Twist found the control that he was looking for and flipped the switch. Instantly, the floor beneath their feet gave a shudder. Jonas, Idris, and Storm all seemed startled, while Twist only casually held on to the edge of the dais for support as the entire floor began to lift. It moved smoothly upward at a comfortable speed, to the very top of the columns that surrounded it, until the round floor met the domed ceiling to create a single, large, enclosed, hemispherical room.
The flashing blue-and-white lights that Twist had seen from below were caused by a complete layer of lighted glass that showed thousands of images of the city, as seen from every possible viewpoint. Controls rimmed the floor all around the dome, offering all the access and control that was available in the city.
“Now, we’re here,” Twist announced, leaving the dais to head toward the controls at stood all along the base of the dome.
“You know,” Idris said to Jonas, “he’s very handy to have around.”
“That he is,” Jonas agreed, a smile clear in his voice, though Twist refrained from acknowledging the compliment.
It took Twist a moment to identify the controls. With so many systems feeding into the dome on hidden wires that ran up through the columns like nerves, it was difficult for him to make sense of all the information that flooded his Sight. For a long moment, he simply stood silently, both hands resting on the controls before him, and let his Sight absorb the nature of the vast, electric machine that had been built into every inch of the city.
“Oh!” he gasped suddenly, opening his eyes as he finally made sense of one of the many interconnected systems. “Oh, that is fascinating,” he muttered, moving quickly for the controls he now wanted to adjust.
“What’s that, Twist?” Jonas asked, sounding a bit bored.
Twist glanced to he and Idris, who were standing together near the central dais with Storm; they appeared to be simply waiting for Twist to figure everything out.
“I think I can get this to show us where we are,” Twist said, returning his attention to his work.
He found the controls that he’d seen the effects of from inside the machine and began to flip switches and turn valve wheels until a large patch of the lighted glass panels in the dome ceiling above him began to change. A field of unilluminated black spread out in a wide circle, while thin blue-and-white lines began to draw the shape of the Earth’s continents in the center. Jonas and Idris moved closer, watching the glass above. They left Storm standing forlornly—still safely gagged and bound—near the dais.
At first, the orientation of the continents was strange to Twist, being tilted oddly and seeming to focus heavily on southeastern Europe. Twist continued to adjust the controls until he managed to make the image look more familiar to him. Then, he flipped one last switch, bringing to light a single, blinking point that sat on the left side of the Atlantic Ocean. Twist recognized the shape of Florida a bit to the left of the dot, and Cuba and Jamaica equally below it, and a tiny, single island above, which Twist didn’t know. By his guess, the dot sat equal distances away from any landmass.
Pointing to the dot, he asked Jonas, “What’s that island, up there?”
“Bermuda,” Jonas said without hesitation. “What’s that blinking dot?”
“That,” Twist said with a sigh, “is where were are.”
“Huh,” Idris remarked with a light smile. “I always thought Atlantis was closer to Europe.”
“How deep are we?” Jonas asked.
Twist touched a few more controls, bringing a set of strange-looking figures up below the image on the glass. “Can you read that language?” he asked Jonas.
“Are you sure that’s a language?” Jonas asked back.
Idris began muttering to himself, appearing to count on his fingers. Then, he stopped and gave a thoughtful tone. “I think that says that we are roughly sixteen or seventeen thousand feet below the surface. I think,” he added, frowning at his own thoughts.
“We’re not swimming out, then,” Jonas grumbled. “We’re almost a thousand miles off the coasts, under something like three miles of water. Great. Anyone have any idea how to get out of here yet?”
“Are there any submersible ships here?” Idris asked Twist. “Anyone who lived in such a desolate place must have had a way to come and go.”
“I didn’t see anything like that,” Twist said thoughtfully. “I’ll check, to be sure.”
He touched the controls before him and closed his eyes, diving into the immense ocean of information once again. Jonas and Idris continued to talk behind him, trying various ideas against each other’s logic and inspiration. Twist found a vast, enclosed cavern at one edge of the city, which seemed to open itself to the ocean outside with massive mechanical doors, but he couldn’t find evidence that there were vessels of any kind inside.
“Hey, Twist!” Jonas said suddenly, his tone bright. “Look who’s here.”
Twist pulled his awareness back into himself and opened his eyes, turning to find Myra’s ghostly, human form standing just behind him, wearing a brilliant smile. Stunned by the sight of her, Twist could only stare in wonder for a moment.
“Hello, darling,” she said happily as she placed a hand on his arm. “I found you!”
“Myra!” His joy at the sight of her finally managed to break through his shock. He reached out to her without a moment’s hesitation, wrapping her soft, cool form in his arms. “Oh, my dear, I am so happy to see you,” he said, not even trying to tame his smile as he pulled back to look at her. He was startled by how pleased he truly was to see her, as if the world had been black-and-white until she’d brought her color back into it.
“I’m very glad you’re all right,” she said, looking relieved. “I was so worried for you when you vanished.”
“How did you find us?” Jonas asked, seeming very pleased by her appearance as well. Beside him, Idris was now wearing a pair of pink-lensed spectacles and smiling to Myra’s spirit.
“Mama cast a spell and sent me to you,” Myra answered him. Then she turned back to Twist with a warm smile. “She used my ring to find you. She needed something of yours, after all.”
Twist smiled back to her at the charming idea.
“Twist?” Jonas asked. “What’d she say?”
“Oh!” Twist said, suddenly remembering that although his Sight allowed him to hear her ghostly voice, Jonas’s Sight only let him see her. He quickly relayed the bit about the spell, without mentioning the more personal details