should learn that tactic in his dealings with Domyk.

'Precisely.' Kai grinned, sneaking looks around the entire place while Ms Miya or the old woman weren't looking.

The tower clock of the church that was perched on the hill was very close to them, so when it chimed quarter to four Jacy jumped.

Ms Miya was just coming out of a little kitchen, bent over as she pushed a box of mugs on the floor in front of her. 'You'd better not say a word about my café or anyone in it to a soul.'

'We really have no interest in spying on you,' Georgi said. 'We don't even like Mr Shortbread ... that much, I mean. I mean, he's, he's a good principal, but —'

She looked at them sadly, adjusting her red-rimmed glasses. 'He's your principal, so wanting to be on his good books is not the same as liking him.'

The old woman in the corner snorted. She had been mumbling above a crossword puzzle on a folded newspaper page, while adjusting her glasses periodically.

'That's pretty impossible for us anyway.' Kai waved his hand in dismissal.

Dangling his feet, Jacy turned around to look out of the glassed front of the café, where every colour looked pastel from the creeping cold.

'By four, I want you out of here,' Ms Miya said and then turned to the old woman. 'Madam, would you like another cup of tea?'

'Thank you, I'd better go soon.' she spoke softly. 'You should too. You work too much.'

'I still need to make a call to restock the Czech dumplings from Brno,' Ms Miya said. 'My customers gobble them up during the festival season and my supplier was on holiday for two weeks.'

She continued wiping and then placing the mugs on a rack. And neither of the boys noticed Jacy, stilling in his seat.

Georgi was next, whipping his head around so quickly that his spine clicked.

Kai was still oblivious, but soon noticed the two of them staring at him.

'What? Something in my teeth?' He started picking in between his two front teeth.

Georgi smacked him on his shoulder, and mouthed the word _Brno_ to him. In about four seconds, Kai's eyes bulged out of their sockets.

'Oh! Oh ...' His mind visibly raced. 'So, Ms Miya ... Maybe we could help restocking?'

'You're still here?' she pursed her lips.

She reached over the phone and dialled. The boys waited in suspense. But after no one picked up on the other end, she shrugged, put back the receiver and went into her pantry.

And that's how they found out what the note about Ian Marwick's classified file meant.

" _ARCHIVED BRNO"_

### CHAPTER 9

'So, it's a place,' Jacy mused as they walked, his palms sweating from excitement and confusion about the whole day. 'Do you think my dad is there?'

Kai shook his head, 'No, it's probably where the trial was. I'll find out more from Dad.'

They agreed to regroup at Ms Miya's next time and all of them would try to work out more. Jacy headed back along the path to the house, and his thoughts scattered completely. He had an itch to turn around and find the quickest way to Brno or anything that could link his father to it. Even if his father had just told him not to look for him. He would have to see. If he could find him, he would. Otherwise he'd have to really think about what he was doing.

He walked as slowly as he could. His mind was racing.

Reaching the intersection to the abandoned house, Jacy heard a voice behind him and turned.

'That your brother?'

Jacy spotted Nadine turning the corner with a tall boy he had seen near Mr Malina's group.

Jacy felt his cheeks heating — he had completely forgotten about Nadine. In his overwhelmed state, thoughts of his sister did not enter his mind once.

She was pale as a sheet as Jacy went to her.

'You there,' the boy called to Jacy. Something was off with his eye. Then Jacy realised it was his brow that looked odd. 'I'm not a freaking babysitter. Next time, check whether your sister's still there before you leave. What kind of a brother does that?'

With that the boy turned around without waiting for a reply. It was true, Jacy should have looked for her before heading back to the house.

He walked to Nadine. 'Sorry.'

She shrugged. 'It's okay. Mr Malina made the boy look for you once everyone finished picking summer volunteering placements to apply to.'

She looked at him strangely, likely seeing something in his mood, but she didn't mention anything about it. And even if he should have told her about their father's call, he just couldn't yet.

The journey back home barely registered in his mind. But, as they stepped through the threshold, shaking off raindrops, a flurry of activity greeted them. Doors banged shut across the house in the draught.

Domyk was rushing down the stairs like a madman, his hands full of trinkets threatening to fall at any moment.

'Why are you standing there? Go shut all the windows.' he barked at Jacy.

Jacy rushed back to the second floor and looked out through the glass wall at the back of the house as the threatening clouds raced towards them above the ocean. The rhythm of the swelling waves was nauseating. He then went back down to the living room where Nadine was already snacking on some leftover pizza.

'Worst timing, this woman has.' Domyk muttered and put little bowls with seeds and dried flowers on the windowsills and at the front door. He then went to the two of them in the living room and while rummaging for an umbrella in the corner basket, said, 'Thessa left, I'm leaving, it's important, don't wait up.'

The wind was howling around the house, the electricity was flickering and the living room windows were being battered by the rain.

'But —' Jacy had so many things to go over, to ask. By then, the front door had already banged shut behind Domyk. Nadine and Jacy exchanged glances, and Jacy didn't want to know what she'd seen on his aura. In any case she still didn't comment, which suited him perfectly.

He camped down on the sofa and, no one being home to tell him off, he ended up staying there all night. He kept turning, annoyed by the silvery light of the moon shining on his face, annoyed at the quiet wheezing sounds Nadine made. He could not for the life of him understand how could she sleep with her head hanging down from the side of the armchair. He should have told her about the phone call from their dad, and at some point he would have to. But what would she say when she found out he didn't want them to look for him?

And then there was Thessa — did she not trust Jacy so much as to block him from speaking her name? He couldn't really ask her without her finding out that he'd actually tried. Hopefully Thessa's power wasn't reading minds. Jacy cringed away from the thought — that would be completely unfair. Anyone having that would be unfair.

But he was in this house, he felt safe and he felt welcome. Why would she lie? He tried to calm himself and not think too much, but the more he tried, the less it worked. And it didn't help that he also seemed to hear every little sound within a mile's radius.

There was a pigeon walking on the rooftop, its little claws scraping the metal waterspout, making Jacy feel like going up there and throwing it into the ocean. The logical faults of throwing a pigeon anywhere didn't even bother him at that point.

So he knew his father was trying to find this toxin, whatever it was. But whoever captured him wanted it too. How much should Jacy worry about that, he didn't know.

* * *

He spent most of the next day in his room — where studying was gazing out of the window with his books open in front of him. He kept thinking of ways to contact his father — Nadine had managed, and obviously there was a way to call through a phone, but he had no idea where to start.

Constant barren hope tired him out so much that by the end of the day he'd burnt out completely. They decided to stay in the house, not sure how happy either of the adults would be if they went into town on their own. Still knowing the potential wrath of Domyk, Jacy made sure to look like he was studying — he took out his Geography atlas and turned to the major port cities. Maybe a few would stick in his memory.

Jacy was nowhere nearer to asking Thessa to take him home. He wondered how his mother was and what she was doing. Soon he'd need to call again to make sure she knew that he was fine. He hoped she knew.

Just as he was about to lean back on the sofa and close his eyes, a distant bell rang.

He stuck his head out of his room and looked at Nadine who did the same to him — it was the first time they'd heard a bell in the house.

Neither Thessa nor Domyk would ring it.

Hurrying downstairs, Jacy thought Nadine would check the windows maybe, but she went straight to the front door, and opened it before Jacy could pull her back. She stuck out her head — but luckily no one was there. Jacy stepped out after her and went down the step. There was a faint shuffling sound coming from near the ancient tree that led to Celestial Hiss. The cold prickled Jacy's cheeks.

They can't hear it.

Maybe they're not home.

Shall we —

Jacy looked across the football field, but it seemed still. He went to the beech tree and, touching its bark, he keyed in the code to get to Hiss. The air turned hazy, and through the curtain-like screen Kai and Georgi were visible in the old house.

'Come through the door,' he said to them. Their shapes seemed to turn in that direction and not a moment later both came through the gate.

'Wow,' Kai looked around. He was in full winter gear with a ski hat, gloves, scarf, puffy jacket and even hiking shoes. 'You live here? This is awesome!'

Georgi looked a little queasy, but more reasonably dressed — only a ski hat in sight.

'How did you find us?' Jacy asked.

'You have your own soccer field?' Kai was still looking around when his eyes landed on the ocean. 'The house is on a cliff!'

Georgi looked apologetic. 'Kai has an idea that couldn't wait ... He was sure the port was in the abandoned house.'

'Where else would it have been?' Kai finally turned his attention to them as the wind ruffled his hair. He then whispered to Jacy, glancing at the house. 'Can Thessa hear us from here?'

'She's not home. It's just me and my sister.'

Kai's eyes almost sparkled. 'That must be a sign. We should go _now_.'

'Go where?'

'Brno. You know what's in Brno?' Kai said.

'Good dumplings?' Georgi chimed in.

Kai ignored him. 'The biggest archive of classified court case documents.'

Jacy gaped a little. That's where his father's case would be, and maybe the puzzle they wanted him to decipher also.

'Before you say anything, I already have a plan,' Kai announced triumphantly.

Somehow Jacy could guess the crux of it. And he wasn't sure if he liked it. 'Disappearing to the other side of the Atlantic?'

'I don't think it's a good idea,' Georgi said.

'Do you have any other options?' Kai asked.

'Well, no.' Georgi looked at Jacy for some reassurance of some sort, but Jacy shook his head. He didn't really have any other options.

'Do you mean teleporting, like using what that man in the library had?' Jacy asked.

'If you don't want to end up in Mongolia, then no.'

'Thessa could come back at any time.' Even Jacy could hear the weakness of his own arguments.

'Your sister can cover for you. Have her tell Thessa you came to ours.'

Jacy looked back at the house, and Nadine was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

'If you don't take me with you, I'll tell Thessa.'

This was the fifth argument Nadine brought up when Jacy talked to her. At least she hadn't threatened him with Domyk. Yet.

Jacy frantically raked his brain for reasons for her not to go. If Thessa or Domyk got wind that he'd taken Nadine to Europe — Domyk must have been alive during the medieval torture period and it was likely he'd want to refresh his memory on Jacy.

Thessa-said-so didn't work. We-need-someone-to-stand-guard also didn't work. He probably lost the moment the you're-too-young came out of his mouth.

Nadine was already packing her backpack as Jacy was still trying to come up with something, following her around. She ignored him and went to the pantry, picking the labelled vials Jacy had cleaned before, off the shelf.

He tried again. 'They could come back any time.'

'Not any time soon. Especially as they will have to make sure no one follows them back here,' she said, pressing down on her backpack to free up more space.

'Why would they think anyone would follow them? Vincent doesn't know who they are.'

'I don't think it's about Vincent.' Nadine glanced at him.

'Then who?'

'Have you noticed Thessa never goes anywhere publicly? At least without some form of disguise — like the wig?' she said almost on a whisper.

'Yes — because of us, she's protecting us,' Jacy frowned.

'Between us going to Celestial Hiss and being with Domyk, she doesn't need to.'

'What are you saying?' Jacy was thoroughly confused.

'I'm saying we need to hurry, and they won't be back at least until late tonight.'

'Please just stay here,' Jacy tried as a last resort.

'He's not only your father. Make one of your friends stay.'

She continued throwing a few cans of some foodstuff in the backpack, as if everything had been decided.

Kai appeared from the kitchen, probably fed up with losing time, tearing off his own backpack.

'Here's what I managed to get from Raffy. It's not much but it's something. This thing apparently erases the memory of demons,' he said pointing to a tin box. 'If there are guard demons, it could be useful.'

'How does your cousin have this?' Nadine peered over Jacy's shoulder. 'And why would he give you something illegal?'

All eyes turned to her and Kai got visibly flustered.

'Illegal?' Jacy asked.

'First of all, it's not illegal ... everywhere.' He shifted to his other foot. 'And he didn't give it to me, I took it.'

Nadine took a breath to say something, but Kai didn't let her. 'Before you accuse me of stealing, it's actually mine as well. We got it together,'

'I was going to ask how much you have,' Nadine shrugged.

Jacy tried not to stare at her — he needed to tread very carefully if he wanted to avoid being Domyk's supper.

Kai exhaled. 'Half the box.'

Jacy whispered to Kai under his breath, 'You got it from the top-secret section of the police archives that time you broke in with Raffy, didn't you?'

'Yep,' was all he got in answer before Kai's attention diverted and he pointed at the vials Nadine was examining. 'Wow! Is that what I think it is?'

'Thessa has a few of the languages in the supply cupboard. They might be useful in Europe,' Nadine said.

Kai touched a vial with almost trembling fingers. 'I thought it was a myth when I heard someone'd developed them. Incredible ...'

He leaned over Nadine's shoulder to glance in her backpack.

'What are they?' Georgi asked.

'Language serums. You drink it and you can speak and understand the language. Although, I don't know how long it lasts,' Kai said. 'What else do you have there?'

Nadine snatched the bag away so quickly that she almost hit Kai's nose with it. 'Just supplies.'

'Okay.' Kai glanced at Jacy. His eyes were asking what was wrong with his sister.

Before he did it out loud, and risked insulting Nadine, Jacy started putting on his coat.

'So, you said you had a way to get to Brno?'

Kai reached into his pocket and produced a note with a number on it. 'I checked the incoming calls on Ms Miya's phone.'

'What for?'

'Remember when she called her dumpling supplier in Brno?'

'Oh right.' Jacy hadn't even thought of that.

'I noted the date and the time, conveniently left my scarf there, and just copied the number when I went back for it. I bet if he can deliver dumplings across the ocean, he can take us too.'

'And Ms Miya let you?'

'Not exactly,' Kai said. 'But that's irrelevant.'

'Shall we call?' Nadine said, mesmerised by the piece of paper in Kai's hand, excitement with a tinge of fear mixed in her voice.

'Yes,' Jacy said. He needed to try. He had no idea when his father would next contact him. And here was his chance. Not a promise, not an idea but an actual chance that he could take. Or wait all his life for another one.

'Who wants to call?' Kai asked.

'I'll do it,' Jacy said.

Jacy picked up the phone receiver from the wall of the dining room corner. He keyed in the numbers and dialled, putting it on speaker.

It started ringing. Kai and Nadine stood completely motionless as it kept going. Jacy looked and them and shrugged, reaching the button to hang up — they could try again later. Just as the latest long ring sounded, he heard the click of a receiver and drawn-in a breath.

' _Yess_ ,' said a rusty male voice with slight apprehension. Or maybe that's just how his accent sounded.

'Um ... hi,' Jacy began, and he instantly realised from the silence on the other end of the line that the man did not like what he was hearing. 'I'm calling to ask if I could order a few dumplings.'

'Dumplings, boyy? Where you find that? Archives?' the broken words sounded.

Nadine shrugged, whereas Kai motioned for him to go on as he grabbed the pad and pen from the counter under the phone and started scribbling furiously. 'Well, we were wondering if you could get us — and the dumplings to —'

Jacy focused his vision on the paper being shoved into his face.

'The Brno archives?' he asked aloud.

The voice on the other end of the line started a fit of coughing, when he finished he said. 'I don't take people. Why you need to go?'

At that Jacy hesitated. He couldn't possibly tell this person that he had a master plan of proving that his father was innocent, and if that didn't work, breaking him out of prison — mostly because he didn't actually have a plan. And if the dumpling man didn't take any people ...

Kai had already written something down.

'Birthday,' Jacy said, reading it.

'Birthday?' The man's voice got a strange edge.

Kai rolled his eyes and waved for Jacy to go on.

'Yes, um, my great-aunt has a birthday and we want to surprise her.'

'We?' he asked.

'Me and my cousins,'

'How many years is your aunt?' the voice asked slowly.

'Fifty,' Jacy said automatically.

'Your aunt is fifty?'

Kai put his head in his hands as if in pain. Nadine started shovelling her pocket money in front of them, counting.

'Yes, she's my great-aunt.' Jacy felt a tinge of irritation that after all the things they had overcome, it would be his fictional great-aunt that ruined their chances. 'Why?

There was a resigned sigh on the other end of the line. 'How many?'

'Fifty, as I said.'

'No, boy!' Jacy almost jumped from the brisk voice. 'How many people you want in Brno?'

'Oh, right. Three.'

There was silence on the line. It sounded like the man wanted to say yes for some reason. Jacy needed to come up with more reasons for him to do that.

'We can pay.' Jacy looked around the others for help, but they were waiting for the voice on the line just as silently as he was. 'Please?'

'You will go to court!'

Jacy recoiled. 'I didn't do anything wrong.'

'No! You will go to court, to judge ... tell him I'm good man. Tell him my dumplings have no bad!'

'Um ...' Jacy looked around the others, not sure what was happening. Georgi's eyes were big and unsure, Kai shrugged, and Nadine nodded and nudged him. 'Okay.'

'Okay? _Good_!' Jacy heard the faintest sound of scribbling on the other end of the line. 'I pick you up, give dumplings, you come with me to court, good. Where do you want pick you up from?'

Jacy looked at the others for guidance. 'Let me check,'

Kai had a pensive expression and then as if something clicked he wrote on the paper again.

'I don't have all the day, kid,'

'Celestial Hiss Library?' Jacy read out finally.

Jacy checked Kai's expression for approval.

'You ask, boy?'

'No.' Jacy jumped again, and blurted out, 'I tell.'

Kai starting giggling uncontrollably.

'You laugh at me boy?'

'No-no!' Jacy hastily said and flailed his hands at Kai to be quiet. 'I'm sorry, I didn't.'

'In hour. Library basement.'

Library basement? Based on every horror movie Jacy had ever seen, that was worrying. But Kai waved him to continue quickly — a thoughtful expression on his face.

'Um, okay. See you there,' Jacy said, but the line was already dead by then and all he heard was the silence.

'The basement,' Kai seemed troubled. 'That's why ... Dad said that the man we've seen teleport out last time, didn't show up on the town visitor logs.'

Kai scrunched his face and squirmed. Nadine squinted at him hard. 'There's a _but_.'

'Well, I was worried the police would find you once they started searching for hidden ports in the town that the man could have used — after all yours _is_ one. At that point I already suspected that you use the house to come and go. I keep checking which streets they'd investigate next. I was going to tell you if they were going to come here, honestly. But I do feel guilty for not telling him.'

'We need to tell your Dad about the library basement port, so that he stops searching elsewhere, like here,' Jacy got worried and looked in the general direction of the beech tree.

'Yes, but we need to use the port first. And we don't have the time — the dumpling man will be there soon. And believe me I feel guilty enough for delaying — who knows what kind of riffraff will use it in the meantime.'

'I can help with finding a port,' Nadine said.

At this, Kai snorted. 'Right. What are you, like five?'

Nadine frowned at him and, before any conflict unfolded, Jacy tried to redirect Kai's attention.

'Kai, focus.'

It took a few minutes of discussion but once their plan was settled, the panic to get ready started. They were in such a hurry, that no one knew where to go, what to grab next. Their backpacks were ready, but Nadine seemed to have a lingering feeling that she had forgotten something.

Kai got out a map of Europe from his backpack and started checking routes. He wrapped his thick scarf around his neck, as if braving the cold to come.

'What did we forget? I feel like we forgot something,' Nadine said, making a funny twirling dance as she looked around the room.

She froze, then she rushed to get the notepad Kai had been using moments before. Jacy saw her scribbly letters as she placed the pad in the centre of the table.

' _Gone to library, might be late. Call if you need us._ '

'Call? Seriously?' Kai asked. 'Why are we asking her to figure out we are actually not there?'

'Kai —' Jacy started just as Nadine interrupted him.

'If you behave normally, you look less suspicious. If I don't write it there, the first thing an adult will do is to check on us. This way, she might have a coffee first,' she said and folded her arms in front of herself.

Coming from Nadine, that level of trickery was unsettling.

* * *

The first step out of the house and the click of the lock felt oddly frightening. After that, once they had crossed into the abandoned house in Celestial Hiss, the feeling turned into a strange uncertainty. They were on their own in the world and Jacy felt utterly thankful that they at least had Georgi who — losing a set of rock-paper-scissors and staying behind in the abandoned house — could raise an alarm if something went wrong.

As they walked along the street in Celestial Hiss, Brno seemed to be so distant that it wasn't even that frightening. A thousand things could go wrong until then — for example, Thessa could turn up suddenly. Or they could get stopped by Kai's Dad. Or —

'We won't have another opportunity like this,' Nadine whispered to him. Jacy was surprised, but maybe this time it was his feet she saw shining in colder hues. He really needed to get used to his sister reading every mood he had.

Kai knew of a side entrance to the library, so when reached it they took turns to run past the front of the entrance to avoid being noticed by the mean library assistant, Bianca. They rounded the corner to the alley way, where the door was. Kai led the way as they sneaked through the quiet library — once they reached the staircase, it was much easier. The three of them bounded down the stairs and went through the basement-level iron door.

Jacy tried to unclench his stomach and warm up his limbs.

The area did not look like anything Jacy had expected from a library basement. It was huge, but instead of old books, it was largely empty — save, for a phone booth at one end, and a white van parked at the other. While trying to figure out how a van got into that space without any other door apart from the one they had come through — a phone rang inside the booth.

'What if it's a scam?' Kai said.

'Well, at least we tried,' Jacy said and decided quite resolutely that if someone was going to be scammed, it had better be him. 'I'll go first.'

Nadine nodded but Kai did not look too happy about it as he looked around the room from their spot.

Jacy stepped inside the booth and lifted the receiver, there was silence on the end of the line. He stood there with his stomach in knots, waiting, not sure if he was supposed to do something else or if he was supposed to stand somewhere else, as the other two watched him with curious eyes.

'I'm not sure how much time needs to pass so that I can officially call this a scam —' Kai's muffled voice said, and he'd barely pronounced the last syllable when a very disturbing quiet weighed in Jacy's ears. It was twice as silent because of the quiet oozing from every other dimension his ears would try tuning into.

He felt dizzy, as if being thrown around in the wind without his senses.

* * *

He'd barely gotten there, to a small cobbled street with quaint shop fronts, decorated windows, and small road signs, when a faint beeping sound reached his eardrums. It was very quiet, but the vibrations emanating from it unsettled Jacy.

The man in front of him looked at Jacy with raging nostrils — the size of the them was a clear indication that he was cursing the minute he had agreed to this.

'There is alert on you, boy? _You crazy_? You drag me into your deals?' His bulging red eyes looked like he had not slept in a while. His dishevelled hair also supported this theory.

The beeping didn't ease. Jacy was confused and started. 'I'm not sure I und—'

The man cut Jacy off as he ran across the street, leaving Jacy speechlessly confused. 'I help and you set trap? What kind of person you are?'

'Sir, there is no trap!' Jacy shouted after him, but the man was already in his car turning on the engine. 'What about —'

The man and the car disappeared. It didn't take long for Jacy to figure out, firstly, that the man was not coming back and, secondly, that what had spooked him was some sort of alarm that either he or Jacy had triggered. With all the people trying to find him, Jacy thought it was most likely himself.

He looked around, his cold breath materialising in vapour around him. How could he be so stupid? Of course there was some sort of magical alert out on him, just like Thessa had said.

'Don't panic, don't panic,' he repeated to himself. Thessa had said that if you panic, you won't be able to think. 'Think!'

On the hill in front of him, a cathedral was lit high above the town, the way Domyk had taught them most ancient structures were built. If it wasn't for the situation Jacy would have admired it for its beauty and grandness. But his flight instincts kicked in right at the point where the beeping alarm was so loud that he couldn't hear his own thoughts and he started running along the street.

Heading north, he got three streets away. There, security lights shone softly from the ghostly emptiness of shops. But apart from those and some scarce lampposts, it was already dark. A group of people turned into the street and made Jacy's step falter. They were chatting animatedly with slightly swaying, drunken steps which made them look less threatening, but Jacy still quickened his step. He had no idea where he was or whether there was anyone pursuing him at that moment. Especially as he also realised that all the language vials were in Nadine's backpack.

He had no idea how long it took for someone or something to react to the kind of alarm that he had set off, and he was not about to wait to find out. It seemed to have been following him even though it got marginally weaker as the minutes went by.

Jacy tore into an arc that turned out to be a passage running along the inside of a building. He stopped and gazed into the darkness, panting.

There was a bend further, behind which he couldn't see. Nor hear, as his hearing was filled with the magnified sound of his own lungs and heart working overtime, so he wasn't sure if the alarm had stopped, or if he simply wasn't hearing it anymore. It was dark and, instead of slowing down, Jacy's heartbeat got more erratic with every second he was standing in one place.

Then he heard it. There were light running footsteps, approaching behind him.

He lost a few seconds deciding whether to stay and hide, or run. He wished he knew the likelihood that whoever was chasing him could run fast, or detect people in darkness. On instinct, he tore out from the bend and started running with all his might towards the lit cathedral.

With a resigned shake of his head he started running uphill, his thighs straining. He passed houses, some of which were twinkling from lights within. Then something snapped at his ankles, he lost his balance and his left leg started sliding down on the icy soil of the hillside.

'Wait!' a voice shouted after him, exasperated. He shouted in English. Oh, no.

Jacy grabbed at the ground with his nails and stopped the movement by getting hold of a tree root sticking out from the soil. With that he heaved himself up and towards the sloping street, to rush further uphill. Whoever it was must know him.

'Hey, boy!' the man running after him shouted. 'Wait!'

But this close to finding his dad, it wasn't time to go back. He'd even gotten himself stranded in Brno — he was not going back to London yet.

Then he felt the heavy mass of someone's body knocking him off his feet. His lungs expelling a painful grunt was the moment he wished for some awesome, active power, with which he could have fought it off.

'So,' the mass said. 'You have something of mine.'

Jacy looked up at the man now in front of him, getting to his feet. The guy from the library hadn't changed much.

'Sorry about this,' he continued, 'but, I really need those tapes.'

What Jacy needed was a few moments to stabilise his breathing. First, relief flooded him, even as he nursed his crushed ribs, that it wasn't Vincent. Then he felt his face heat up, knowing that he shouldn't have been putting off dealing with the accidentally stolen bag. But now he also knew that those were some kind of tapes in the box.

'I don't have it with me, um ...?' Thessa had asked the man's name before, but Jacy hadn't known then either.

'Then get them. I need them. Urgently ... and my name is Shin.'

'Didn't you need them urgently weeks ago, too? Breaking into the library sounds pretty urgent to me.' Jacy said, annoyed, dusting himself off.

'So very clever,' the man muttered under his breath. 'Where's is it?'

'At home.' Jacy said, conscious of time. Part of his thoughts were with Kai and Nadine. Knowing Kai, he would not sit around drinking tea waiting for him to come back. He was just hoping they wouldn't contact Thessa.

'I'll take you there. You give it back and we're done.' Shin made a hand-cleansing gesture. 'So, where is home?'

Jacy hesitated.

'I'm not asking for your address. I just really need that stuff,' Shin said.

Jacy had pressing things on his mind. He didn't mind Shin's company, but he had to get away from him. He just couldn't figure out how to do that. But guilt was also nagging the edges of his thoughts — the right thing to do was to get the box back to Shin. Just ... maybe not now.

'Near the archives. Where do you live?' Jacy asked. Maybe he could send the box to Shin once he got back to Thessa's.

Shin glanced at him, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

'Here and there. I travel a lot.' They were at the entrance of the cathedral by then.

They went inside using a side door and walked through the ancient silence. The space was damp and cold and so dark that he couldn't see where it ended or began. The huge stones making up the walls and the dark mosaic windows reaching all the way to the top hinted at it being very old.

Shin went past the aisles and stepped to a little alcove inside the wall. After he half-disappeared into its darkness, Jacy tried to listen in. There was only the sound of paper being turned and a click ... of a pen? Then Shin murmured to himself.

'What were the coordinates ...?'Jacy was just able to catch the words. Not that it helped him with understanding the meaning.

When the emotions started wearing off and Jacy started feeling the cold biting down his spine, Shin came out scratching his head. Unfortunately, Jacy had forgotten that he was listening in, so Shin's call was like a ship's horn inside his ear.

'COME OVER.'

Jacy grimaced, screwing his eyes shut for a moment, then tried to turn it off quickly.

'The archive in Brno has been evacuated because of a fire. Why didn't you tell me?' Shin continued.

Jacy got flustered — he would have known that, had he lived in Brno. 'Um, sorry, it completely slipped my mind.'

'While the refurbishing works are under way, they relocated, I'm told.'

'They did?'

'Yeah, some stuff to the museum, some elsewhere. But they suspended teleportation arrivals in both areas. There isn't a right level of guard demon there and the museum doesn't take kindly to random visitors trampling their exhibits.'

Jacy was just too aware that even if Nadine and Kai managed to get to Brno somehow, they would not know about this.

'Care to tell me why you ran, back there?' Shin said, reminding Jacy of the dull ache near his midriff. 'One would think you were being chased by the devil himself.'

In the darkness, somewhere in Jacy's peripheral vision, a swooshing sound, followed by an even deeper, familiar shadow appeared with two angry, silver blots. The demonic diamond eyes were fixed on Jacy.

Shin noticed Jacy not listening to him and followed his gaze. For a heartbeat he didn't move.

'The —!' Shin swore before extending both arms and pushing Jacy out of the way, to the cold hard ground, while he himself got hit full on in the middle of his chest by the attacking translucent mass.

Reacting while flying backwards already mid-air, Shin did something — Jacy wasn't exactly sure what — but the demon stumbled into a wall next to them with a dull puff that reverberated with a whiff of air in all directions.

The force of that same air took Jacy stumbling backward down the stairs behind him. And even despite trying to grope for the railing he was propelled down to the lower level, hitting his elbow on the hard stone. From there, he could see neither Shin nor the attacker, but in the second of his hesitation Shin's head appeared peeking out from the level above.

'I need those tapes!' he screamed down to Jacy before his head was jerked back.

Then all sounds ceased and they were gone. It looked and sounded like he had teleported away. Jacy ran back up with his aching elbow to check, but it was completely empty. There wasn't anyone there. Guilt washed over him once again. He could only hope that the teleportation was Shin's doing and not the demon taking him somewhere nasty.

There was no way he could help Shin. He didn't know anyone that knew Shin, or who could help either of them at that point. For all intents and purposes, he was a stranger to Jacy. Jacy promised himself to ask Georgi to try the locator spell on him once they were back home.

But first he had to figure out where he was, where Nadine and Kai were, and where his father's file was.

He swivelled around to look for an exit. He couldn't hear anyone inside, so he checked along the wall and found a side wooden door unlocked. Stepping out, he emerged in the warm light and biting air of the evening, below the baroque walls of the Brno cathedral.

Jacy blinked.

The museum.

He needed to find the museum. If Shin was correct, that's where everything had been relocated to.

As much as he tried to put his brain in the gear of logic, he couldn't shake the memory of the two silver eyes boring into him. Slowly the realisation that he had seen that exact demonic shape before, at Halloween, seeped in. It had been the same demon chasing Nadine. He thought of calling home, but Nadine said Thessa wouldn't be back yet and he was sure Kai and Nadine would be trying to find him. What's more, the demon wasn't materialised either time, like Domyk usually was, so describing a blot, shape, or shadow probably wouldn't help much,

As he hurried towards what he thought must have been the centre of town with its snow-covered rooftops, he kept glancing behind him, checking if the monster was there, hunting him. In about twenty minutes he started getting tired and very cold. Then as he was passing what looked like a small park, a shout came.

'JACY!'

The sound reverberated in his mind so loudly that he jumped, staggered into the nearest wall and grabbed his head in pain. It was Nadine's voice, thank goodness. Jacy twirled around but, apart from a few people wandering the streets, there wasn't anyone near.

'JACY!' came the second call.

' _Stop shouting in my ear_!' he bellowed aloud on the street. A cat overturned a frozen flowerpot, leaving tiny footprints in the snow as it escaped, and two old ladies frowned at Jacy as he hurried away from them.

Then he heard Nadine whisper softly.

'I think he heard us.'

Jacy thought he might need to get his eardrum examined once they were home. Then Nadine started talking to him hurriedly. 'We'll lose the connection soon! So, go straight, then first left then ... then second right and come to the square ... yes, I just told him where t––' and then she was gone.

Puzzled as he was, relief flooded Jacy. They'd managed to find him. He ran according to Nadine's directions and saw an old town square at the end of the street. Just before reaching it, something grasped his elbow and, tugging, pulled him into a portico.

He tensed, ready to fight back if it was the demon, but then he saw the two of them looking at him with bulging eyes.

'What happened?' Nadine asked.

'Where did you disappear to?' Kai said at the same time.

Their worried faces were illuminated only by the street lamp across the narrow alley.

'There was an alarm on me and the guy got spooked. Did he go back for you?'

They shook their heads.

'We ran back to the main floor of the library. Being as great as I am, I had hidden the teleport candle that man had used in one of the aisles. And grumpy-face Bianca wasn't there, just a guy sleeping in the office, which made things easy.'

'Couldn't we have used it to get here in the first place?' Jacy took the bottle of water Nadine handed to him.

Kai shrugged. 'No way, they were banned for a reason and I only agreed because your sister threatened me. I called Georgi from the assistant's desk, he used a locator spell, and it seemed to work this time.'

'How about you? How did you get here? And what happened to the dumpling man?' Nadine asked.

'The same man that had left the candle, Shin, appeared. After the dumpling man abandoned me, that is. Apparently, I had an alarm on me and he got spooked. Then the demon who had attacked Nadine at Halloween turned up too.'

Both their eyes kept widening in surprise.

Then Nadine frowned. 'That's disturbing. And deeply suspicious in terms of this Shin.'

'I don't know,' Jacy said. 'Shin just wanted his box back. To be honest, technically I stole it. Even if I didn't mean to.'

'Sorry to point out, but this alarm thing on you is more disturbing than some missing box,' Kai said. 'So I suggest we don't stand around here, but start moving.'

Kai was right. The boys followed Nadine's gaze as she looked up at the dark cathedral in the distance.

'The archives have been relocated to the museum, guys,' he said.

'I thought so,' Nadine said.

Jacy and Kai turned their quizzical gazes to her.

'... I think I can see the aura of _things_ , sometimes.'

'Like, how?' Kai asked.

She shrugged. 'The cathedral has that glow of old buildings but, even so, it's not the same as the Celestial Hiss police department or Mr Malina's bag for example.'

Kai blinked at her, 'Well, that would have been useful to know before.'

Then he turned to Jacy, 'And how do you know it's not where we need to go?'

'Shin said.'

'Let's check and go home as quickly as possible,' Nadine said.

She stepped out of the portico and headed to a map of the town erected right at the end of the street, on the edge of the square. For a want of a better option, slightly shivering in the cold, the two boys followed her. She handed Jacy the light pastel-blue vial of the language serum, which he drank in one gulp, while she hurried ahead.

It tasted of smoke and sugar, which surprisingly wasn't that bad.

Nadine's nose could have been touching the map, but it was getting too dark for Jacy to see. They reached her just as she staggered back, both Jacy and Kai freezing in fright as a shrivelled-looking demon appeared out of nowhere and leaned against the sign, blocking their view. This one seemed materialised into a human form, though maybe not fully, as he had that ancient stone like glow Domyk sometimes also got.

'Lost, little girl?' he asked sneering at her.

It was not the demon that had been chasing Jacy earlier — no silver eyes, definitely a smaller silhouette — but that did not mean that this one wasn't just as dangerous.

Jacy stepped closer to Nadine to jerk her away just in case. The second he moved, he realised his mistake, as the demon's gaze caught the action with a satisfied glint of his pitch-dark eyes.

'Not lost. Just unsure which way to go,' she said.

'And where is it that you'd like to go?' he asked in a sickly-sweet flow of words.

Jacy wasn't sure whether he was more astonished or furious when Nadine freely volunteered, 'The museum — to the archives.'

By the look of things, Kai had chosen the latter as he glowered at her.

'Ah, the archives,' the demon spoke with a perceptible accent. 'Why would you need the archives at this hour of the night, little girl?' All the hairs on Jacy's arm tingled. 'It's very dark now.'

The demon glanced behind his shoulder then stepped away from the map and towards Nadine with something flickering in his hand.

That same second, Nadine's hand came up and a handful of brick-coloured powder flew at the demon's face.

His features froze in a mask of disgust before he sank to the floor, his eyes whirling in his head. It was the demon repellent Kai had brought with him.

'Whoa.' Kai's eyes doubled in size.

But before either him or Jacy could react, Nadine jerked both by their sleeves and they started running through the crisp night following after her, leaving the unmoving heap behind.

'Where are we going?' Kai breathed at them as his footsteps slapped on the cold cobblestones, zigzagging through the streets.

He'd barely finished the sentence, his voice echoing off the buildings, when Nadine halted in a small square with a clock tower in one of the corners. It was dark and completely deserted.

'It's here, I'm quite sure,' she said. 'And the demon looked in this direction when I mentioned it.'

'The demon looked this way? That's your logic? You do realise we just shortened our time-frame in half? Because the moment that demon gets on his feet, we're done with,' Kai said, rubbing his forehead.

'There is something here.' Nadine spoke to Jacy, ignoring Kai. The building stood massively in silence.

Jacy felt edgier because they were running out of time.

'Shin said they moved everything from the castle to the museum ... we can't lose time.' Jacy hesitated. But then, he really saw a look in Nadine's eyes, and he recognized it as the one Thessa got when she sometimes argued with Domyk. At those times, no matter what happened, she did what she thought was best. And Jacy had a feeling Nadine would too. Whether what they were looking for was there or not, didn't matter. What mattered was not letting Nadine do something stupid — alone. And they had no other options.

'The museum was on our left in the square when the demon appeared — I saw it on the map — its aura was nothing near as strong as this. Something is here anyway,' she said, squinting around the building her eyes stopping at a few windows a heartbeat longer than others.

Then Jacy turned to Kai, trying to convey with his eyes that Nadine would go even if they didn't — which was 'undesirable event number two' on the Domyk priority list. 'Since we're already in this town ...'

Kai shrugged, but did not argue. 'It would be a waste to go back home now.'

* * *

'This building is the town hall, according to the plaque on the wall. Seems quiet.' Kai looked around the dark windows of the other buildings in the square after coming back from a discovery sweep. 'It makes sense for them to use the museum as the decoy and instead put valuables here. It will be guarded much more, but if we're quiet and stay in the dark, we should be fine.'

They actively avoided the main arch that led to the inner courtyard and approached the ornate side door that supported a balcony and was perched on top of some steps.

Nadine pulled out two chunky yellow candles from her backpack and placed one on each side of the door.

'What's that?' Jacy asked her.

'He said it was for signal interference.' She nodded towards Kai.

'Another candle type we found. It took us some experimenting to figure out what the yellow was for.'

Silence fell and they all looked at each other and then at the door. It looked like that was it, their last chance to change their minds and contact Georgi to help them get back.

Before he could think about it too much, Jacy nodded and they went inside with the urgency of wanting to get out as soon as possible.

They appeared in the inner part of the courtyard, dotted by windows all the way around — there could have been anyone standing behind the dark reflection in them, but Jacy took that thought out if his head and hurried on. Doors lined the walls and, guessing that the staircase near the entrance would be guarded the most, they hurried towards the north-eastern corner of the building to the shabbiest-looking door.

Everything around them seemed sharper, brighter, to Jacy. He guessed it was the excitement, and it made his stomach freeze every time the old building creaked or birds' wings whooshed past them mid-flight. His heart was in his throat, anticipating either of the two demons now after him, to appear.

They were inching along the perimeter when Jacy noticed a faint noise from above and on the opposite side of the courtyard. Jacy saw two younger-looking boys — barely older than him, if at all — walk right along the snow-dusted edge of the roof, above the second-floor windows.

He then started listening in, no one daring to move, and he heard one of the boys on the roof say, 'Roof inspection completed, moving to the reception area. Over.'

'Wow, so official, Luka. You're getting the hang of this patrol thing,' the other voice mocked.

'They were checking the roof,' Jacy translated to the other two beside him as the boys above moved away.

'Thorough. Not great for us,' Kai said.

'We'd better hurry.' Nadine motioned to a door. They darted across, checking the coast momentarily, to the flower urn standing in the middle of the courtyard before reaching the worn wooden door.

There was no place where they could have hidden the signal interference candle, so they put it on the windowsill which they were crouching under, hoping it wouldn't stand out.

Then, with care, Kai turned the handle and started opening the door. Watching it so intently, that his eyes burnt, Jacy held his breath to see if it would squeak or creak – but thankfully it didn't.

They all peered in, walked inside and stopped again. They were facing three options, one corridor to their left, one door to the right, and one staircase next to the door on the right.

Kai drew a breath, turning to Nadine to say something, but she immediately shrugged.

'I don't see anything specific — it's powerful everywhere.'

Only the echo of the demon repellent powder's swoosh reverberating from the walls reached Jacy's ear as Nadine started sprinkling it in the air. Then, from the corridor on the left that curved along the side of the building, lazy footsteps approached.

Before the three of them could so much as dart into the nearest wardrobe, a half-dazed, forest green demon came up behind them, looking like a Halloween pumpkin costume. Jacy almost cried out, but the demon staggered into the wall. The repellent was clearly working on her half-materialised form — she was mumbling and kept counting something on her fingers.

'It's the guard demon,' Kai whispered to Jacy. 'We have to hurry, I don't know how long that thing lasts. And it's not a good sign that that all of _three_ demons have found you since you got here.'

The green demon seemed to turn around and head in the opposite direction without any idea of where she was going.

At least they were surer that they were in the right building — according to Kai, usually only important buildings had guard demons. For the next half hour, they went by Kai's logic and experience.

'It must be in the basement. They always keep them in basements or a safe room. Somewhere guarded.'

It was roughly at the same time that they all seemed to realise that they had to separate if they wanted to check the entire building and get home before Thessa or Domyk.

'We shouldn't,' Jacy whispered hesitantly.

'We probably have to,' Kai said.

Jacy looked from one to the other, and Nadine shrugged. She then said, 'Fine. We'll meet at the square in exactly an hour, no matter what. If we find anything or if we don't. Then we'll think about what to do next.'

Jacy was about to tell Nadine to go with Kai, but she was gazing at the empty hallway and had already started for the spiral staircase at the end of it. 'I'll see you there.'

She rushed up the stairs and disappeared out of sight.

'I don't have a good feeling about this,' Kai commented.

The two of them took the opposite direction and split up at the end of the corridor.

'One hour,' Jacy emphasised and turned to the door to his left. Kai nodded and went back the way they'd come, tiptoeing as softy as he could.

The door it was. Jacy listened first but, as there were no sounds behind it, he pressed down the handle and entered.

It was a filing room, with two desks, piles of creased files lying everywhere and a discreet Brno calendar hanging above the large cabinet. A lazy, ominous silence stood in the room, which Jacy tried to ignore as he went to open it and found that it was unlocked. There were expense claim forms in the first drawer, a wedding log in the second, and the third one was a massive collection of lawsuit case files. Jacy took a second to appreciate that he was actually reading in a different language without as much as a blink, then closed the cabinet and headed to the window.

He peered out at the street, his gaze travelling with the moonlight, finding its way along rooftiles, blending with the street lights. It was the front of the building where they had started and the square outside was empty.

Still, as he moved from room to room, he kept away from the windows and listened closely. Each room opened from within the previous room in a long chain. It made it easier for Jacy to move parallel to the courtyard without the need to go out to the hallway, where he could have been surprised from more directions.

There was nowhere where a huge archive could have been hidden in those small spaces. Especially, as it was supposed to be new and hastily arranged storage. He hurried as time pressed. Finally, arriving at a landing of a staircase, Jacy headed downstairs, hoping for the basement. He moved very slowly, checking every dark corner just in case.

From behind one of the doors on the third landing came a small creak. Jacy's heartbeat reacted instantly, propelling him down the stairs. He dashed through the first available door.

And finally — the basement. Now he wished the three of them would have stayed together. He wasn't going to be able to look through the entire area on his own. The lack of windows and the rounded arching ceiling provided a grim underground atmosphere. He stopped and listened with a wildly beating heart — there was nothing.

He peered out from a corner and almost doubled back as he saw a security guard marching in his direction, checking all spaces on his way, opening doors and shining his torch inside the rooms.

It looked like he was looking for something specific. Someone specific. Them. Jacy's mind raced — the alarm had probably been tripped somehow, and the others did not know about it.

He retreated behind the corner and started furiously working his brain to find a solution. And then something strange registered in his mind. He peeked around the corner again. He saw the guard still checking a room.

Jacy saw him, but did not hear him. Every step should have been accompanied by the usual thud and screech of boots on the floor, but instead, there was silence. What the —

Confusion and further alarm washed over him, but then his instinct to flee kicked in and he pushed away from the wall to bolt from there.

His breath hitched as he saw movement at the other end of the corridor too.

It was Kai who skidded to a halt. Then, slowly, recognition registered on his features as well. But before he could move, Jacy started running on tiptoes and gesturing like a madman for Kai to turn around and run. They both fled just as the guard's torch flickered from behind the corner towards the corridor they were on. They ran up the same stairs that Jacy had descended earlier.

But the guard was still on their heels, as if he knew where they were going.

'There, it's open.' Kai steered Jacy towards a room with its door ajar. They tore inside, hoping to be able to disappear before the guard came round and into full view of them.

Kai darted behind the heavy curtain of the wide window, right next to the door which would ideally be their escape route. Jacy barely registered anything as he ran after Kai, flew over the sofa situated in front of the window, and almost took down the curtains with him as he landed.

It seemed like an eternity of rapid heartbeats before the guard reached them — and in that same time Jacy heard the faintest of hissing sounds, which he realised was the demon repellent powder trickling out of his pocket. He tried to shift his position to ebb the flow, but the guard opened the door and shone his torchlight inside the dark room.

Jacy followed the ray and just at its periphery he noticed Kai's neon shoelaces peeking out from behind the heavy drapery in the corner at the far end of the dusty sofa. Jacy started rummaging in his brain for something, anything, that would win them time. He knew that it didn't help, but he was annoyed at not having an active power — moving objects, teleportation, freezing someone, anything would have been better than hearing danger approach, and not being able to do anything about it. In the corridor outside, another pair of footsteps came closer and the torchlight went out.

'All good here, Luka. Let's check the rest,' the guard said to the owner of the footsteps with a raspy voice, closing the door.

It was after a little while that both Jacy and Kai dared to peek out from their respective hiding places. Jacy dusted himself off from all the dirt clinging onto his coat and then sneezed — these people should really clean under the sofa too — he always had to vacuum every last dust speck back home.

'That was close. I knew I wouldn't like this, but ––' Kai started as they turned around.

They both turned around and stopped dead.

A boy of their age was blocking the side door leading to the adjacent room. He was looking at them with a mix of triumph and arrogance, but also a little surprise and wariness. Jacy resisted the urge to shake his head. He was beginning to see things Nadine's way — little details, instead of the big important ones. Like the little walkie-talkie looking thing in his hand that he really should have noticed straight away.

_A radio transmitter, Jacy. It's called a radio transmitter_ , a whisper of logic went through his mind.

Kai apparently saw it too. For, after a moment of indecision on everyone's side, Kai moved first.

He lurched at the boy with incredible force knocking out the radio transmitter from his hand and toppling him over. Somehow, Jacy thought that this was what a power looked like. And most probably Kai's adrenalin added an effect.

Jacy could not let himself hesitate either — the second after Kai lurched, Jacy went into motion automatically, although not really knowing what he was doing. Scooping up the radio, he darted to the door, opened it, and jerked Kai's T-shirt with him.

But the boy was good. He grabbed Kai's leg and pulled so hard that Kai fell flat on his face with a muffled cry. The boy stood up and as Kai turned back to try to bring him down with a leg tackle — he jumped easily over Kai's extended leg and staggered towards Jacy, towards the radio.

There wasn't any time to think about getting caught, but Jacy still expected at least twelve other people to jump out at them at any moment. Kai was trying to stand up, focused on the boy, and that moved Jacy into action as he felt around himself frantically.

He grabbed the drapery behind which Kai had been hiding and, backing away, threw it over the boy who was coming after him through the door. Jacy twisted the heavy material and pulled, getting the boy stuck.

'Push him!' Kai shouted and there really wasn't much else to do. Jacy twirled the boy around, so that he flailed his trapped arms with a grunt and, getting caught in Kai's legs, fell into a cupboard where a ceramic vase shattered on impact.

Jacy pulled Kai with all his might this time and they darted to the adjacent rooms via the side doors. One room led to another and another as they ran.

'What a little fartface!' Kai shouted to Jacy.

It was when they arrived at an inner closed courtyard that they stopped short. It was not the one they had come through. They saw no doors, no windows or anything that could have given them any cover — they had essentially run into a dead-end. So they panted while looking around frantically.

' _Luka_ ,' the radio in Jacy's hand sounded. ' _Luka, did you catch them? Over_.'

Jacy and Kai looked at each other. More people knew they were there. The boy, Luka, appeared in the arch to the courtyard, catching up with them. He eyed the radio in Jacy's hands.

'Who are you?' he demanded out of breath, but did not approach them. He was probably stalling while his back-up arrived. 'And what are you doing here?'

Jacy was rooted to the spot, aware that the radio could not get into Luka's hands, whatever happened.

Kai, on the other hand, had started pacing, completely unaffected, checking every direction for something. A way out.

'Stop walking around!' Luka warned angrily.

Kai smirked. 'Or what? There are two of us and one of you. Your pals don't know where you are.'

Now it was Luka's turn to grin, and Jacy didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. 'Yet.'

Jacy saw and heard him take a long breath. He was getting ready to shout for help.

Then, Jacy's ears filled with a whooshing sound.

'BO ––' Luka's strained voice barely reverberated from the wall when he was thrown forward, hitting the stone pillar. The radio in Jacy's hand was wrenched out with brute force, almost hitting Kai on the head.

Jacy looked around, confused. Then his insides went cold. Cold and sharp as ice.

From the darkness, two sparkling grey eyes blinked at Jacy with a smile. The demon that had chased Nadine in Celestial Hiss and Shin in the cathedral was standing in the doorway of a hidden part of the courtyard. Jacy suddenly felt a twinge of deep worry for Shin. If he wasn't there and the demon was ...

Jacy shuddered. The demon was bigger than Jacy previously remembered. Much bigger.

Luka seemed unconscious on the floor where he'd fallen. Jacy slipped a hand in his trousers' pocket, but he found his powder reserves to be seriously depleted. He'd probably lost most of it when he'd hidden behind the sofa.

It was worrying that Kai had his 'determined' expression on. Before Jacy could stop him, Kai's hand slid into his pocket and he threw a handful of repellent powder in the demon's face. He still had it. Relief flooded Jacy, then his jaw slackened a little further.

The demon sneezed and waved the cloud of powder away.

Even that small pause gave Jacy and Kai an opportunity to take Luka by his hands and pull — somehow, an understanding passed between the two of them that they couldn't just leave Luka there injured. But he regained his consciousness half-way through and started kicking his legs in all directions. Surprisingly, that just helped the boys to slide him quicker.

'Where, so fast?' the demon boomed slowly, materialising right in front of them and blocking their way.

Jacy was just able to register a small sparkle in the demon's hand as he threw the same charge of energy at them as he had at Shin. The force of it shoved the three boys apart, sending Jacy sliding backwards down the corridor tiles on his stomach. Kai, for some weird, suicidal reason held on to a heater and tried to grab the demon.

He missed. Or rather there was nothing _to_ miss. The demon was not materialised — Kai's hand slid through air, through the folds of shadow marking the outline of the demon.

The demon's eyes were completely focused on Jacy and, slowly, a vicious smile formed in them. He advanced on Jacy step by step — the bottom part of him sliding as if in a stride.

Jacy, for want of a better idea, opened his backpack and started throwing whatever his fingers grabbed from the depth of the pocket at the demon — a torchlight, magnifying glass, rolls of industrial grade cellotape. It was the pocket sized, but heavy map of Europe that hit the creature on the shoulder, but instead of flying through, they bounced off him this time. Jacy had no idea why. But, from the grunt he gave, the demon clearly didn't like it.

Kai was scrambling to his feet, when something strange happened. The demon sent another shockwave, this time aiming straight at Jacy, but instead of it following the movement of his hand — or some sort of limb-looking part of his airy outline — it went in a completely different direction, hitting Kai right in his side, and throwing him against the radiator with a crunch.

The demon grunted in confusion. He looked at his own form, examining himself and twirling around as if looking for someone.

Was the powder working after all?

Kai's face was contorted from pain as Jacy rushed to him and bent down to check his breathing. And he wasn't sure what to worry about most, Kai grabbing his elbow in pain or Luka, on his feet, charging towards the demon.

But before Luka got to the demon, a hidden side door that had looked like just part of the wall, opened wide with a whoosh. The guard Jacy had seen before emerged and beamed his torchlight right on the demon, with his back to the boys.

' _You!_ What are you doing here?' he half-shouted, half-growled with bulging tendons in his neck. 'You are breaking all international laws and agreements! I am calling the police! Who sent you?'

The demon didn't answer, but kept his gaze on Jacy.

Jacy knew instantly what would happen after that — inevitably, the guard's gaze would follow the demon's, discovering the two of them that weren't supposed to be there. So, he grabbed Kai and heaved.

Surprisingly, Kai moved quite easily. Only, Jacy glanced at him and got much more concerned after seeing the colour of his face. Jacy just hoped that Nadine was alright and safe, somewhere far away in the building. Or, better yet, already out.

A second glance at Kai as they dragged their feet through the corridors made Jacy flinch with horror and unsettled his stomach. He noticed what he thought was exposed muscle near Kai's arm, through the blood that was now leaving a trail behind them. It was as if the wound was getting bigger, tearing from the inside.

Kai was in shock. Jacy didn't know much about the symptoms of shock, but the fact that Kai's face was lighter than the white wall behind him carried no doubt. Jacy's mind went blank and he felt queasy as the coppery smell of blood reached his nostrils. He had no idea what to do, his mind seemed unwilling even to think about thinking. They just looked at each other in confusion for a few seconds as they moved.

He needed to get Kai out the building first. The echoes of the guard's voice still bounced off the arched walls. 'Get out of my hall! And you'd do best to keep out of the city. Tell your boss not to forget whose ––'

Jacy didn't stop moving but panted from Kai's weight. Having no idea where the exit was, he swivelled his head looking for anything that would give him a clue. He heard running footsteps and halted.

'Hey!' Behind them, Luka's voice sounded.

Groaning, Jacy tensed, ready to fight. What was wrong with this day? Unfortunately, he realised he would have to drop Kai to the floor to do so.

Before Jacy could react, Luka took Kai's other arm, swinging it around his neck.

'Follow me,' he said.

Kai was still too dazed to realise what was happening, but Jacy, seeing that Luka was helping them get out of the building, was suddenly too aware of them missing Nadine. He stopped short, and Luka misunderstood.

'I'm not trying to give you up,' he said. 'But you won't be able to get out on your own. They will start sweeping the building soon.'

Kai was breathing heavily and staring at one particular empty spot on the wall. Trying to blank out the pain? Jacy couldn't be sure.

'We have one more with us.' Something made Jacy forget to think before blurting that out.

At that, Kai snapped up his head angrily.

'What are you doing?' But that was all he managed to get out before bending over in pain.

Luka glanced at Jacy, clearly displeased. 'Geez, why on earth did you decide that this would be the best time for a practise-run in this building for your training? Does your club not keep you up to date with current affairs? You get caught in this building now, you're done.'

'Clearly,' Kai grunted.

But Jacy had no idea what club he was talking about.

'Now you're asking me to help another one of your little heist crew? You do realise I'm aiding a break-in of the building which I'm supposed to guard? And I don't even want to know why one of the most powerful hunter demons was mobilised after you ...'

Jacy wanted to roll his eyes too. But then the most-powerful-hunter-demon part reached his brain. That made his resolve to get out of the building all the more pressing.

'You do realise that, one: we already were in the building without your help, so you're not technically helping a break-in and two: we just saved your life?'

'Fine. I'll show you where to go first, then I'll search for the other one,' he snapped and hurried them along. 'Where is he?'

'Who?'

'Your third team member,' Luka said with an exasperated sigh.

'I don't know, we separated somewhere before you saw us first in the room. She was headed in the opposite direction.'

They reached similar-looking stairs, went down a few flights, then to another corridor.

After Jacy had completely lost his sense of direction, Luka turned and opened a half-of-a-door-sized vent for Jacy and Kai to crawl through. The way Kai looked at it, suggested it was going to be painful. Luka then hurried away with a wave, swiping rust off his hands. Jacy was hoping he wasn't fetching more guards.

'Heist crew,' Kai snorted. 'This guy should be best buddies with Georgi, the Poet.'

The fact that only that part had stayed with Kai from the entire conversation was slightly worrying.

It wasn't easy to help Kai through the little tunnel. He hissed and groaned, and his arm jerked with each of his movements. Finally, they arrived at an alcove from which a smaller door with a huge rusty padlock opened.

With no idea of time, they waited — and waited quite long. Jacy started getting worried — he couldn't hear anything anywhere. What if they had captured Nadine? Kai was right, he was stupid. He shouldn't have told this Luka guy about her.

In a few minutes, he couldn't suppress a large yawn, which made his ears pop — and finally he heard them.

Nadine's voice sounded agitated. Once Jacy could make out the words, he tugged on Kai's jumper.

'We are not thieves! Point to one thing we've taken!' she snapped.

'That doesn't mean that you didn't want to, before I stopped you!' Luka's voice bounced off the bend in the tunnel, reaching Jacy in an exaggerated tremor.

'Stopped us?! It took you two hours to notice us.'

There was no answer. Jacy was listening in anticipation. Nadine didn't show any sign of backing down.

She and Luka reached them, and Nadine became rooted to the spot, eyes fixed on Kai's wound. Oh great, the last thing they needed was Nadine panicking, Jacy thought. He couldn't carry both of them all the way home.

But suddenly she made him jump by shouting at him angrily.

'What are you doing? His bleeding is getting worse!' She darted to Kai, jerked off his scarf — almost choking him in the process — and tied it around his arm, tugging the material and making Kai flinch.

'You need to go through here.' Luka turned the dials on the padlock and opened it for them.

'Um ... I think I need a doctor,' Kai said, dazed.

Nadine pushed him forward. 'Just move.'

Before they could get through the door, there was another click from behind them, somewhere further away in the tunnel they had come from.

'Who's there?' the booming voice of the guard demanded. Luka started pushing them through the door, whispering. 'You'll get out at the caves at the edge of the city. Go!' Then he shouted to the little tunnel behind him. 'No one, sir. Just checking.'

'Luka? Oh good, you followed the blood trail. Good thinking. They won't be able to get out of the old catacombs easily, if that's where they went through.'

And then the door was shut and locked behind the three of them and voices ceased even to Jacy. They hurried on, Kai propped up by Jacy on one side and Nadine on the other.

### CHAPTER 10

'Any luck finding anything?' Jacy asked Nadine as they felt their way through total darkness, with Kai utterly silent. This tunnel was damp, the smell was horrid, and an echo of water droplets accompanied each of their steps.

She shook her head. 'I got stuck in their common room — the guards just wouldn't leave, so I had to stay hidden under the sandwich table.'

After quite a bit of walking, soft light came from ahead. They approached it cautiously, tiptoeing to the edge of the corner, trying to muffle Kai's grunts. They peeked around and saw a round hall opening to several doors.

'You'd think he could have mentioned which door was the right one,' Nadine said, and the distasteful tone in her voice made her thoughts on Luka clear.

'Guys, I think I need help,' Kai said, his face paler and his weight on their shoulder heavier. The scarf had stopped his bleeding, but it was all tinted red.

'We need to get him to a hospital,' Jacy said.

'It won't help,' Nadine said. 'Unless it happens to be one of the hospitals equipped to treat a magical wound.'

She was right of course. A magical wound needed a magical treatment — that much he remembered from Domyk's tales. They didn't know any hospitals and had no time to come up with a way to look for one.

'Kai, did you hit yourself or did this come from the demon?' Jacy asked, searching Kai's glazed-over eyes. But he just swatted Jacy away with his hands.

But then, Jacy stumbled from fright as a loud 'Psst!' sounded behind him.

He swivelled, but there was no one there. Only, on the floor of the tunnel, a light twinkled. He knelt down to see better and eventually his brain registered the letters that spelled, ' _Psst!_ '.

'What ––' Jacy was bewildered.

'Georgi!' Nadine said. 'He's trying to reach us.'

The letters sneaked around and, surely, it looked like handwriting. ' _looking for you_ — _back_ — _everywhe ––_ '

It stopped and only small disconnected dots and lines appeared.

'The signal is dropping out. The distance is too long,' Kai murmured, surprising them with a coherent thought. Then he looked down exhaling. ' _The stamp ... hope it's prior-_ '

Jacy and Nadine exchanged glances. They couldn't wait long; Kai was not holding it together and Jacy was pretty sure that even if they had sidetracked the demon, he wouldn't stop chasing them. They needed to start moving. They clambered up from their crouching positions and stumbled forward.

Only to stop short at an alcove. But that wasn't what made them stop. Jacy was starting to really hate all these surprises.

At a dividing pillar between the doors, the spirit they had dazed in the square was staring daggers at them. Clearly, no longer dazed.

He smiled at them ruefully.

'Nowhere to hide now, little rats. The alarm is,' he snapped his fingers, 'on.'

Kai was delirious, mumbling to himself all this time. 'Too late ... but we need it first ...'

'You look familiar,' the demon told them, sizing them up. Then sneezed — the lingering after effect of the powder seemingly angering him even more. 'Don't worry, I'll make sure they'll find you. Shame they'd defragment me if I killed you. There are a few nice ways to polish your eyeballs — maybe it will teach you to see right from wrong.'

He smiled with a spark in his eyes.

Nadine flinched, but did not waver her gaze from the demon. He looked ready to pounce, waiting for their move. Then Jacy noticed a light pink spark forming on the demon's fingertips. The demon was toying with them, prolonging their unease. 'Of course, there are lots of painful things that don't leave marks, which I could try.'

Only Kai's mumbling broke the silence. 'We need to get ...'

Nadine nudged him to shut up. At this Kai managed to control his facial muscles enough to pull a frown. It was mouldy and clammy and so awful in the tunnel, Jacy wanted to scream at the demon to let them go.

'But why ... you're weird ...' Kai said.

The demon yawned and the pale pink light grew larger in his hands. Kai's mumbling seemed to annoy him too.

Jacy was considering covering Kai's mouth with his hand as he continued. 'We need it before Domyk —'

The pink light turned vomit yellow and ceased.

Nadine's attention wrapped back at the demon. But this time Jacy saw it too. The demon visibly paled into a bluish colour. His features froze. He slowly lowered his hand.

'D ... Domyk?' he stuttered, twirling around nervously. Then he started twitching, and he looked at them with suspicious and nervous eyes. 'Where's Domyk? What do you know about Domyk?'

'Well ––' Jacy started.

'Is Domyk here? In Europe?'

'He's ––' Jacy started again.

'Oh, my essence!' the demon started chewing his transparent nails. 'He's in Brno?'

'Domyk's ––' Jacy started saying, not sure why he even bothered any more. Nadine was now frowning.

'Sssh! Sssh! Don't even mention him.' And then he was gone, just like that, he evaporated.

Jacy looked at Nadine, unsure of what had happened.

She shrugged. 'Maybe it wasn't our Domyk he meant.'

'How many can there be?'

Voices sounded, it seemed from all directions, as the echo carried them to where the three of them were.

'Let's go here,' Nadine pointed to the middle door and a Jacy was not about to question that. She did have a magical sight. A sight that had seen the way into — what turned out to be — trouble, so hopefully, it would see the way out as well.

Without hesitation, they hoisted Kai up and ran ahead through the dark tunnels. They ran and ran, until Jacy's arm was trembling from Kai's weight and Nadine asked for breaks more than they were actually walking. At last, the ground started sloping upwards and the tunnel ended in a heavy metal door, which they pushed aside — a gasp from the crisp, chilling air shocking their lungs.

The night outside was dark and cold, and they found themselves near a road where once in a while a car whooshed past at high speeds. They plopped down in the icy grass, utterly exhausted. Kai slid from their grasp and rolled up into a fetal position, shivering — they were not going to be able to lift him anytime soon.

'What now?' Jacy asked, his breath materialising in front of him.

'We need to contact Thessa,' Nadine said. 'I don't think we have any other options.'

Jacy drew his coat tighter around himself just as a car slowed down and rolled to a stop next to them. He looked up into the suspicion-filled eyes of a policewoman who was leaning out of the window of her neon-marked car.

'What do we have here?'

Jacy realised that their day was not getting better. Luka must have given them up after all — there was no other explanation for them being _that_ unlucky. The three of them couldn't have looked more up-to-no-good, with Kai's bleeding arm, their lips blue with cold and their clothes dusty from the underground passageways.

'We just got a report that someone broke into the town hall. Why do I have the feeling that you loitering around a secret remote entrance is not a coincidence?' the policewoman asked.

From the passenger seat, a policeman's bushy head peaked out, his eyes widening as he spotted Kai. 'Let's get them to the medic first.'

'It's just a scratch,' Nadine said.

The policeman shook his head before he got out and opened the back door for them all to get in. There wasn't any chance of running away.

Jacy and Nadine pulled Kai up, trying to seem casual, hiding the extent of his injury, but failing miserably as they tottered around, almost falling into the car. Kai's grimace at the policewoman — which he probably intended to be a smile — was way too grateful.

At least the police would have a phone through which they could call Thessa.

The drive to the police station was quiet. The heat blasting from the dashboard thawed up Jacy's thoughts. What if Kai bled out? What if the demon came after them to the police station? What if the police contacted Vincent and he found them before Thessa? Did Vincent know about Nadine? And most frightening of all — would he ever get this close to finding actual documents in his father's case again? Would he ever see Kai or Nadine or Georgi again? He shivered. All he had been working on to help his father was slipping away in front of his eyes. Jacy doubted even Thessa could save him then.

'So.' The bushy policeman took out a notepad. 'I need your names and a way to reach your parents.' His clothes rustled on the seat as he turned around to them with a warm smile and waited expectantly. 'You do look familiar. Do you live in my neighbourhood?'

No one spoke — Kai's made-up background-story from the preparation talk went out of Jacy's head so completely that it was as if his brain had suspended itself from action. He couldn't just give Thessa's name and number away. Well, he literally couldn't, as he had discovered.

'Listen, guys.' The officer closed his notebook focusing on them. 'I _ne hochem vas ––_ '

Jacy's eyes widened — the language was going away. Nadine shook her head at him, she had taken her dose earlier. Hers probably stopped working a while back.

Jacy panicked. 'Um ...'

Nadine elbowed him in the ribs, making Jacy wince. Right, his words would also revert back from Czech. Both Nadine and Jacy looked nervously at Kai — if only he'd stop mumbling.

The bushy police officer tried to engage them a few times, but after they ignored him (which felt really embarrassing), he turned back to the winding streets and put his notebook away.

Even so, as they had entered the warm police station, Jacy felt slightly safer than on the streets. He really hoped a demon would not be desperate enough to walk into a police station and attack people. Especially not the one with the silver eyes.

It was very silent when they were led through the hall — only those on the night shift flittered about, not paying them any attention. Everywhere was lined with information booklets and uncomfortable-looking empty chairs, and only the huge clock on the wall above the reception desk ticked away to one o'clock in the morning.

The policewoman guided them inside an office that had a window opening to the hall — no doubt to keep an eye on them — and made them sit on the sofa inside.

She blocked the doorway while scrutinising them and started talking. Whatever she was saying sounded very gentle and cooing. She'd probably changed tactics and was trying to get information out of them by being extra nice.

The other policeman came in and bandaged Kai's wound tightly, murmuring something apologetically, pointing to the open door. Jacy looked over and there, across the hall, was a doctor in a lab coat examining a bloody, dark-haired patient. The owner of the dark hair was sitting in a chair with their back to them, flinching every time the doctor even looked like she was going to touch him.

The officers gave up questioning Jacy and his friends and, after exchanging a look, they went out of the room. Obviously not trusting them, they closed the door and the lock turned from the outside.

Jacy followed their movement through the glass and saw the policewoman knock on a polished cherry wood door, while the other looked up in surprise as the phone rang on the reception desk while there was no one there to answer. Grudgingly, he went to pick it up.

As soon as the first one had closed the door behind her and the second was out of view, Nadine leapt to her feet and started shuffling through the papers on the desk of the little office.

Jacy's gaze gravitated towards the doctor. As he was staring, the automatic front doors slid open and a man in a dark leather jacket with days-old stubble strolled in.

Jacy felt the blood leaving his face as he watched Detective Boian's heavy boots leaving a muddy print on the floor.

Boian's eyes were searching the halls, but the moment he spotted the doctor he shook his head and approached the patient. He was saying something, turning his hands in question — somehow the first thing Jacy's mind decided to do was to start listening in at the same time as he lowered himself to the edge of the window frame to hide. At least this time he could make himself useful.

Jacy grimaced the moment he tuned in to Boian's voice — they were speaking English alright — right in the middle of a colourful swearing session.

'What happened?' Detective Boian was addressing the patient and the doctor simultaneously. Jacy peeked out, and saw the patient now holding a bag of ice to his head as the doctor listed all his conditions with indignation in her voice.

Nadine chose that moment to stop rummaging through the desktop. She looked up at them and spoke, making Jacy lose his concentration and thus his hearing of the doctor. 'Jacy, we need to get out of here.'

Jacy shrank down further to the sofa. 'No kidding.'

What were they going to do? Boian would recognise Kai in an instant, probably Nadine too. Jacy could feel sweat breaking out on his neck. All he wanted was a blanket and some hot tea, maybe something to eat too, and a bed — not the prospect of being dragged back to have Domyk and Thessa finally kick him out and refuse to help him find his father. Jacy's best chances were to stay with them. He was so close. But that moment, Kai really needed a doctor.

'No, Jacy, I'm serious we have to go.' she held up an A4 sheet and Jacy saw a picture of himself looking back at him on the sheet:

MISSING:

Jacy Marwick.

Disappeared London, UK, 18th October.

Europe-wide search recommended.'

She held up a pile of papers and leafed through them. 'It's just a matter of time before the policeman remembers why you looked familiar.'

Jacy stood up at once, snatching it from her hands. Or Boian. Boian would know who he was for sure. Everyone in the police station would. But Boian would also link him to Celestial Hiss, and then all the hiding in the world couldn't save Jacy. He turned back to look at the group outside across the hall, gripping the sheet. At the same time, a commotion started in the examination room as the doctor took off her latex gloves and tossed them in the trash.

As if in slow motion, the patient got up and shook the doctor's hand while talking to Detective Boian. The patient shook his head, and then turned around with his face in full view of Jacy.

And that's when, for the second time that day, Jacy locked eyes with Shin.

Shin did a double-take and tapped Boian on the arm with the back of his hand. But before the detective could follow the line of Shin's gaze, the lights went out in the entire office and the corridor as well. It was so dark that even lights from outside did not reach their part of the police station.

'Um ... guys ...?' Nadine started.

Then a phone they hadn't seen before in the office started ringing somewhere in the darkness. A few seconds later, the door handle started rattling.

Then Jacy heard Nadine lift the receiver before exclaiming, 'Hey!'

And after some commotion Jacy felt an arm on his hand and he was falling one more time.

* * *

Rows of books, flickering night lights, and the faint snoring sound which Jacy remembered hearing once before.

The fact that they'd teleported to the library was pretty unexpected in itself, but the fact that Mr Malina was there was even more peculiar.

He was wrapping Kai's arm with a gauze, crouching next to the reception desk.

'Mr Malina?' Jacy exclaimed.

Mr Malina didn't lose his concentration, but Kai spotted Jacy and started grinning. He looked like he wanted to say something but his words kept slurring and his face kept getting confused at why his words were slurring.

Mr Malina tipped a bottle of liquid to Kai's lips, the stench of it so extreme that even Jacy's nostrils protested, but half of it oozed out from Kai's mouth anyway. It reminded Jacy of the sweetest cough syrup Vincent gave him when he was ill — which Jacy had duly thrown up on Vincent's brand-new grey suit. It didn't even take Kai a few sips to fall fast asleep and start making noises in tandem with the snoring somewhere in that building.

'Um ... why are you here?' Jacy approached Mr Malina, trying not to sound rude.

'Because _you're_ not where you're supposed to be, according to your kind friend here.' He pointed to Georgi, but it was Mr Malina's cheery tone that confused Jacy. He noticed Nadine and Georgi standing in the doorframe, looking on at the scene in front of them, both pale. Jacy locked eyes with Georgi, silently asking how much he told the teacher.

Something dark crossed Mr Malina's face, but then he smiled pleasantly. 'Imagine my surprise as I find your dear friend panicking, in barely coherent words, that you are lost somewhere around Europe.'

Kai stirred and opened his eyes halfway, moaning. 'Statistically, in the past, more injuries ...'

Mr Malina took a breath to say something else, but then changed his mind as Kai slumped his head onto his shoulder. 'It's good he knew how to locate you, and I still remember a few tricks. I need to take him back to his cousin so that he can continue applying some ointments to this wound. And you two should head home, it's late.'

'You're going to let us go?' Jacy gaped at him, but regretted bringing it to his attention as soon as he said it. Nadine shook her head, visibly exasperated.

'Dear boy, why on earth would you want me to keep you here? Is something the matter?' Mr Malina asked, guiding Kai up.

Jacy exchanged looks with Nadine and they both shook their heads feverishly.

It was the middle of the night and no one was on the surrounding streets as Mr Malina walked out the same side door they had used, pulling Kai along.

'Regarding this situation,' Mr Malina cleared his throat. 'I feel your guardians might not benefit from knowing what had happened today.'

Jacy was just about awake enough to nod, but in hindsight he wasn't sure if he actually managed to, especially as the meaning of the words sunk in. Was Mr Malina suggesting they cover this up? Was he not going to punish them or insist on calling their parents?

'That would worry them greatly, and I'm sure you'll now always know what not to do. If they ask where you were, feel free to say you went over to Kai's and helped him with homework, which I'm sure is what you had been doing before accidentally experimenting too wildly. And I'd encourage you to join our club sessions to learn how to avoid such silly accidents in the future.'

The day's events threatened to overwhelm Jacy — the dumpling man, Shin, the demon, Boian, the other demons, the police looking for him, the fact that they hadn't found anything, Mr Malina ... he wasn't even sure in what priority to list them.

Once Mr Malina was out of earshot, Georgi stepped to them to whisper. 'See what I mean? He cannot discipline anyone, ever. Now you know why his classes have the worst behaviour issues — everyone gets away with everything. All I had to do was come up with a sob story of how we want to be best in class so we started trying different spells – for no other reason than for fun, when it backfired.'

They said goodbye to each other and headed to their respective homes. On that last stretch between the library, the abandoned house, the lamppost and the house, Jacy's coordination took a hit from the tiredness and he almost collided with a tree while walking along the pavement. He was also worried about Nadine, who didn't complain but looked like she could curl up on the ground to sleep at any second.

She keyed in the code in the lamp post while Jacy stretched through the cold. The house reflected the soft glow from the lamp post coming on, although the living-room light that usually turned on automatically, didn't.

Nadine waited for him to catch up and then the two of them quickly headed to the front door.

'I've never had a day like this, that's for sure,' Nadine remarked. She put a hand on the door handle, and then froze.

The door was open. She looked at Jacy.

He pulled them away from the front door, but Nadine took a step forward.

'I can't feel anyone inside. Can you hear anything?' she whispered.

Jacy listened, making his ears adjust through the crashing waves below, then shook his head. The house was eerily quiet.

'Hello?' Jacy called. 'Domyk? The ––'

'Wait!' Nadine caught him by his sleeve and pointed to the windows that stood open letting all the chilly air in. The windows that they definitely had left closed.

'It was probably the wind that blew the door open accidentally,' Jacy said, and felt the weakness of his own argument. What if the silver-eyed demon had caught up with them? He tried to shake off the feeling.

'I'm not sure. What if it was someone with the power to rob places?' Nadine said, as they continued to step away from the house hesitantly.

Nadine shivered and turned around slowly, gazing into the darkness of the field in front of the house. First towards the line of the forest, then the cliffs. The waves of the ocean were beating with a steady thunder. And slowly, drop by drop, the rain started falling. Somewhere in between the raindrops snowflakes swirled quietly.

'There is something strange here. Something not right,' Nadine said. 'We should go in.'

Completely counter-intuitively, she pulled Jacy towards the house. And then she rushed them inside, shutting the front door with a bang.

'Quick, close all windows and draw the curtains!' she said and ran in the living room.

'If it is in any way possible for someone to get inside this house, closed windows won't stop them,' said Jacy, even though he hurried to help his sister.

'Well, I don't know. But I feel like we need to.'

After they finished on the ground floor, Nadine and Jacy, infected by Nadine's fervour, ran upstairs and repeated everything upstairs. He avoided the dark corners of the house, as if that would get rid of the uneasiness — and he did it all as quick as he could, nevertheless. He was too aware of all the things that had happened that day, as if they had been attached to his being.

Once finished with all rooms, Jacy met Nadine at the bottom of the stairs at the living room, listening and looking around for anything suspicious. But the change was instantaneous. The house had transformed into something peaceful and welcoming. It seemed to be warming up with every second. The lights turned on and Nadine lit a candle which, if it were possible, calmed the rooms.

When their adrenalin subsided, tiredness weighed them both down. After checking the front of the house from behind the curtain once more and not seeing anything in the darkness, Jacy slumped down in the living room and Nadine turned on the news channel, providing the usual background noise. That was oddly comforting.

While Nadine went to shower, Jacy unpacked their backpacks, replacing as much as he could to its original location. The fridge was too empty, and he doubted the pizza take-away would be open that late.

Nadine came downstairs in her pyjamas, her torso disappearing inside a huge jumper Jacy had seen on Thessa before.

She went on making the same assessment as Jacy had about the contents of the fridge. She then went to the cupboard and poured cereal into Domyk's two biggest soup bowls, handing one to Jacy and eating as if she'd never seen food before.

It took Jacy all his willpower to lift himself out of the sofa and go upstairs to shower. He'd reached the point of tiredness when his limbs were trembling, his heart was racing, and his thoughts didn't rest, making it impossible to fall asleep just yet.

He threw his dirty clothes into the laundry basket, mentally thanking Domyk for his choice of winter attire that had at least kept Jacy relatively warm in Brno. But once the hot water relaxed his muscles, the fresh clean feeling seeped through him. By the time he got downstairs, Nadine was fast asleep on the sofa with the TV showing some cultural news about museum openings in Africa. Feeling safer to stay together in the living room, Jacy placed himself on the adjacent settee and, pulling a soft blanket from the floor on himself, his chaotic thoughts quietened. He was asleep in record time.

### CHAPTER 11

The front door banged open, to which the remote fell out of Nadine's hand and to the wooden floor. The TV was on some Sunday show and the clock showed 2 pm — they had slept through the entire day. Bright winter sunlight was shining inside the room, piercing Jacy's eyes. Jacy lifted his head to look at who had come in the door, but the cold air made him wrap himself in his blanket tighter.

'Well, good morning.' Thessa started unlacing her heavy wet boots, sloshing on the carpet, as Domyk flitted inside after her. He opened the windows and started making coffee, not even glancing in their direction as he talked.

'Believe it or not, even _I_ want coffee. I wholeheartedly believe it will have an effect on my weather-beaten demonic skeleton. After yesterday's ––'

He swore about the type of storm that he referred to so profusely that he earned an eyeroll from Thessa.

_Do they know?_ Jacy sat up in bed, every muscle aching from the day before. Nadine looked at the two in the hall with wide eyes.

'So, what have you been up to?' Thessa came towards them, looking around the room for clues.

'Not ... not much.' Jacy said, nodding for emphasis as his stomach grumbled.

'Homework,' Nadine said without a bat of her eyelids.

Thessa put her wet boots near the radiator to dry. Then she trotted back to the dining area, opened the fridge, then closed it. 'Pizza it is.'

Domyk cleaned up the already clean kitchen while Thessa went upstairs. He took the phone off the wall, dialled and gave an address in New York to whomever he was speaking to. Jacy still couldn't figure out how their postbox produced the pizza magically, but it must have been a similar process to the bush bakery, the number of which Thessa still randomly quizzed them on sometimes. Not that it had helped them the day before — a phone number kind of implies needing the nearby presence of a functioning phone.

They set the table, and not ten minutes later, Domyk walked out to the postbox and came back with not only the post but three large boxes of pizza in his hands.

'Where were you?' Nadine asked the both of them.

They exchanged glances. 'There's this annual gala that was attended by a few key people from your father's case. I was trying to figure out what their next move is going to be.'

'And?' Jacy sat up straighter. 'Did it work?'

'Partly,' she said. 'At least now I know they don't have the list of possible solutions to the code, so they are keeping your father for when they will. And won't let him go before that, no matter what.'

This distracted Jacy enough to concentrate on his own thoughts — they still weren't closer to finding out more about his dad's case. Nor were they particularly full of ideas on how to.

'–– the exit to the cliffs from my room.' He scraped his attention back from the window to what Thessa was saying. 'Which reminds me ...' Walking over to her coat, she pulled something shiny out. 'It's for you Jacy.'

'Hmm ... thank you. Why am I getting this?'

'It's a tuning fork — musicians use it, but since sound seems to be your calling, it might come in handy.'

He wasn't too musically minded and had no idea what to use a tuning fork for. But then he shrugged and raised his hand to hit it against the table, checking what sound it made.

' _No_!'

Thessa lurched for his hand, but it was too late.

As the metal hit the edge, the sound vibrated around in his mind, as if someone had hit him over the head with a vase. Nadine screamed. Jacy grabbed his head, his eyes burnt with the screech and he cried out, falling off the chair.

Thessa dashed around the coffee table and grabbed it from Jacy, getting hold of his hands. The sound suddenly ceased just as quickly as it had come.

'Hey, you ok?' she crouched next to him with concerned eyes but her mouth was trying to suppress a smile.

'Worst present ever.'

'Come on.' Thessa hauled him up. 'This might speed up you learning your power.'

'And ruin our eardrums in the process? I thought you said it's not good if the process is rushed.' Jacy scrambled to pick himself and his dignity off the floor.

'And that's true. This won't make it faster — this will make it more painful.'

Nadine was now also listening curiously while rubbing her ears. Domyk glanced at them more often than usual.

'How do I use it?' Jacy asked, pouting. 'It's not like mine is an active power, so does the fork help me hear even better?'

Thessa dug into the pizza. 'Just experiment. Away from us.'

Jacy saw Domyk take a breath as if he was about to speak — but then something beeped and the answering machine started.

' _Good evening, this is Professor Malina. Accept my apologies for calling you at this time ––'_

'Again.' Thessa murmured.

'Do you want to answer that?' Domyk was trying to talk in a hushed voice, but even through all his time, he hadn't seemed to be able to master whispering.

Thessa just threw him a dirty look.

' _I am very proud to get the opportunity to have Nadine and Jacy in our humble club. As you might know, I routinely try to give our students opportunity to further develop, so I look for apprenticeship programs based on their talents, and I could not be more delighted to inform you about young Nadine's extraordinary achievement of being accepted into the most prestigious volunteering program. I hope you'll recognise the unique nature of this opportunity. I wish you a lovely weekend.'_

The line went silent.

Thessa tilted her head. 'What was he talking about?'

Nadine slid down in the chair, looking as if she wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

'I ... I, everyone was applying to volunteering placements for the summer, and Mr Malina said I should try too.'

'What placement?'

Nadine looked uncomfortable to be breathing. 'It's ... it's with a witch called Eneii.'

Thessa looked as if she had been slapped.

'I'm sorry I didn't tell you,' Nadine hastened to add. 'But I didn't think I'd be selected. And you said — you said I should look into broadening my power. And, and —'

Domyk's stony ghost jaw went completely slack. 'No.' He not-at-all-discreetly turned to Thessa. 'I told you that old man was going to be trouble. I told you he'd figured it out. I told you he knows about us. I told you you should have let me liquidate him.'

Nadine gasped. Thessa put her palm to her forehead and leaned on it. 'No one is liquidating anyone.'

Thessa finally spoke to Nadine. 'And?'

Jacy had never seen her pale like this.

'I'm really sorry.' Nadine looked worried about Thessa. 'I can just not go.'

Thessa shook her head. 'I'm afraid you have to now. Eneii doesn't just give out invitations. Did Mr Malina also tell you she's had only one student so far? Why do you think she suddenly let you join her? You really think your power is that special to her?'

'So, you know her?' Nadine asked.

_And clearly don't like her,_ Jacy wanted to add.

'This puts us all in danger. Jacy especially. The moment she realises you know where Jacy is, she'll run to Vincent or your father's captors. And of course I won't be there to help.'

'I should be there,' Domyk said emphatically. 'I'll keep it under control.'

'She'll see right through you,' Thessa said, then shook her head and added wryly, sighing, 'No pun intended.'

'Even the witch is not invincible.'

'I just won't go,' Nadine said.

'That would be best,' Domyk said. 'It's decided then.'

Thessa seemed to mull it over. And over. She shook head head, exhaled. Then shook her head again. Then looked out the window, and slowly her eyes slid to Domyk, who in turn frowned.

'Actually ...' she said. ' Maybe ... if you — if _we_ — can be clever enough about it, to make sure she doesn't suspect anything ... Maybe it could even work.'

'What?' Domyk now looked at Thessa as if she'd gone out of her mind.

'No one would ever think I'd let her go to Eneii once I had her with me. But, you'll need to help Nadine.'

'That's fine, but you know who would suspect something? Because ––'

'I can help you. I could find out if they know anything, and what it is that they do,' Nadine said.

Thessa shook her head and stood up to leave. 'I need to think about this.'

Somehow Jacy knew it wasn't one of those things people said when they didn't want to deal with something. Thessa would do just that — think. Jacy felt like he should be doing the same.

Being the last one remaining in the room, Jacy camped out on the sofa. His mind went back to go through every detail of what had happened in Brno and before, how that first demon had chased him — those eyes and that evil emanating from him ...

Then, it clicked.

Every time that demon had appeared, Detective Boian was never far away. Boian had showed up minutes before Nadine was chased by it. Boian had walked into a police station where Jacy was being held, on the other end of the world, right after the demon had attacked for the second time.

Cold ran through Jacy's spine. Of course, he must have controlled the demon in some way. He had probably unleashed it, or maybe had even sent it after Jacy. Domyk seemed to comply with everything Thessa said — it could be exactly the same with the silver eyed demon and Detective Boian. But why would he do that — had Vincent made him? Were they working together on getting through to Jacy's father?

He didn't really have proof, and there wasn't much he could do about his suspicion, so he just went back to thinking.

Towards the end of the evening, just as Jacy was pouring himself a cup of tea, Thessa had sought out Nadine. It looked like she had calmed down and came up with a plan — they talked in a hushed tone on the sofa for hours. Once, Jacy had wanted to try his power on one of their conversations from the dining room — in case he could draw inspiration from it — but had thought better of it after Thessa's warning glance above Nadine's shoulder.

* * *

Thessa screeched so suddenly that Jacy jumped. ' _Domyk_!'

It was Monday morning and Domyk appeared at the bottom of the stairs, peeking from behind the arch. 'From the sound of it, I don't want to be here, do I?'

'What is this?' she'd waved the note at him. She had just returned from the abandoned house on the Celestial Hiss side 'to check something'.

'A piece of parchment?' Domyk slowly walked to her and snatched it out of her hands. His eyes barely skimmed the words when he sort of frowned his smooth features and, throwing down the note, raised his fingertips to his nostrils.

'Eeewww.' His upper lip shifted in disgust 'Why would you give me something so overwhelmingly smelly to my senses?'

'When was Mr Malina in the house? How did he find it?' Thessa pursed her lips. Jacy saw Nadine's spoon slow down before Thessa continued. 'How did he get in?'

'He didn't,' Domyk laughed, as if the idea of anyone — let alone Mr Malina — getting in the house was ridiculous.

'Evidently. He. Did. '

'"Chill" is, I believe, the right expression.' Domyk said. 'He would need to have insane giraffe disease to try. He probably dropped the note in the postbox and that's it.'

'No, I won't _chill_ ,' she said. 'The note was not in the postbox. So, you do your job. You find how he got into the house and then I might _chill_.'

'Come on, no one would be stupid enough to try that house or this house. Although,' Domyk's eyes got a glint so similar to the silver-eyed demon from Brno. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he was effectively talking to himself. 'I want to see them try. I haven't had fun in a long time. I sometimes wish I could go back to my heydays.'

Thessa stared at Domyk as she walked to the stairs. 'Fix this.'

Jacy was submerged on the sofa pillows, trying to sit as quietly as possible, waiting for Thessa's door to shut.

Domyk must have remembered him, as he turned around, boring his gaze into Jacy.

'I'd rather you didn't do anything stupid for a while,' he said.

'Why me?' Jacy exclaimed. 'I didn't even –– wait a second. Why didn't you ask us if we saw or heard Mr Malina in the old house while you were gone?'

Nadine shook her head at him. But Jacy wanted to know.

'All the way from Europe, little Jacy?'

'What? I ... um ...' Jacy felt himself flush. So they knew.

'You think you can go traipse around Europe and I won't find out?'

'Did that demon tell you?' Nadine asked. Jacy shook his head at her this time. She was going to give everything away, even though there was still a chance that they didn't know _everything_.

'What demon?' his expression was one of displeasure.

'There was a demon that knew you.'

Domyk just shrugged at that and started walking away. 'Obviously it didn't know me that well, otherwise you mentioning me would have been the last thing you did.'

So why weren't they shouting at them or grounding them? Surely, this was a bigger deal than the police department had been.

'Did he write the note to convince Thessa to let me go?' Nadine asked.

Domyk's expression did not betray anything. 'Among other things.'

* * *

No one spoke of what had happened again.

Jacy tried to help whenever he saw an opportunity, like mopping the living room floor, dusting the bookshelf on the landing or putting oil on the creaking shed door. He didn't mind housework, as it was a welcome distraction from the fact that researching about ways to help his father had ended up with nothing

And even though Jacy hadn't expected them to be able to go back to Celestial Hiss anytime soon, Thessa sent them to the library for some independent study.

Celestial Hiss was shining from the lights adorning the streets in preparation for the holidays. Only Jacy didn't feel like either holiday was close enough for that, before Nadine enlightened him about the yearly memorial ceremony which Mr Malina had talked about at the cemetery visit. Even Ms Miya's, where Jacy had taken Nadine during their lunch break, took on a much more welcoming look on the outside. It was now actually recognisable as a café. The windows were framed by golden twinkling lights and she had, or rather, she had made _them_ , put up a golden wreath on the door.

Jacy was tiptoeing around the old woman in the chair while chucking a tea light on each table when Georgi walked in.

Georgi had already been sitting on the curb in front of the entrance to the library that morning, picking up random pebbles from the frost-covered flowerbeds and throwing them back. He had leapt up as soon as they had arrived and Jacy got him up to speed, among a lot of 'Wow's and 'Ah's before Georgi had to rush away for the start of school. He had managed to tell them how Mr Malina had turned up that day, that Kai was at home, sick, and that they should meet at Ms Miya's at lunch.

'I can't believe you had your first almost-mission and I wasn't even there,' Georgi shook his head as they talked through it again, while Nadine was folding napkins absentmindedly. 'All I could do is see your location on the map and direct Kai and your sister. Until you got into the building — from there it was blank. Probably some anti-surveillance system they have ... So, now what?'

Nadine was shaking her head in defeat and this time Jacy agreed with her. He'd already gone behind Thessa's back without actually achieving a result, been chased by a monster of a hunter-demon, cornered by a stranger whose box he had accidentally stolen, almost crippled his friend, gotten caught by the police, almost been recognized by said police — and he wasn't about to try that again anytime soon.

'We need to stay low for a while,' Jacy said. 'We got extremely lucky that we didn't get caught. And especially me, personally, that I'm still here and not back at my mother and stepfather's.'

Just then, the unmistakable roar of Raffy's old car rattled the glass as it turned the corner to the café. Kai climbed out of the front seat, heading to them with a grin on his face — and an occasional wince.

'Yo, little gnome, don't leave your snot around my car!' Raffy threw a notebook after Kai, which hit him in the back and landed on the curb. Kai bent down after it at a strange angle, trying not to move his elbow too much.

'That's what you get for being stupid,' Raffy said and his car screeched away.

'Butthead. He will torture me for this for months, if not years,' Kai said, approaching them. But his bright spirits were etched on his face, the energetic mood reverberating off of him. 'Guess what?'

'How is your elbow?' Nadine asked frowning.

'Please ... a little demon can't faze me.' Kai waved her off.

Nadine frowned deeper. 'That's not how it looked when you were bleeding out and hallucinating.'

'Well,' Kai snapped at her. 'Instead of pointing that out, maybe you should be thanking me and we could all move on to figuring out our next steps.'

Nadine recoiled and Jacy decided it was better to end their conversation right there. 'Kai, there won't be any next steps anytime soon. It was a gamble, and it didn't pay off. But maybe next time, when we try, we'll find something.'

Kai leaned against the counter shifting the weight of his upper body, grinning ear to ear.

Nadine frowned and Jacy smacked Kai's healthy shoulder, wanting to snap him out of it. 'What's so funny?'

Georgi was also looking confused. 'What did Raffy give you for the pain?'

'You're such killjoys,' Kai said, clearly smug. 'Fine. I already have it.'

'The painkillers?' Nadine asked. Kai just shook his head.

Jacy was getting exasperated. 'Okay, what do you have?'

'The file.' Kai lowered his voice, looking around to check the old woman wasn't listening. 'Your dad's file.'

Jacy blinked.

Nadine looked highly skeptical. 'Okay, so show us.'

Kai's face fell just a fraction. 'Technically, I don't have it.'

Jacy frowned deeper. 'Kai, this isn't funny.'

'But I _will_ have it,' Kai added hastily with his arms flailing for reassurance.

'You will have it?' Jacy asked a bit briskly.

'It's on its way.' Kai's triumphant voice did not get a response from either of the three. 'Fine, fine, I sent it by post.' He even straightened with pride. 'Prepaid postage. I ran out to the square in front of the Brno town hall quickly and put it in the postbox, before going back to get you guys. That's when I tripped the alarm ... probably. It's how they must have gotten on to us.'

'How?' Jacy couldn't digest the information. 'When?'

'It was in the lower part of the basement. All the files were. I tried to tell you when I found you, but we were being chased, and then I got injured,' he said, looking at Jacy. 'But, see? Even if we had been captured, no one would have found it on us and it would be on its merry way here. Via regular transatlantic post.'

'Actually, that's a pretty nice idea,' Georgi said.

'Genius, you mean,' said Kai.

That really was great news. Jacy tried to figure out what that meant in terms of his own next steps. Should he wait? Should he talk to Thessa? Maybe ask around about this mysterious list?

Kai dropped his stuff on a chair next to the counter. 'Dad said that interviewing witnesses, which should be in the file, was the most difficult part — everyone who knew or saw anything stopped talking as soon as the lawyers arrived. And that period wasn't kind to magical people — even our school's administrator's brother was locked into an asylum. We'll just have to wait for the documents and see if there is anything there.'

'I didn't know Ms Nilsson's brother was ––' Georgi started, but a voice coming from outside the café flittered in.

'Yo, Gnome. Psst.'

A boy Jacy remembered seeing among the group of students going to the cemetery visit was lurking behind the edge of the building with bloodshot eyes, lightly tapping the window.

'Max?' Kai walked out, nursing his hand. 'What are you doing here?'

'I heard rumours about this place. I'm not going in,' the boy said.

'Okay, but, why are you here?'

'You need to help me,' he said looking around. 'I need you to cover for me on Saturday.'

'The memorial ceremony? Why? You never go anyway,' Kai asked.

The boy sighed and started explaining, and Jacy listened in with interest. 'I burnt Florian's eyebrows off.'

Kai started guffawing.

'And they're making you attend the ceremony as punishment?' Georgi asked. 'That doesn't seem like much.'

'That's not the point. _He_ doesn't get anything for making me puke my lunch out!' he whisper-shouted back at him.

Jacy giggled at the visual, so Max looked at him properly. 'Who are you again?'

'Jacy.'

He almost winced at his own revelation but, then again, if the demon could find him in the town anyway, revealing his name would not matter much. And he knew Max's name too.

Max looked back at Kai, clearly agitated. 'Will you or will you not?'

'What do we get in return?'

'You get nothing, Gnome.' Max snorted. 'I can't miss the fight, and I need this weekend free. Gruntvig will kill me or just leave me out. Oh, God, are you doing it or not?'

Max's eyes started a panicky dance.

Kai tilted his head. 'What fight?'

Max froze slightly. 'What fight?'

'You just said a fight,' Kai pressed.

'No, I didn't.'

'Yes, you did,' Kai's dad would have been proud of his interrogation technique.

Max glanced around them nervously. 'Listen, you don't know anything about this.'

'Okay,' Kai prompted.

'I will go to jail for this. Your dad will personally put me there if this gets out.'

Kai looked properly indignant. 'I would never tell!'

Max shifted to his other leg and hesitated.

'There will be a fight this Saturday,' he said eventually.

'A forbidden fight?' Kai's eyes bulged.

Both Georgi and Jacy looked at the two of them eager for more information. Whatever it was, it sounded fun.

Kai just gaped at Max.

'But there aren't any fights any more. There aren't supposed to be.'

'There are some,' Nadine's quiet voice came in the middle of folding a frog-shaped napkin. All eyes turned to her, but she didn't elaborate.

'Well, there you go,' Max said. 'But, don't ask me, I know nothing. Gruntvig said not to ask. He has found a frequency to tune in to, apparently.'

'Wow ...' Kai was speechless.

Max frowned. 'Listen, you do _not_ know about this! If you tell _anyone_ ––'

'Can we come?' Kai asked, his eyes shining. 'After the ceremony?'

'Forget it.'

'What? Come on! Why not?' Kai said indignantly.

'Nope.'

'Max, am I not your teammate? Are we not brothers?' Jacy never knew Kai could reach such levels of desperation. 'Actually ... that's ok. I just thought of an extra important reason why I can't help you.'

Max glowered.

And chewed his options over very visibly as all of them stared and waited. Even Nadine looked up in anticipation.

'Maybe after,' Max caved. 'But now, you'll come with me and tell my parents that I'll be mentoring you all Saturday. You have some super important test which you don't understand, and your life depends on the grade.'

'I'll be there in a sec,' Kai looked back at the others, sending them a thumbs-up with a grin, as Max walked away.

'What is the memorial ceremony?' Jacy asked Georgi once they were back inside the Ladybird.

'This one is a big one among similar magical talent clubs like ours, commemorating a disaster a few years ago where a lot of students died. During a fight exactly like the one we aren't allowed to hold or even watch.'

'It is since then, that we can't do any of the real training stuff or anything like that,' Kai added. 'Mr Malina gets away with some things, but not many. He's been fined a few times already ... by the way, you should come with us on Saturday.'

'No, he shouldn't.' Ms Miya walked out from the back, appearing as if from nowhere. 'One of you will need to stay here and help — there will be lots to do. And I'm guessing he's the only one who doesn't need to attend.'

'Speaking of going, I need to go post a letter before I go home,' Georgi said.

'Kai.' Jacy turned to Kai. 'Why did he call you "Gnome"? Raffy did too, right?'

'Don't even ask ...'

'Raffy ––' Georgi started to say.

'My stupid cousin.'

'His cousin called him that when they were little. And Max overheard them once and, from then on, Kai couldn't shake it. So much so, that it's also his code name in the club.'

'And believe me, I tried.'

'And what's yours, Georgi?'

'Poet.' Jacy could have sworn Georgi's chest puffed up when he said it.

* * *

All through the week, Nadine, Georgi and Jacy all annoyed Kai with questions about whether the package had arrived, almost daily. So that whenever he saw them the first words out of his mouth were: 'no,' 'nope,' 'not yet,' 'it takes weeks,' 'I sent it by second class post,' 'leave me alone,' and 'I will let you know the second it's delivered ... unless Raffy's dog eats the postman first.'

Kai had sent the package to his cousin's postbox outside the boundaries of Celestial Hiss just in case — since, according to Kai's dad, Celestial Hiss police scans the post for magical traces and is allowed to search suspicious packages — and he'd asked his cousin to let him know when his 'new basketball shoes' arrived, for added security. Jacy was wondering if Raffy was aware that he was being used as a test subject for a potential demonic trace search.

Domyk announced that he would hold a test for Nadine and Jacy before the end of the week 'to see if they had really been studying'. For a few days, Jacy had thought he was joking, but the more he saw Nadine revising, the more uneasy he felt himself. Sitting in the library and trying to cram as much information into his head as possible was proving difficult.

'So, what happens if we fail?' Jacy asked. 'I mean, it's not a real test.'

'If we want to be doing anything else apart from housework after this, I suggest we don't fail,' Nadine said, not even looking up from her book.

On Friday, Jacy took out Thessa's photo of his father from the drawer next to his bed and looked at its faded colours for a long while, feeling the need for advice. Why couldn't he talk to him, and why didn't he contact Nadine like he used to anymore? Slowly, he put it back, but his mind didn't quieten.

That night Jacy was fast asleep when he felt his shoulder being shaken. He jerked up to a sitting position too suddenly and his vision went fuzzy.

'What? What happened?' he said, disoriented. Was he supposed to go to school? Was Vincent there? Was it Friday? Monday, maybe? It felt like Wednesday.

'Shhh!' Nadine's eyes were wide in alarm, looking over her shoulder as if she had stolen something. The moonlight made her stand out against the background of the window. 'We need to talk, Jacy.'

She climbed to the end of the bed and covered herself with whatever free blanket was left at Jacy's legs. Jacy looked at her in confusion. A seagull flew past his window and made Nadine wince.

'Okay ...' he said apprehensively.

'I did a horrible thing.' Her eyes looked as if she was the one who had woken from sleep, not him.

'What?' he whispered back.

'I poisoned Domyk,' she said.

Jacy blinked. Maybe he was still asleep. Or maybe _she_ was still asleep. He waved his hand in front of her eyes to see whether she was responsive.

'I'm not sleepwalking!' she hissed.

Jacy believed her, which meant there was a bigger problem. 'You poisoned Domyk? How? Wh ... why?'

'Well, I ... I made him sleep. I needed to talk to you and he would have heard it and told Thessa.' She looked at the door apologetically. 'He was preoccupied with shooing a bird off the porch, so he didn't see me ...' Jacy had just noticed that she had her notebook with her and kept looking at it.

Jacy saw the nervousness on her, but then probably that's what older brothers had to do — they had to calm their younger siblings when they were unreasonably agitated.

'You wrote that down?' Jacy raised his eyebrows.

Nadine shrugged. 'I write everything down.'

Even in the dark Jacy could have sworn he saw her blush.

'We can talk tomorrow, maybe?'

'No. I might start the internship at Eneii already this Sunday, so you'll need to help me from here — I don't know if I can hide this from her.' She took out and unfolded a few sheets of paper and handed them to Jacy. One was a bird's-eye-view pencil drawing of a building complex. Another showed a log cabin in the woods. Some were snapshots of room fragments. And the drawings weren't half bad. 'This is what I sometimes saw when I talked with Dad.'

'How can we know where this is?' Jacy asked. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the pencil sketches. What if they were just figments of Nadine's imagination?

'I don't know,' she said.

'We need to show it to Thessa.'

Nadine pursed her lips. 'I already have. She said she can't do anything with it.'

'Then we probably can't either.' Jacy shrugged, ready to go to bed.

Nadine shook her head. 'Her colours got weird when she said it, though. Not really like a lie, but something similar. She made me promise not to research them — but _you_ didn't promise anything.'

Jacy felt like he needed time to wake up — well, to sleep properly first and then wake up. But he braced himself and said, 'Okay, I promise we will do something about this. First, we have to find out as much as we can about Dad and where he is. And I'll look into these. But can I please sleep for a little longer?'

'I guess ... okay,' she said shrugging. In the pause that followed, Jacy tried to blink his eyes open. The worried expression did not leave Nadine's face as she closed the door quietly behind her.

That just made Jacy worried in turn. Right. Wait for file, figure out location in the drawings, keep a low profile, study for test, and not implicate himself somehow in Domyk's poisoning.

It looked like he had a plan.

### CHAPTER 12

Saturday morning Thessa was sitting at the kitchen table with the usual stack of newspapers in front of her, leafing through them disinterestedly. This time the untouched herbal tea was steaming in a painted clay jug. Her leg was jerking restlessly. She didn't look great. Her eyes were shining as if she had a temperature, but her face was quite pale.

The clock ticked every second for half an hour as Jacy sat on the couch trying to absorb the pages of geometry laws. Nadine was humming to herself and mixing some sort of red paint — that seemed to Jacy equally as red as it had been five minutes ago — obviously having revised enough not to have to study.

Nadine had a wide smile plastered on her face when Thessa allowed her to take her painting set with her to this Eneii. She had been hunched over the coffee table, drawing a picture for the fridge, not paying any attention to her surroundings. Some of his mother's clients in the gallery didn't paint nearly that well. At the same time, it was quite simple — she'd painted a house on the background of a beautiful sky with stormy clouds. The cloud part was what Jacy liked most. They were very expressive. Surprisingly, Jacy thought, it was quite interesting work from a ten-year-old.

Even after everything, Jacy was still worried about Domyk's test — and then Saturday came and still he didn't give them the test, walking around the house as if he had completely forgotten, just increasing Jacy's nerves. That meant he was going to torture them until that evening, but it had to be before Sunday, before Nadine was going to leave for her apprenticeship.

At breakfast, with a whirlwind appearance, Domyk stopped dead in front of Thessa.

'What are you doing here?' he asked.

With a smile, she said, 'I live here.'

Domyk rolled his eyes.

'I've noticed, thank you. Which is why my peace has forever been broken. I've survived a lot of humans, but you're starting to make a lasting impression. I might just still remember you when your great-grandchildren roam the world,'

'Very funny.' Thessa put her head into her hands. 'Did you want something?'

Domyk went into the kitchen and started the coffee machine, then he climbed into one of the cupboards and threw chocolate bars in front of Thessa, one by one.

'I don't think you understand.' He suddenly materialized in the chair next to her, leaning in, making Jacy's ears go to a lower listening tone. ' _Someone_ just left their base with enough provisions to last a long while. Two birds, one stone.'

'We have enough problems with the first bird. I say we leave the second one alone. Especially as we don't have the stone.'

'What do you think they are talking about?' Jacy whispered to Nadine. She shook her head but picked up a pencil and with very light, barely visible strokes started writing, turning the sheet so that Jacy could see.

Planning a break-in

Jacy frowned, not daring to assume it was somehow related to his dad. 'Where?'

Nadine furiously erased the previous words and wrote over them.

Mr Malina's

Jacy felt himself blink. That was the strangest thing he'd heard in a while. A short while, but still.

Why would she need to break in to Mr Malina's place? A sort of unease went through Jacy. Mr Malina seemed so helpful ... and well, not too bright, so it felt wrong to associate with doing something like that.

'They won't burn the house down. And if they try, my system is on.' Domyk's voice reached Jacy. 'Any arsonist will wish they'd never known the word _fire_.'

He glanced at Jacy and Nadine pointedly.

'You won't be able get through anyway,' Thessa said. ' _You_ researched his alarm system. There is no way around the magic detection.'

'I don't need to be inside. I'll tell you what to do from the doorstep.'

That didn't make sense to Jacy, whatsoever. How would a magic detection system not see Thessa?

Nadine shifted her sitting position.

Jacy ignored her as a terrible suspicion squeezed in stomach.

Jacy slowly stepped to the dining room. 'Why is it ok for Thessa to go if the system detects magic?'

Thessa's head snapped up and she quickly glanced at Domyk. Nadine was suddenly beside Jacy tugging on his sleeve to go back to the living room.

'No.' He shook her off. A lot of things were starting making sense. That's why she never talked about her power. That's why she relied on Domyk so much.

Jacy cocked his head, felt himself frown as he looked at Thessa. 'You don't have magic, do you?'

Thessa didn't answer, but her eyes threw daggers at Domyk as he took the tea off the table and only a splash in the sink could be heard once he disappeared to the kitchen.

'Do you want to hear an explanation?'

Jacy wasn't sure. It was like all his thoughts had halted and couldn't find their way. True, this information didn't change _much_. But Thessa must have known he had assumed that her ability to help his father came from some super-amazing power – a power, which maybe, somehow, needed to be supported by his own. Okay, maybe she hadn't known that. But he thought so! What was the point of offering to help if she couldn't?

'You knew?' he asked Nadine, who got a guilty look on her face. 'Of course you did ... You probably saw it ... Well, thanks both of you for telling me.'

'Right.' Domyk cleared his throat. 'Sorry to interrupt your lovely chitchat here, but we have to go now,' he pressed, looking at the clock, completely oblivious of the weight of what had just become apparent to Jacy. But, of course, he was the only one who had been in the dark.

'Jacy,' Thessa started, but Jacy was already walking out the door. What else was she hiding? Probably many things. In his rational mind he understood that she wasn't obligated to tell him _everything,_ but whatever concerned his father, concerned him too. And maybe, he should be asking someone else to help –– someone who wouldn't lie about their real power, someone who wouldn't be wasting precious time by breaking into Mr Malina's house.

'I have to go set up at Ms Miya's,' he said and didn't look back as he walked out.

* * *

With setting the tables, washing up, scrubbing the countertop, dusting, polishing the glasses, and serving tea to the old woman in the corner every half an hour, Jacy, thankfully, had no time to think too much. The entire café was dull and grey from the biting cold mist outside — a cold breeze snuck through the opened door and found Jacy's skin.

'So? What do you think about it?' Kai said, coming through the door and over to Jacy with Georgi in tow.

'About what?' Jacy snapped.

They both paused, but didn't ask.

'What do you mean about what? Did you not find it?'

Jacy must have looked perplexed enough as Kai, checking if the old woman was in hearing distance — which she wasn't, hunched over her puzzles — leaned in to whisper. 'I got the package. I didn't want Dad to see it, so I snuck in here last night and taped it to the underside of that chair.'

He nodded to one of the chairs next to the bookcase.

Georgi took a sweet from the bowl on the counter. 'We assumed your sister would pick up its aura ... or whatever it is that she sees.'

'She's not here yet.'

Looking at the chair, there was a second in which Jacy thought about leaving the file there, untouched. The day had been full of _great_ new discoveries and he wasn't sure he wanted more of those just then. He caught a look passing between Kai and Georgi.

'I kinda looked inside a bit,' Kai said cautiously. 'Honestly, there is nothing obviously new there. I'm sorry.'

Jacy didn't want Georgi or Kai seeing something awful about his dad. Then, they would never believe that he was innocent. Not that there was a way back at that point, and Jacy had to use every opportunity he had, especially as Thessa wasn't likely to. It kind of explained why she kept saying they couldn't do most of the things Jacy had asked about –– and never said why.

Just at that moment, the old woman slowly folded her papers and, finishing the last sip, stood up and wobbled into the back. The moment a door past the curtains clicked shut, the boys dashed to the chair.

Opening the top cover of the folder, Jacy saw pages upon pages of documents, transcripts and photos — none of his dad, mostly of crime scene. Some showed very bloody walls, floors and furniture so he didn't look too closely.

They glanced through them in the dim flickering light. There was a sub-folder with conversation transcripts that had a lot of pages visibly missing and summary information with clear reference numbers of three letters and seven numbers indicated on the title page. Something about those numbers tickled Jacy's mind, but Kai sidetracked him.

'They all say the same thing,' Kai said. 'One day, coming back from his lunch break, he attacked two of his coworkers. One died and the other survived. They say, as he was escaping he attacked and killed two security guards that came to help. He then disappeared, and no one could find him for a while before he was caught. He maintained his innocence until the end — that's why they were so eager to give him a harsher sentence.'

A list of names caught Jacy's eye. It was a list of everyone — from witnesses to detectives investigating the case, to experts who had been questioned.

'That is where we need to start,' Kai said. 'We start going through the list. Especially witnesses.'

'How is that going to help us?' Jacy asked.

'Jacy, every witness said the same thing,' Kai said.

'My point.'

'Exactly.' Kai had a glimmer in his eyes. 'When do people ever have the same story, even if they are in the same room? Suspicious, if you ask me. I say, we find these people, ask for the _real_ truth. Then find the real killer and prove your father is innocent. Or we find something they've missed and ask for another trial. At the very least, we might get an idea of where he is.'

'That's all nice and all, but how?' Georgi said. 'So many things could not work.'

'So?' Kai said. 'We still try and at least we can say that we tried all we could. You have a better idea?'

'I think we need to research more,' Georgi said.

'But at which point do we actually try? If we leave it late, it all goes to waste.'

'If you had spent more time figuring out the candles, we would have known what to do and what not to do when Jacy was in Brno,' Georgi said, a little irritated. Jacy had a cringing reaction every time Brno or Shin was mentioned. Then he mentally reassured himself again that he hadn't stolen anything; Shin had given the bag to him voluntarily and it so happened that he hadn't been able to give it back yet.

'You're still on that? Besides, look how that turned out.' Kai motioned towards Jacy with his eyebrows and a big grin on his face.

'Do you know how it could have turned out?' Georgi was working himself up.

Kai shot a wounded glance at him. 'It's not like I have a user manual for what I'd found that time with Raffy. Candles are candles. Maybe they would have helped, maybe they wouldn't have. You tried, it didn't work, Mr Malina conveniently showed up, saved our asses and didn't even know about it. What's the big deal?'

'The big deal,' Georgi was emphasising each word, 'is that we have no idea where that stuff came from or what it is. We are most probably using some black-market stuff. By trying those candles I could have been breaking a bunch of laws. How do you think it ended up in police evidence storage in the first place?'

'I actually think we have better things to worry about right now,' Kai said.

Georgi did not disagree. He exhaled and visibly rummaged through his mind.

'I still think we should speak with the lawyer. They are the ones that will know everything. Especially, Jacy's dad's lawyer,

'Well, good luck to us, because the name is not even printed,' Kai said. 'All we have is a signature that just looks like a hieroglyph of a stage name. Like Tibbe or Fibble, or something.'

Having the witness names also didn't help much.

'I tried to get into my dad's computer, like, three times to check the names on the list,' Kai said, fuming. 'I can't believe he changed the password! It's like he doesn't trust me anymore.'

'If we find something worth finding, it will be somewhere others didn't look or where they didn't look the right way,' Georgi said as they put everything back into the folder before the old woman had the chance to come back.

There was a pause, and Jacy's eyes travelled to the phone which was collecting dust behind the counter.

Kai got the idea and was already at the till, the phone receiver between his ear and his shoulder. He leafed through the phone book that usually sat on a little shelf behind it and, his eyes lighting up, pressed a few buttons on the phone.

'Guys?' Kai pointed into a drawer — about ten more phonebooks were stashed inside, all from different countries. 'I told you she works globally ...'

Kai was about to say something else when something in his ear distracted him.

' _Ja, ja._ ' His voice took on a strange quality. 'Gigi Shuler.'

'Oh, my.' Georgi covered his eyes, no doubt recognising a name from their list. 'What are you doing?'

'Relax.' Kai waved his worries away. 'Ms Miya's too busy in the back, she barely comes out to check on us anymore. If we get caught, I'll just pretend that I was calling the city council to get them to relocate the rubbish bins elsewhere. She hates them so close to the café.'

'How can you speak the language?' Jacy's asked him, checking out the rest of the phone books.

'Um ... well ... your, um ... pantry,' Kai said, taking an eye-drop vial from his pocket, filled with a familiar looking substance. He took the tiniest of drops.

'You stole from Domyk?' Jacy's face started burning. One day, Domyk would honestly blame everything on Jacy and offer him up to his own gods as a sacrifice.

Kai didn't answer but turned back to the receiver. ' _Ja._ '

He was at it for the next ten minutes before he hung up and sighed. 'Every single Gigi Shuler is dead.'

'That can't be right,' Georgi said. 'I remember reading about her. She survived the attack. Somehow the dose of electrical shock was not fatal. She had narrated the day in painful detail, which was all documented on a transcript. Starting with her oatmeal breakfast, continuing on to her car having low fuel as she was coming to work and ending in the fact that Mortrovicz, one of their colleagues, was not at work that day and narrowly missed the harrowing events.'

'Okay, what about the other witnesses?' Jacy asked.

Georgi shook his head. 'We can try the string.'

'The string?'

Kai shrugged. 'This rarely works.'

Georgi pulled out a world atlas that took up most of the space in his bag and opened it on the first page.

'Okay,' he said, pulling out a piece of paper and a string from his back pocket. He started reading while holding a finger over the fourth name on the list.

' _What is in a name, sole owner in a flame_

_we seek to accord, to the pages of this record._ '

Light flickered through Kai's raised eyebrow but he did not say anything.

Then, the colour of Denmark started changing to something reddish, then it went darker, and it was when it started smoking that Jacy realised what was happening.

Apparently, Kai did too as he grabbed a glass, shoved it under the little faucet of the water container they always had to keep fresh — as per Ms Miya's orders — and splashed it all over the page.

'Only you would write a locator spell that burns the pages out,' he said.

Georgi pulled his mouth, rereading the spell and muttering a bit more, trying to change it, but before he could finish more smoke flittered through from the last few pages. Kai was about to throw more water on it, but Georgi stopped his hand mid-air.

'Wait.' He quickly flicked the pages to where the smoke was and they saw the map of Denmark's capital, Copenhagen sprawled in two dimensions. A small black dot was spreading on the page. Jacy managed to catch the small area marked with a cross before it disappeared in charred fragments, fattening the black dot.

'Was that ...?' Kai looked at it askew.

'A cemetery?'

'Okay, we're doing something wrong,' Georgi said. 'All witnesses cannot be dead.'

Jacy grabbed the list from Georgi's hand and stepped to Ms Miya's computer in the corner. He swept all her hand-written shopping lists away as he kept looking and listening at the back to see if anyone was coming. Then he typed in the password.

'I accidentally saw her use it once,' he said as an explanation when the guys gawked at him.

He then typed in the next name on the list. 'It's the slowest computer I know. Probably was manufactured in the last millennium. What do you know ...? Olav Kallas, next witness, has been named as a victim of a mass-shooting.'

They all looked at each other, but it looked like none of them wanted to really say it.

'Suspicious, much?' Kai asked.

'I think we should tell someone,' Georgi said cautiously.

'Like who?' Kai asked. 'Who do you think will take us seriously?'

'Kai, this just got way more serious. If someone is killing the witnesses in Jacy's father's case, what do you think would happen to us? This is not a joke.'

' _What_ is this smell?' Ms Miya swung through the door, making Jacy jump and quickly hit the logout keyboard combination. 'What did you burn? I told you not to put the bread in the toaster for more than two minutes! And why did the fire alarm not come on?'

There was no bread in any of the toasters but Kai had already stepped in front of it, to make sure she didn't notice.

'We were just leaving, Miss,' Georgi said. 'We need to attend the memorial ceremony.'

'I have to go as well,' she said and then glanced at Jacy. 'I won't be long and I don't anticipate many clients. Call me if something happens.'

She scribbled something on a piece of paper. Jacy's heart almost stopped as she picked up their witness list, but did not turn it around and used the blank side.

'Sure,' Jacy nodded, still slightly trembling.

It would be good to be in silence for a while. It would give him a chance to clear his head.

'My dad keeps giving me tasks before Mum comes home. Clean this, shine that ... so I'll probably head straight home after the ceremony,' Kai said. 'Anyway, I'll be trying to figure more _stuff_ out. I'll see you tomorrow?'

They all said bye and headed to the ceremony. Jacy wasn't sure if Nadine would go to it or straight to the café, so he kept the door open.

Jacy worked with repeated motions, glad for the monotonous tasks. Sorting out the new delivery of groceries and putting them on the right shelves made him unreasonably content. The tomatoes just looked good together, just like the geometrically and perfectly parallel boxes of pasta he'd meticulously arranged.

He felt himself fuming. How much could he trust Thessa, if she lied to him? And –– now that helping his father had just turned into a much longer term plan –– apart from the town, Kai and Georgi, was there really a reason for him to stay with Thessa? Maybe it was his own fault for assuming someone with a magical power can just stroll in and solve everything. Nadine would likely stay with her and Domyk no matter what. He had no idea what to do, but he gave himself some time to mull it over.

He had sneaked looks in the file before getting angry about its uselessness and tucking it under the chair again — there was nothing in it that Jacy could use to help his father. Almost all names were redacted, and the signature from the lawyer looked more like "F.B.B.E." to him.

The windchime rang softly as the door to the café opened. Nadine had probably arrived — maybe he'd ask her about why they'd all lied to him and, who knows, maybe there was a good reason — however much Jacy doubted it. Jacy rounded the corner from the storage room to the main area of the café.

Just where the sunlight met the sharp edge of the shadow within the café, a small breeze sent chills through Jacy's arms. He didn't see anyone at the till so he glanced left into the main seating area and almost ran into a figure leaning against the bookshelf.

A waft of energy settled in the space, and he looked up into the bright eyes scrutinising him.

'It would seem you have something my friend really needs,' Detective Boian said, unmoving.

Jacy's heart leaped to his throat, and he jumped at least two steps away. Oh, no. Shin. Brno. Did Detective Boian know who Jacy was? Shin must have told him enough.

Somehow, the detective looked more put together than last time. His hair was more orderly, and his clothes actually looked crisp and smelled clean, unlike the other times when he'd looked like he had come straight from a bar fight.

Jacy's heart was racing. He needed to somehow get as far away from this man as possible. But his mind latched onto something, at least — Boian wanted Shin's bag from Jacy. He hadn't said anything about the kidnapping or taking Jacy home.

Although ... that might have been a slightly less threatening prospect this time around. So what if he figured out about Jacy? The worst thing Boian could threaten him with was taking him back to London. Jacy hadn't decided how he'd feel about leaving Celestial Hiss and all that came with it behind just yet.

'I didn't mean to take it,' Jacy said. His feet twitched a little bit.

'So it would seem, but you still have it,' Boian said, turning over his palm and looking as if there was something extremely interesting there. 'I'll need you to take me to it.'

Jacy thought about calling Nadine and asking her to bring it with her and turned to the phone, but he noticed that its blinking light was off. An unsettling suspicion washed over Jacy and he looked up into Ms Miya's motion sensor and then the fire alarm. 'You turned the alarm off?'

'I had to. I'm banned from Miya's cafés,' Boian said and dared to shrug. 'I needed to be more creative to be able to talk to you in private.'

So Ms Miya did have more than one café. But that question was not the most important one at that point.

Boian calmly reached for a glass on the counter and poured himself some lemonade. 'What's your name?'

The detective didn't know? Jacy almost sighed in relief, but had to quickly think of something.

'Sanchez,' he offered tentatively. Somehow that was the first visual name that came to his mind.

'Sanchez moved away from Celestial Hiss five years ago. I can even tell you what he had for breakfast last Thursday. Wanna try again?'

'Um ... didn't Mr Malina say you can't question ––'

The detective calmly observed the menu on the table. 'So, I see no one told you that Ms Miya's is not technically in Celestial Hiss? There's an arrangement ...'

Jacy did remember Kai's theories on that topic. But whatever that meant, it didn't help Jacy.

No reason to panic — he would give the detective the bag from Chile and then all would be well. Yet, he still couldn't shake the feeling that a demon or something worse would appear at any moment.

'I can't leave the café. Once the others are back though, I'll go get it, I promise.'

Boian now smiled. 'Jacy, Jacy.'

Jacy had a sickening feeling in his stomach. How had he found out?

He had no proof, but he could have sworn that when Nadine saw the detective she must see a power of blinding force. Her reaction had been peculiar enough to suggest something of the sort. The urge to hide behind something hit Jacy as he stood, exposed and alone, in the middle of the café.

Boian was playing with him — how much did he truly know?

'You see, Shin's clumsiness is all well and good, but there is another slight consideration.' He stroked the spine of a book on the shelf. 'I can't possibly stand aside when I stumble upon a child victim of an international kidnapping.'

Oh, shoot.

'I wasn't kidnapped,' Jacy said almost as a reflex. How funny that now he felt embarrassed by _not_ having been kidnapped. This way, he couldn't even blame Thessa for him being foolish enough to believe her.

'So, you came willingly. What did they tell you?'

Jacy was quiet.

'That they can reunite you with Ian?' He pinned Jacy with a look. 'How is that going?'

He looked like he was enjoying himself, knowing Jacy was so gullible.

'Well, Ian is still in his cell. You're still here. What's up?'

'It's taking some time,' Jacy decided to say. It's not like they'd been idle in their search for him.

'You know what takes time? Things that never happen.' Boian sipped his lemonade and grimaced at it. 'All they do is take time.'

Well, it looked like there wasn't really a way out with bluffing.

'Please don't tell anyone, and please don't tell Vincent where I am.'

'Vincent?' he frowned. 'Vincent can go to hell for all I care. But, let's try and figure this out together. Let's pretend someone would have the resources, the willingness and motive to kidnap Ian Marwick's two children. _Who_ could that be? All I'm asking is that you ask them to speak to me. Clear up, what I'm sure is a misunderstanding — and we'll all be on our merry way. I'll solve your case, get the credit, and you get lovingly reunited with your father.'

Jacy's stomach decided to start sinking into the ground. Two children. So he knew about Nadine as well. What would happen to her if for some reason Thessa couldn't keep her? Would they send her back to the orphanage?

Boian looked out the front of the café and continued, 'What if I told you that I'm the only one who knows where Ian is and is willing to tell you.'

'But ... he's not contactable.'

Boian leaned sideways and took out a phone from his pocket. He keyed something in, sat down on the chair which had the folder taped underneath it, and put the phone down on the table.

It rang, once. Twice.

Jacy frowned and looked between the phone and the detective.

The line crackled and a brisk, deep mumble came over the speaker. ' _Yeah?_ '

'Give it to Marwick,' Boian said.

Marwick? As in-

After a few seconds and footsteps on the line, another voice, a weaker one sounded. ' _What do you want?_ '

And Jacy's knees almost buckled. Because that voice belonged to his father.

'Dad?' he took a step to the phone.

There was a momentary silence. ' _Ja–– Boian, if you're messing with me ––_ '

Boian seemed to enjoy the silence.

'Dad! I'm in whhh uuuh ...' Jacy stumbled in his words. He couldn't form them — just like the last time he'd tried to reveal something.

'It looks like little Jacy can't say it, can he?' Boian crooned. 'It really looks like I'm the only one who knows where he is.'

' _If you hurt my son, I swear t––_ '

But Ian could not finish, as the detective reached over and, with a lazy swipe of his finger, ended the call.

To this Jacy almost cried out. The detective, on the other hand, looking as if it were Christmas morning, leaned back and smiled at Jacy.

Jacy knew Boian was baiting him, that much he'd learned from Domyk. But Jacy was suddenly almost giddy. It sounded so easy, so doable.

'If I give you the tapes, will you tell me where he is?'

Funny, Jacy would have probably given him the tapes anyway.

'Yes,' he said, keeping eye contact.

'Okay,' Jacy exhaled.

Was it a trap? It felt like a trap for some reason. So much so that all the sayings about deals with devils flooded his mind. But it also seemed reasonable and simple.

He turned around, checking where he'd left his backpack. He'd get Shin's bag, get the information, find Georgi and Kai and maybe Nadine too if she was already in town for the ceremony, and then go straight to his dad. Hopefully Ms Miya wouldn't be too mad at him for leaving in the middle of his shift and he could figure out what to say to Thessa and Domyk later.

'But.' The detective rolled the glass in his hands. 'It's not going to help you.'

'What?' Of course there was a 'but'. Maybe he shouldn't do anything Boian was saying after all and talk to Thessa?

But what could she do? She didn't even have a power.

'You give me the tapes. I _will_ tell you where he is. But — there is no way you or anyone can find the place, let alone get there. Specifically, alive.'

Maybe that was fine. Jacy wanted to be closer to his father — who actually had a power and would know what to do next. And it looked like this was the first real opportunity. 'That's fine.'

'What if I give you an alternative?' Boian asked.

Oh, great. Why could these things not be straightforward? More straightforward at least than feeling blackmailed by a detective.

Boian took a sip. 'I'll get you to him myself.'

'To the place you just said would get me killed?'

'Then lucky it won't kill _me_ , right?

'Okay — and in return?'

'You're catching up, young Jacy.'

Surely, Thessa and Domyk would see how good this deal was. Maybe he'd go and ask them first. Yes, that was the best way. 'How about I go home, ask, get the tapes and you tell me where my dad is and if they agree, I'll take you home and then you can take me to my dad?'

'No can do,' Detective Boian shook his head. 'I walk you home, you get the tapes, I talk to these people –– just to make sure you are telling the truth about not being kidnapped, I tell you where Ian is, and then take you to him.'

Now, Thessa did not kidnap Jacy. She really didn't. So there is no way anyone can claim she did. So why couldn't Jacy let a detective just talk to her so that she could explain the situation. The only nagging little thought that Jacy tried to ignore was her very clear intention to stay under the radar. Of course she never told him why, so it could be for unrelated reasons. He shut out all signs and Nadine's words which would point to the contrary.

Boian was now scrutinising Jacy's every breath. Jacy almost bristled, and Boian added, 'It will be easier if I explain the situation to whoever took you — an adult to an adult.'

That was actually true, Jacy had to agree, and there was much more chance of Thessa believing a detective than Jacy's words. He would make sure Boian understood that he was at Thessa's on his own free will — maybe that way he could even help Thessa so she wouldn't have to be so secretive anymore.

Jacy thought to stuff the folder into his backpack so that the detective wouldn't notice, but in the end it just didn't matter whether he noticed or not, so Jacy hastily packed it. What if Boian could actually get him to his father? Jacy tried to set his mind so that he wasn't disappointed if it turned out to be a lie.

'I'm ready,' Jacy said. 'But you need to promise you'll let me talk to them first.'

Boian nodded.

Jacy quickly locked the front door to the café, and put the key into one of the plants they'd recently had to repot.

Boian looked disappointed. 'Maybe try the post box? Slightly less obvious as a hiding place.'

After a second of hesitation, Jacy slid the key through the post box and headed out of the street to the house. Boian looked completely at ease, but his eyes never stopped scanning the road ahead.

'This is it ...'

Boian was looking at the abandoned house on the edge of Celestial Hiss, surveying.

'Please wait here, okay?' Jacy asked him.

He just needed to go in first. Once he was inside and through the door to the actual house, he could convince Thessa that it was safe to talk to the detective and they would surely see the great deal. And if Thessa didn't want to accept it — well, Jacy could just threaten to leave. That thought made him pause. Would she even care? She had offered help, but she never expressed any _need_ for her to have Jacy in the house. And with Nadine also there ... Still, clearing her name must be worth a meeting with the detective.

'Don't take long.'

Jacy didn't have to be told twice. He was through the portal in a few seconds and bristled slightly at the strong autumn sunrays battering his eyes through the clear skies.

* * *

He felt the chilly air on his skin, but no trees moved, not even a rustling of leaves as he ran to the door and burst through it.

'Thessa, Nadine, Domyk! You will not believe ––'

Jacy stopped dead.

The house was empty. Actually, it was deserted.

As if it had gone back in time to when Jacy had first arrived.

There was just that one sofa and the TV in the living room and the phone in the dining room. No decorations, no paintings, no notes. No life.

But the dust.

'Domyk?'

How can so much dust appear in a few hours?

'Anyone?'

Jacy ran upstairs — his room was empty — the floorboards scraped, carpets gone, window cracked — only the bed and wardrobe, lopsided, were still there. 'Where are you?'

Panic was not far away.

Why would they just leave like that — and where did they go? If they had gone to rob Mr Malina, or whatever it was that they would be doing, why was _everything_ gone? Jacy tried to make his mind stay on those questions, but it of course didn't, because something was really off. The house looked like no one had lived in it for years.

A tiny, barely perceptible swishing sound came from outside. Jacy narrowed his eyes and tried to locate the source of it. He was so in-tune, that the sound of the front door opening sounded like a piano falling from a fifth-floor window.

So relieved that they were back to retrieve him, he ran down the stairs.

He needed to know what had happened that made them leave so quickly. But he needed to make sure — before they teleported him away with themselves — to quickly explain the whole Boian situation.

As he landed at the base of the stairs, he took a breath to ask for an update, but every sound got caught in his throat as he saw the figure meandering around the living room examining things up-close. At that moment Detective Boian also looked up.

He tossed the leaflet in his hands on the bare windowsill and leaned back against the fireplace crossing his hands. He quirked an eyebrow. How had he gotten in? Hadn't Domyk armed the door?

Jacy was frozen to the spot in the middle of the open space. What if Thessa or Domyk came back now? What should he say? He needed some story for why he said he lived in an empty house — especially since he didn't have time to check if Shin's tapes had disappeared too. And the detective would be asking for them soon, he was sure.

'You got mail,' Boian said calmly, pointing at the leaflet with his chin.

It was a new take-away menu from the pizza place in New York. Jacy didn't want to pick it up, as his shaking hands would give him away on the spot.

'So, this is home now?' The detective looked at him dubiously. 'How did you end up here?'

Jacy didn't have his story ready, so he went with the obvious. 'Um ... I found this house and there wasn't anyone here.'

'Apart from its spirit you mean?' Detective Boian restarted his inspection of the house, effectively dismissing everything Jacy had just said. He moved to the window, the light highlighting his brows.

It felt like an impossible task to figure out what Detective Boian knew and how much he was just toying with Jacy.

'He took me in,' Jacy said. And he truly hoped demons couldn't go to magical jail for kidnapping, or Domyk would gut Jacy for throwing him under the bus.

'A demon took you in without the knowledge of its employer?' He stepped past Jacy into the kitchen.

He opened a squeaky drawer, looked at the empty pin-board.

Employer?

'Do spirits always have employers?' Jacy said that out loud and, from the look he got, maybe he shouldn't have. Did he just give away some clue about his situation?

'Yes,' he said. 'And, if not, we hunt them down.'

Jacy had no idea how this whole thing worked. But if Domyk was being hunted, that would explain a lot. It would also mean he would be hiding. And Jacy led Boian straight to him. Now he had to backtrack and take the detective's attention away.

'Um ... Detective, I ... actually ... don't think I'm allowed to let you in.' Jacy fidgeted under Boian's gaze.

'You didn't let me in, I came in on my own,' he said casually, opening the coffee cupboard. 'I need to know who kidnapped you.'

He took a mouldy box of tea out and smelled it. 'Because, you see, I somehow doubt that the great Domyk would just randomly decide to kidnap Ian Marwick's children. Am I right?'

Jacy didn't say anything. It was about Domyk after all. He didn't even want to ask how he had figured it out about Domyk anymore. He just wanted to make the detective leave, so he offered part of the truth. 'I accidentally touched Domyk as he teleported.'

Boian ignored him and was now focusing on the tea. He turned it around in his hands, probably looking for a label of some kind.

Jacy got unnerved by the silence. 'It's the truth.'

'Maybe. But were it the whole truth, you would either have been taken back to London almost immediately, or you would not be alive and well.' The detective sighed. 'Would you get Shin's box for me?'

Not wanting to leave Boian on his own for too long to snoop, but also really wanting him to leave as soon as possible, Jacy rushed upstairs.

He sagged with relief when he opened the cupboard and the bag was still there. He pulled the little box out of the bag and opened it to check. He sighed, looking at all the tiny index cards that looked like sticky bookmarks neatly tucked into the box, his eye lingering on the reference numbers again.

Three letters. Seven numbers.

A cold current rushed through his core as his brain clicked.

He threw the bag aside and quickly took the backpack off his shoulders, diving into it. He fished out his father's folder and fanned the pages, furiously searching for common reference numbers between the documents and the box. Jacy's fingers slowed and he furrowed his brows as he read the labels one by one. And finally, in the middle of the pile, he found that one card's number matched a reference number.

His heartbeat rushed through his ears. He didn't even know what this meant. He listened, but there was no sound from below — where was Boian? Would he notice if some of the index cards were missing?

Surely not, there were hundreds.

The wind whistled past the windows — highlighting the utter silence.

As quickly as he could, Jacy took the matching index card, stuck it to the title page of the folder and closed it. It was a long shot, but Jacy couldn't just hand it over if it could help his dad, whatever it was. The house creaked.

He glanced at the door, and paranoid images of Boian walking in flashed in his mind.

There were a few more reference numbers in the folder, but he didn't have time to look for them in the box. He shoved the folder back into the backpack, closed the box, and, clutching it in his hands, ran back downstairs.

Prepared for Boian to jump out of any dark corner, Jacy was surprised to see him gazing out the window, hands in his pockets.

'Here you go,' Jacy said, handing the box to him with slightly shaking fingers. The detective glanced upstairs to where Jacy had just come from. Cold ran through Jacy's spine — did the detective see through walls? That would explain a lot too.

What if he was suspicious about the time Jacy had spent upstairs — he would have to make up a story. Maybe a leaky pipe? Or mice infestation?

'You stay still here for a while.' The detective turned the box around in his fingers and then concentrated on Jacy again.

And the bargain came back to Jacy's mind — maybe something positive could come out of this.

'Now you have to tell me where my dad is being kept.'

'In a bleak, bleak place past vast, methane-filled steppes.'

'What?'

'You didn't give me your kidnappers, did you? That was your part of the bargain.'

'But ...' But they weren't here, Jacy wanted to say. 'But I said I wasn't kidnapped ... and the location was in exchange for the box!'

'Central Siberian Plateau, if that helps,' Boian said, and Jacy's mind whizzed. 'Sit tight,' he said and turned around to leave. 'I'm sure your kidnappers won't just abandon you here.'

He said the last with a smirk, clearly mocking Jacy. But Jacy wouldn't be provoked.

Boian smiled. 'Unless they have someone to replace you with?'

Nadine. The thought went through Jacy like a bullet. But, no, the detective was just messing with him, trying to rile Jacy up to reveal information.

'Why are you so sure you're right?'

Light reflected a shift in Detective Boian's gaze. 'This time I'm not even sure if I want to be right or wrong.'

He turned around to leave, but Jacy called out to him, remembering something.

'That day, when you found us in Celestial Hiss being chased by that demon — how did you know we were there?'

'You used the wrong pen.'

The wrong pen? What did that mean?

A memory floated in his eyes: Georgi commenting on Kai not bringing a pen to the mission at the police station, Kai taking one out of the evidence box, and scribbling his father's case number and 'BRNO' on his hand.

A spy pen. Jacy shook his head.

'That's how you knew I'd go to Brno, that's why you were there too. You knew all along ...'

Boian smirked, then walked out the front door. It closed shut with such a loud bang that the house seemed to shiver from its aftershock.

A silence fell on the house. Wherever Jacy looked there was stillness and quiet.

What on earth had just happened — how did Boian get in, how did he know Domyk — and where did they all disappear to? Just to be sure, Jacy locked the door and closed the windows. Just in case, he also went into the pantry and got some leftover anti-demon powder — which thankfully was still there and he clutched in his hand, not letting go.

'Domyk?' Jacy spoke into the air. 'He's gone. You can come back now. Where are you guys?'

No answer, of course. But now Jacy couldn't go out, in case he missed them.

He went to the phone to go through the drilled in routine of calling the emergency bakery — but the moment he picked up the receiver, he heard that the line was dead.

The entire situation made Jacy wish there was someone he could talk to or maybe for someone to care enough to listen. He also realised he wished it to be his dad. Even if only in dreams. At least before, when he had dreamed, they had talked.

The house felt strangely empty, and not only the house. Jacy had gotten used to them being around, always tinkering and being busy. Come to think of it, Jacy had never seen Thessa or Domyk just lounging around — well, maybe Domyk sometimes, but even then he had looked deep in thought.

Jacy let out a relieved sigh when the lights worked and Domyk's automatic heating system kicked in, no doubt sensing Jacy's presence — which was a good sign on its own because Domyk must, through whatever mystical powers he exercised, have sensed that Jacy was in the house — which meant that something else must have been keeping them away.

The rooms took time to warm up though, Jacy was shivering but he didn't dare use the mouldy piece of blanket in the corner — Domyk had taught them enough about bacteria and the 'weakling humans' susceptibility to it' to keep him away from it. The windows steamed up and in the minutes it took for the temperature to normalize, Jacy tried, and failed, to find food. With the phone dead, he couldn't even order pizza ...

All he found was some rice. He'd had no idea how dry rice could get, as that box was pretty dry. He also had no idea how long rice should be cooked — conveniently, the writing on the box was completely faded.

Jacy tried to not feel isolated and alone, or confused and angry. And failed.

A few miserable moments later, something tugged at him and he ran upstairs to retrieve the cherished photo of his father with the fireworks which he had kept in the wardrobe in one of his coat pockets. Then, going back into the kitchen, he pinned it to the board and stared at it with all his old, helpless thoughts resurfacing.

Having nothing to do but wait for Domyk or Thessa to come back and explain where on earth they and Nadine had disappeared to, why, and how Boian could just walk into the house. Although maybe it would be difficult to explain to Domyk why exactly Jacy had led an international detective right to the front door. Jacy thought about what Georgi said about powers — that emotions helped bring them out in people. Well, then this situation would work very well for Jacy. Georgi had said it was because emotions made you want something really badly — only they then burnt out very quickly.

Apparently, Thessa thought the fork she'd gifted Jacy with would somehow help, so maybe if Jacy willed it to make a different sound, it would?

He went up to his wardrobe, checking if the fork was even there, which it was, so he took it out of the other pocket and very gently tapped it to the wall. But he still did it too carelessly.

The sound stabbed at his ears. He shut his eyes, crying out. The fork dropped, but the sound in his mind didn't want to stop.

He backed away from the desk, his eyeballs vibrating. He blinked and dove under his clothes in the wardrobe. Slightly dulled, the sound was still piercing his subconscious.

The papercut-like pain was pulsating through him.

Jacy grunted. 'Stop, stop, stop.'

Thessa should have just given him some instructions. How can a little piece of metal cause this much havoc in his brain? As he lay in his bare, dusty bed, the sound slowly started fading. Worst idea of occupying time, ever.

Checking out of windows on his way down for any approaching cars, Jacy went back down to the living room. Once again, he took out the folder from his backpack. He was becoming desperate.

A few hours later, he was still in the same position. His mind was whirling with the witnesses' statements.

'[...]I recalled him pacing angrily in the morning of the day of the crime, smoking a cigarette, _seeming quite murderous_ ,' eighty-three-year-old Mrs Jenkins had said.

Jacy didn't even know his dad had smoked. Gigi Shuler, the surviving victim, had testified from her hospital bed. Could he be dangerous? She supposed he could. Did she think it was him? She couldn't say. But who else could it have been? Apart from Ian Marwick, she supposed no one.

Jacy turned the sticky bookmark with the corresponding number on it around in his hands, pacing, not knowing what to do with it. This was the most restless time he'd ever experienced.

Maybe tomorrow he could look at it with a fresh eye. He stuck the sticky bookmark to the page where the reference number was indicated and moved to shut the folder — only a shimmer went through the page, making Jacy freeze in fright.

And a section appeared below the last paragraph on the page. With clear letters.

Duration: 23m:45s

Jacy looked at it — Shin had clearly said it was tapes he wanted back, and somehow the page had reacted, understanding enough to indicate how long it was. It must have been some magical recording relating to his father's case — but how does one watch a magical tape?

He thought that just as something tickled his side-vision.

He looked at the sticky bookmark. Then at the TV. Then back at the bookmark.

Finally, stepping closer and grabbing the remote control, on instinct, he stuck the index bookmark on the screen. Nothing happened at first, but it was as if something shimmered again — as if an old device was trying to come back to life.

It shone, and a picture emerged on the screen. Jacy saw a room. The time was indicated in the right bottom corner, counting the passing seconds.

The door to the room visible in the recording, opened.

Jacy felt like his insides solidified as he realised that he was watching a young version of Vincent walk in. The hairs on his neck stood up, as if any moment Vincent could look at the camera and see him watching. Jacy was frozen to the spot with the remote still in his hand.

Then, after Vincent, slightly heavier and slower than he was now, Mr Malina sauntered in.

### CHAPTER 13

' _What ...?_ ' Jacy murmured to himself.

' _Have you heard from Mortrovicz?_ ' Vincent asked — very calm, as if he had all the time in the world. He sat down at one end of the table, in front of Mr Malina.

' _No_.' Mr Malina's body language was the embodiment of calmness. ' _I'm afraid I need to get back soon._ '

Vincent smiled. It wasn't his nice smile. ' _I need information._ '

The familiar voice made Jacy uneasy.

Mr Malina raised his eyebrows. ' _I could not possibly begin to understand what you mean._ '

' _Mr Malina,_ ' Vincent drawled. ' _Just because you are under the protection of your institution, it doesn't mean I cannot make you cooperate._ '

' _My responsibilities are not to you._ ' It was the most cold Jacy had ever heard Mr Malina sound.

' _The fact still remains._ ' Vincent leaned back in his chair. ' _Your reputation might be on the line._ '

Mr Malina's face morphed into a lax indifference. ' _I'm sure you don't mean to threaten me.'_

' _Would never dream of it._ '

Oh, yes, he would, Jacy could tell.

' _I want nothing to do with your agenda — and even though I feel humbled to be approached to be an informant, I must respectfully decline_ ,' Mr Malina said.

Uh-oh. An informant. That did not bode well for anyone. Had Vincent managed to persuade Mr Malina?

Jacy watched Vincent as he continued. _'I need your contacts to find Mortrovicz. Then, I need them to interrogate him about where Marwick disappeared to and what was he doing while at it. And, I need you to tell me what you discussed with Marwick during your lunch.'_

And straight away, as if Jacy had eaten something bad, the betrayal hit him. It wasn't enough that Thessa had lied to him and had no real power, but Mr Malina had also made a fool out of Jacy. He was the last one to talk to his father before the arrest. He was the one his dad meant when he said he was distracted while someone laid a trap. Under all that politeness, Mr Malina was very likely a spy for Vincent. All that he had done for Jacy wasn't really for Jacy. He had no idea if Thessa knew about Mr Malina— Domyk seemed not to ever trust him and rightly so, it seemed. Whether they had been planning a break-in because of that or not, he didn't know.

Mr Malina's eyebrows shot up, ' _You can't convict him without that?_ '

Vincent smirked. ' _He'll be convicted no matter what. Don't worry_.'

Mr Malina cocked his head. ' _But he's not cooperating with you, is he? So you want to blackmail him? What's next? Hurt him? Hurt his family?_ '

Jacy started to feel sick. He couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. Vincent had been after his father all these years. And because he couldn't figure anything out himself, he needed Mr Malina to make sure Jacy and Nadine led him to their dad. Vincent must now know where Jacy was.

' _He just might start cooperating, if you would be so kind as to do what I'm telling you. So please get me Mortrovicz, or someone, anyone who can get me closer to cracking Ian Marwick._ '

Mr Malina looked like he was processing all the information that was coming at him, just like Jacy — only Jacy's mind still couldn't figure out why Mr Malina had helped him, Nadine and Kai after Brno. Maybe he was really that stupid and naive that he didn't link the dots and realise who Jacy was, after all?

Vincent seemed unfazed. What's more, he seemed to be enjoying it.

Jacy wondered whether his mother knew about Vincent's involvement. Jacy always thought him to be a boring office worker. Was he secretly some kind of a mole?

' _I hope to hear from you,_ ' Vincent closed the file in front of him and stood up. ' _Soon_.'

Mr Malina left the room, closing the door behind him without a second glance at Vincent.

In the second before the recording stopped, Vincent glanced up at the camera — right at Jacy, who took an involuntary step back. Then, the screen went black and the pale blue sticker glowed once, signalling the end of the recording. And suddenly the house seemed emptier and colder than before.

Here Jacy was, seeing with his own eyes what Thessa had been telling him and what he'd missed for years and years. He felt very stupid for not noticing warning signs, for assuming Vincent was harmless, for not believing Thessa. And somehow it felt like he had betrayed his father by his mere neutral association with Vincent. Vincent had most likely never told Jacy's mother about his calls. That's why he was so reluctant to put her on the phone.

So much was still unresolved while he was locked in a house with nothing to do but wait in a fortress-like silence.

Where was everyone? Had they really abandoned him? And did they know about Mr Malina?

That's it. That was what he needed to do.

He needed to warn them and he also needed to speak to his mother, so she knew Jacy didn't abandon her. And he definitely needed to leave the house for now. Mr Malina could find him anytime and Jacy really didn't want to face him on his own.

Thessa had said it himself, Celestial Hiss was a hideout for people from all over the world _'who don't want to be found'_. So that's where he'd go — Thessa and Domyk would know where to look. He could try asking Kai if he could stay with them for a while — Mr Kobak definitely didn't like Boian much, so that would be extra safe. Although if it was his duty as a police detective to report such things, maybe Jacy should just wait it out in the old abandoned house where the port door was. Hmm ... that would be really, really cold at this time of the year. So maybe Georgi.

Anyways, he'd figure it out when he got there.

With the folder in one hand, Jacy rushed up the stairs to the hall. The setting sun behind the stormy clouds was breaking out rhythmically, making the walls and the paintings shimmer in gold, then dim again. He approached the glass wall, looking out to the sea. The crashing waves below his feet were hypnotic for a few seconds, but it didn't take long for the shaky vertigo to set in.

He didn't know whether Thessa would know why he'd left and he didn't want her to misunderstand after what he had found out about her nonexistent powers. But he still couldn't leave a letter, in case Boian came back and found it first. Or Mr Malina. Oh, no — what if they were working together?

He went into his room, packing his backpack, putting on his coat, scarf, hat and gloves.

It didn't take long before he was at the front door again, looking back at the quiet, house, his father's photo now pinned to the board. He kept telling himself that if he didn't find them first, Domyk and Thessa would be back soon. They'd solve the Boian issue by Domyk liquidating him or something, and they would come for him.

Jacy closed the front door behind him, looking out, checking in case someone was lurking in the bushes or anywhere in the football field that was twinkling from the starlight above. He rushed to the birch tree and tapped its bark.

It took a few tries, and by the end, his hands were freezing from massaging every inch of the tree to try and make the port appear.

Aghh!

But then the bark lit up and Jacy was already rushing through the abandoned house. The ground was still icy, but this time slush was piling up on the sides. The bottom of his trousers transformed into a wet, dirty, mop-like material and his cheeks were prickled by thousands of icy needles. He made sure to check if anyone was around, but no one was there. In fact, the streets were completely void of human sound apart from cars passing once or twice.

His journey to the library was accompanied only by the gentle sounds of the nearing frosty winter. He decided to try to call Thessa from the phone in the library and then set out to find the boys.

The building of the library stood just as solid as before. Steam — presumably from the heating — was wafting around the roof as Jacy headed in through the automatic sliding doors at the front.

The reception stood empty and no one was around. Jacy spotted the red phone standing on the desk under a TV mounted on the wall and dashed to it.

Great. He hoped someone at the bakery would know how to get a message to Thessa.

He grabbed the receiver and dialled the bakery — but after the first numeral it informed Jacy of an incorrectly dialled number. The local news on the TV was reporting on a theft of a painting as it flickered in the background. Jacy shook the receiver and tried fiddling with the cables.

Then, the TV flashed with a black screen. Once.

Twice.

The third time, white letters spelling the word _GET_ showed up.

Jacy frowned. Another flicker.

OUT

Jacy straightened, and an elated feeling started creeping up his core.

'Dad?' he called out to the space in front of him.

OF

The news anchor was still talking as Jacy heard the clink of boots on the wooden floor slowly approaching.

THERE

He turned his head to see the library assistant, Bianca, step closer. As much as Jacy disliked her, maybe she had a spare phone that he could use. But the look on her face was of utter shock.

'Um, hello,' Jacy said.

Jacy put down the receiver.

IT'S HER

What did that mean — 'it's her'?

She looked at Jacy, at the phone in his hand — and looked around as if expecting someone else to be there. She then glanced in the direction of the head librarian's office door and her eyes shone. 'Are you alone?'

It was the slight hopeful tone in her voice that made Jacy step back.

And then dart towards the automatic doors.

At the same time Bianca ran too.

When Jacy almost collided with the glass — and then still, nothing happened, even though he waved his hand in front of the sensor — he realised that Bianca had made the smart move. She hadn't run after him. She'd ran to the desk and disabled the doors.

The previously silent phone started ringing right under her chin, making Bianca jump, then frown. With her long blue-nailed fingers, she ripped the phone cord right out of the wall.

'What do you want? Let me out!' Jacy shouted. He couldn't believe he hadn't trusted his dislike of the library assistant. He should have.

She took out a phone from her back pocket and put it to her ear. As Jacy heard it connect straight to voicemail, he tried to think of where the side door was. The one they'd gone out through the last time.

'Guess who just walked into the library all alone?' She seemed to enjoy torturing him. 'How soon can you get here?'

'Who was that?' Jacy started going through the list in his mind. Vincent? Mr Malina? Boian? Boian knew where Jacy was, why would he go to all this trouble once he had made a fool out of Jacy?

'I believe you've met our lovely diamond-eyed demon?'

Jacy felt himself pale.

'You sent him?'

'Don't be daft, I can't _send_ him. I just conveniently told him where you were. Like I had during your last trip to Europe.' She must have seen the shock on Jacy's face, for she continued. 'Why — you thought you could walk in here, flaunt your powerful friends — and that little brat could take my place at Eneii's apprenticeship scheme? Do you know how many times I've applied?'

This was some madness. Jacy scrunched his face up at the stupidity of what she was saying. 'What have I ever done to you?'

So she was the one who'd known he'd be in Brno. It hadn't been Boian sending the demon. It had been her. Or maybe they were working together.

'Ask your father,' she spit. 'You remember Gigi Shuler?'

As a matter of fact, Jacy did not, but he did remember reading about her in the file.

'Well, because of what that father of yours caused, my aunt went crazy. Do you know what conditions I had to endure growing up?'

She stepped around the desk toward Jacy, making her look much more menacing as her sentences slowed.

They should have been more careful with all the teleporting, maybe that way she wouldn't have found out who Jacy was.

'My dad didn't do all those things, whatever they are saying,' Jacy tried to reason with her. He had no idea how long it took for a demon of that level to travel. Jacy had to keep her talking.

'Oh, so you think your daddy is innocent, do you? How sweet ... Well, guess what?' From the look on her face, Jacy really didn't want to know. Her wild smile grew. 'He's going to rot in prison. And with you now caught, he will have no choice but to cooperate. He won't be able to mess everyone around with his lies. "I can't break the code, I don't know what it means." _You think anyone believes that crap_?'

Wow. She shouted so violently that Jacy saw a speck of spit land on the floor.

'Now, humanity will be richer just because a brat like you will be put in his place.' Her voice calmed, but a hoarseness settled in it. 'And, of course, Eneii will see how great I am and throw out that brat — who is she to you by the way? Little girlfriend of yours? Oh, how cute.'

Boian hadn't told them about Nadine?

'Okay,' Jacy said, moving away from her. 'I really need to go.'

'You're not going anywhere. Did you not hear me? I'm keeping you here.'

'You can't.' Jacy almost laughed. He was pretty sure he could outrun her easily. Then, as he remembered the crack Shin's head had made on the stone floor of the cathedral, his urge to laugh died down. He would not be able to outrun the demon.

It was the first time she looked unsure, and her body turned to the exit slightly. 'Why, what's your power?'

'Mr Malina didn't tell you?'

Jacy was pretty sure he must have figured it out.

'What are you on about?' She looked at him as if he was demented.

Jacy decided it was best if he stopped talking. Kai would have his head if he found out Jacy was giving information voluntarily.

She looked into Jacy's eyes without a trace of humour as she still kept stepping closer, one row of books at a time. 'Tell me, how is it that a twelve-year-old goes missing from the middle of London and ends up where no one can find him and can't get to him. What's more, the most powerful demon on earth can't do the job either? I don't think anything's irked him more for centuries, by the way.'

She was stepping into the Latin books section. As Jacy looked around for an escape route while backing away, titles about Ancient Rome flashed before his eyes.

'I heard,' she said, checking the glittery watch on her wrist, 'that those who might want to help Ian Marwick usually don't have the resources to — and those that do have them, don't want to help him. So who is it that's helping you?'

That's when Jacy realised she was stalling and expecting the demon to arrive at any moment. And with a lightning idea, he knew what he needed to do.

He needed to create a diversion. If he could stall Bianca for long enough, he could run and have time to break the door with something. But there was nothing to create that diversion with, apart from —

He felt the tuning fork in his trouser pocket, thankful that it had ended up close to him. Jacy started trying to think of ways to use it, maybe he could reverse his power somehow. Make himself _not_ hear something. Emotions, it was about emotions — and he had plenty of those, judging by the rate of his heartbeat. Thinking of the fork, willing it to move and emit sound but not hurt him, he fished it out and kept it behind his back.

Water droplets fell one by one, somewhere far away. They echoed as a lullaby in Jacy's mind. But with every second they started to become annoying — he couldn't block them out. One by one, they were hitting a hard surface, exploding in a myriad of directions.

She kept talking. 'I heard even Detective Boian started sniffing around in your case. To be honest, you should feel lucky I got to you first.'

Jacy was listening on full volume to any sound. He got sidetracked and almost jumped as a phone sounded again, from somewhere inside the building.

He concentrated with all his might on the fork. He imagined the smooth metal. He imagined the two prongs moving, making a sound. A sound that wouldn't reach him.

First, he tried a tiny vibration. It didn't hurt.

He looked at Bianca triumphantly, but she just looked back at him, bemused.

Yep, he shouldn't have celebrated yet — the pause in concentration had cost him. He flinched as the sound pinched his eardrum. Bianca raised her shaped eyebrows.

He will only be able to get a few seconds head start, but he had to take what he got at this point. He braved himself. Then he hit the fork on one of the bookshelves.

'What exactl- AAAAAGH!' she clenched her hands over her ears, screaming. Jacy tried to blink through the sound, and the more he concentrated on blocking it out the duller it got.

Grabbing the opportunity, he turned around and ran as fast as he could to where he remembered the side door being. The ringing phone also became louder and louder. As he rounded another bookcase with cookery books, he saw the fire exit door.

And the phone next to it was the one ringing, judging by the matching blinking light. Jacy paid no attention to it and launched himself at the bar that opened the door.

He crashed into it with full force and pain shot up his shoulder. The door didn't give.

Jacy rattled the bar, clearly marked as the emergency fire exit, but nothing happened. The phone kept ringing and Jacy breathed triple the rate of the ring.

Bianca's shrieking stopped.

Jacy turned around, frantically trying to think of a way out. He wanted to find a baseball bat and beat that darn ringing phone off the wall — because it didn't let him think. He rattled the handle of the head librarian's office, but that was locked as well.

But where was Bianca? He slung his arm for the receiver and caught it just as something in the air shifted.

He glanced back — in to two silver, demonic eyes.

His insides tightened as if icicles were prodding each part.

Then, there was a pull.

A vertigo of two silver dots, and no matter how tightly Jacy closed his eyes, they were still rotating, round and round.

Then it stopped, and sounds of lone traffic, shoes on pavement, and sparse voices filled Jacy's ears.

Jacy braced his hands on the wall of the building he'd teleported to. He took a few breaths — the ones deciding whether he'd throw up or not. But it looked like he'd be fine — with each breath his vision kept clearing and the crisp air reached his cheeks, prickling with the barely perceptible raindrops that could have been called mist just as easily, permeating his coat.

The tops of the buildings on either side of the road were linked by twinkling lights of gold and silver. Jacy had a suspicion about where he was.

A muffled, agitated voice was coming from behind, so he turned to see its origin. In a red phone booth a man was hunched over the old phone, his head in his hands. 'You — Boian, if you don't uphold your part of the deal ––'

Jacy had teleported back to London.

The man looked up, locking eyes with Jacy, making him freeze on the spot.

He knew that face. He had seen that face in his dreams.

His father replaced the receiver without another word to Boian.

### CHAPTER 14

He looked much older and much more haggard than Jacy had imagined.

'Jacy?' He stepped out of the booth and tentatively took a step towards Jacy — who in turn, with no coherent thoughts in his mind, ran to Ian and jumped in his neck. 'Jacy!'

Ian's skin was cold, and he hugged Jacy so hard that his ribs were protesting. Then he pulled back and examined Jacy, 'Are you alright?'

Jacy nodded. The wrinkles in the corner of Ian's eyes deepened. He looked so exhausted — or maybe it was that he'd aged since the photo had been taken and so Jacy's imagination and dreams hadn't caught up yet? He also smelled bad, really bad.

'I thought Boian wouldn't hold up his end of the deal. Did he hurt you, son?'

'You made a deal with him too?'

'What do you mean too?' Ian coughed a dry cough.

'Well, he promised to get me to you.'

'In exchange for what?'

'In exchange for me taking him to Brghht ... to Eghhg'

'Right, you still can't say their name. But believe me, Jacy, when I tell you, if I ever find them ––'

'It wasn't like that,' Jacy hurried to say. 'We just wanted to help you.'

'Listen, Jacy.' His dad shifted and looked around the street with a nervous gaze. 'We need to get you to your mother. You have to tell me if Boian was telling the truth — was your sister also there?'

'Yes, we were both looking for you. But you're out now, right?' Jacy asked. 'We can be with you!'

His father led him away without answering. He pulled him by the hand and ran to catch a red bus with a new Christmas musical advertisement on its side, which had just stopped a few metres away.

'Dad, I think someone's after me.' They had been sitting at the front of the bus, his father checking out every passenger that got on and off with a suspicious look, and Jacy had been gazing at his father, not being able to look away. 'There's a demon ... with ... with these silver eyes ––'

'What!' Ian whipped his head towards Jacy. There were a few red veins snaking around his eyes. 'Suma? Suma got to you?'

'He attacked us — you know him?' Jacy told his father all he could. Where his tongue staggered at words, he knew Thessa's — or, well, most likely Domyk's — magic was working to stop him from revealing things. It might have been glitchy, as he was able to talk about Brno, Shin, Boian and about Mr Malina. Kai and Georgi, on the other hand, or Mr Kobak — not at all. Whenever he even thought about mentioning the house, he felt like vomiting all over again.

'We'll deal with Vincent when we have to,' Ian said. 'You have to realise you've been extremely lucky with Suma. Mr Malina, on the other hand — do you still have the recording?'

Jacy shook his head.

'That's all right,' Ian continued. 'I suspected him but never had proof. I don't think he did it on purpose, he just really wants to see the good in people, even if there isn't any.'

Jacy wasn't sure he could see the good after the betrayal, but he decided to stay silent on that matter. The bus driver was singing along to Christmas songs on the radio and with each beat the wheel jerked in one direction, then the other.

They got off at the stop opposite Jacy's house and for a moment stood in silence. Every house on the street was shining with Christmas lights. Some a little bit, while others looked like a Christmas decoration factory dumping ground.

The house was completely dark.

Ian looked fidgety and like someone who didn't want to go anywhere near there.

But he took the few steps to the front door and knocked.

After a few minutes, Jacy's mum opened the door. Jacy had never seen her without make-up during the day.

Her eyes widened as she took in Ian, then her chin dropped when she saw Jacy.

'Hi, Mum,' he said.

In one, brisk movement, she yanked Jacy away and with her other hand slapped Ian flat across the face.

'Get away from my son!'

'Mum!' Jacy had never seen her this aggressive. 'It's not like that! Dad got me home.'

Ian looked shocked. 'Don't make a scene publicly, Charlotte.'

Her pale lips were dehydrated as she said, 'How dare you come here? This is all your fault!'

'Mum, it's not, really, I promise!'

'Can we talk inside?' Ian rubbed his left cheek. 'Is Vincent home?'

'Vincent is not here, and never will be again.' Jacy's ears perked up at this. This was more good news. 'Thanks to you.'

Jacy couldn't stop glancing at his father, he felt so much happiness that finally he'd managed to get to him. So many new possibilities opened up.

'Jacy, dear.' His mother embraced him. 'Why are you so cold? Where have you been? We need to call the police right away so you can tell them everything!'

She jumped up and moved to the house phone which was in the hallway.

'No!' Ian followed her in, stumbling on the threshold with a cough. 'The police were the ones who got him back.'

He disconnected the call, pressing a button. Jacy's mother looked like she would explode in a screaming match instantly. Well, Boian did have something to do with it for sure.

'But I suspect it was a covert operation. You can't just dredge it up randomly.'

'I can't? You think you can tell me —'

Jacy tuned them out. At least he had his dad fighting his cause. Jacy only needed to get Nadine to them — he'd worry about his mum's possible reaction later — and explain everything to Thessa and Domyk so that they'd know about everything that had happened. The most difficult bit would be convincing his Mum to let him go to Celestial Hiss to visit Kai and Georgi, but with his Dad's help he was sure he could do it.

He also hoped Thessa didn't mean it when she said he wouldn't be able to go back to them once he went home.

So, he walked in after his parents, stepping over the threshold.

A faint popping sound reached his ears. Jacy felt a zap. Like an electric shock in his neck.

And then it became very silent around him.

* * *

A sound echoed in the hall and Jacy realised it was his sharp intake of breath. His mother glanced at him and frowned.

Only then did Jacy notice the man next to her. He was also frowning, and Jacy's heart rate sky-rocketed as he took a step forward.

He was astonished. That man looked exactly like his father.

'Dad?'

'Yes?' Ian frowned deeper. 'Are you okay?'

'Am I okay?' Jacy almost laughed. How did this happen? 'You're here!'

'Jacy, what do you mean?' Ian came closer.

'Jacy?' His mother now bent down to look him over. 'What's wrong?'

'What's wrong? What's wrong?' Jacy was getting confused, but he was so happy. 'Mum! Did you know about Dad coming back? You didn't tell me!'

'Oh, no!' Ian rushed to Jacy, squatting down and searching his eyes. 'Quickly, tell me where your sister is!'

'Sister?' Jacy drew himself back — everyone seemed to be crazy today. 'I don't have a sister.'

'Nadine — where did they take her, Jacy?' He shook Jacy a little, to which his mother yanked Ian outright.

'Get your hands off him — what have you done to him?'

Ian now dashed to the threshold and started knocking on the wooden frame.

'Ian, you're going to confuse Jacy even further.'

'Someone's erased his memory,' Ian said, stepping in and out through the front door.

What?

It really scared him that his father might have gone crazy in prison. But if he was out, what did that mean — was he staying with them? What about Vincent? Maybe a good psychologist could help? He quickly looked at his mother for reassurance. She just smiled nervously back at him.

His father quickly closed the door, and started drawing all the curtains, rustling the Christmas tree and all the decorations on it.

Wait a second, why was there a fir tree in their living room?

'Where did you go?' Charlotte now asked Jacy.

'Just to the get tea.' But something was hazy in Jacy's mind. 'I think.'

'Oh, my goodness.' Charlotte covered her mouth in shock, then hissed at Ian, 'It's all your fault!'

'Oh, please.' Ian checked the kitchen, then came back to Jacy.

'Do you remember anything? Anything you've just told me on the bus?'

'The bus?' Jacy looked between the two of them — were they pulling his leg or something?

'Enough, Ian,' his mother said. 'Don't say anything more to him.'

And he didn't. Neither of them did. They went to the kitchen and started arguing straight away. Jacy tried to join them at some point. After all, what if his mother shouted enough at his dad that he would leave again? But they kept sending him back 'to watch some TV'. But the only thing on were movies with elves and singing and all sorts of festive cheer.

Jacy didn't even remember Halloween passing that year.

No one had mentioned how weird it was that Vincent had just decided to leave overnight and they weren't expecting him back. Not that Jacy minded, but still. Only this sister thing bothered him a bit more than it should have probably — with all the mentions of memory loss and all ...

### EPILOGUE

Something was really off.

Somehow it was Christmas, and whenever Jacy asked what had happened, his mother shushed his father, who just shook his head.

There was also the question about what his father had done to have gotten in prison. Jacy wasn't sure how to ask, so he just ignored the topic.

Jacy's father spent the night on the sofa, and Jacy could occasionally hear him waking up from a fit of coughing. Then, a few hours before dawn, he woke Jacy.

Just as voices fluttered up from downstairs. Jacy heard them very clearly — and, just as clearly, he could tell it was Vincent's voice.

'He's back?'

'Listen to me, Jacy,' Ian said, whispering urgently. 'I need to go.'

'What? No!' Jacy sat up in bed.

'I have to. I just heard Vincent tell your mother that they've started hunting for me.'

'So, is it true about you hurting all those people?'

'That day was the most complicated — the worst — day of my life. I had to defend myself, Jacy. And then something went wrong. No witnesses came forward, and the witnesses we wanted to track down all disappeared. Everyone wants this damn toxin and I can't find it and if I do, I have no idea how to hide it from those who'll do the most evil things with it!'

His breathing accelerated and his words became mumbled with speed.

Was he saying that he hadn't really wanted to kill those people?

'Please don't go!'

'Don't tell your mother that I spoke to you — she doesn't want you to know. But your memory has been erased. Magically. You also have magic in you. I know it all sounds crazy, but just hear me out. You need to know this. Someone had kidnapped you from your mother a few weeks back. But not only you, your sister as well ...' He kept turning his head, angling his ears to the voices below. 'I wish I had more time to explain — but I need you to find your memory and help me get your sister back. I don't know where she is and she's in more danger than ever.'

The thud of footsteps on the stairs jolted him upright.

'Please don't leave again!' Jacy grabbed his T-shirt.

'Jacy, I promise you'll be able to talk to me whenever you want — I'll make sure of it. It will be as if I was with you all the time. And you'll be helping me. Right? With your sister. Right — you will?'

Jacy had no idea what to do with all that. His mother would freak out if she heard something like that. And this sister business — what if his dad really had gone crazy in prison? He nodded though.

'Don't talk to anyone about this.' He squeezed Jacy's shoulder for emphasis. 'If a detective named Boian finds you — trust only him.'

His dad then slipped out of the room towards the bathroom, then a few heartbeats later Jacy's door was opened.

Jacy quickly shut his eyes and laid motionless, hoping none of them would notice he wasn't asleep and that his breathing was heaving.

The next morning Vincent wasn't back and neither was Jacy's dad. This was a mess. An emptiness gnawed in Jacy's chest, so sudden was his dad coming back in his life and then leaving again.

Jacy couldn't even find the photo he'd had of his dad — the one that always gave him comfort. This time he completely understood his mother's dark mood and lack of motivation for anything. They sat on the sofa, eating store-bought mince pies that tasted like all the leftovers mushed together while the TV blared with some comedy show at which neither of them laughed.

* * *

Christmas Eve was a day like no other. Jacy's Mum had another work function scheduled in the city and no matter how she tried to excuse herself, she was told that the only alternative was her finding another job.

She seemed much more anxious than the situation warranted. After all, it was just another exhibition in an evergreen-filled theatre in Covent Garden — accompanying the yearly Christmas Gala. Jacy kept looking around for his father all day. No sparkling garlands, no twinkling lights and no steaming hot chocolate could tempt him away from that task. At the end of the evening, as rain began to fall, taxis were lining up to take them all home and as Charlotte was saying goodbye and wishing everyone all the holiday cheers, Jacy climbed into one of the black cabs to wait for her.

But the door closed shut.

And the taxi tore out of the street with Jacy sitting in it. He could only catch his mother's widening eyes.

'Hey! Wait!' he shouted. 'Wait! You left my mum!'

He had just noticed the driver, who looked extremely pasty.

'Listen up, you little snotjingler.' The driver turned around not paying any attention to the road or the pedestrians jumping out on it, almost skidding into a grey coffee stand. 'You think you can just lead Boian to our front door?'

'Boian? Are you Detective Boian?' Jacy just glanced at him now. He looked, almost ... translucent.

'What? Detective, my arse ...' The driver now turned back to the road realising all the honking around them. They were screeching through traffic — with the rain pouring down, completely obscuring their view. 'How much does he know? What did you tell him?'

The strange man got distracted by the lack of visibility and started fumbling with the car's controls, which led to him banging on the dashboard. By then, they had their emergency lights on, the mirror skewed and the radio blaring.

'WHERE. Are. The.' He was about to rip the steering wheel off. 'Rain-brooms.'

'Sir, I —.' Jacy was holding on to the edge of the dusty seat.

'You little humans are always so surprised, what did you think? You can pillage your way through Europe, lead Boian right to the front door, and stay under the radar?'

In his emotional outburst, the man accidentally flicked a lever down with his elbow and the windscreen-wipers slowly and painfully started moving.

'Sir, I'm sorry, I need to go back — my mum will be worried.'

'As fascinating as your great humanly problems are, I have better things to do. Like look for Thessa — who, because of you, is now gone. So listen up — you'd better find your memory, Marwick, and soon. And I don't care what deep, dark whole you have to crawl into within yourself to do it.'

Sirens started blaring from very close by, to which the man looked up and skidded the car to a halt, making Jacy almost fly off the seat.

He looked back at Jacy. 'And you'd better not breathe a word to Boian about _anything_.'

And with that, he was gone. He didn't get out of the car, but he was gone. Disappeared.

Into thin air.

As if ... as if he'd teleported away.

Jacy sat looking at the empty driver's seat, not daring to blink. What had just happened?

The sirens came closer and closer, until there were doors opened and shut, shouts, and the police threw the car doors open.

'Jacy!' From somewhere, his mother's voice shouted. 'Jacy! It's my son!'

'Where did he go, boy? The driver?' a policeman asked Jacy,

'I ... I have no idea.'

'Jacy!'

His mother reached the car, out of breath, trembling, and pulled Jacy out, hugging him close. 'I thought ... I thought ... I thought they would take you from me again! Was it them again?'

Jacy shrugged as much as he could in her strong embrace. 'I don't know.'

The police now examined the car, writing something in their reports and constantly talking on their radios. 'Suspect fleeing on foot, be advised. Team three are in pursuit.'

There was very, very little Jacy was sure about after the previous couple of days, but one thing he knew — the translucent man, or whoever he was, had not left on foot.

* * *

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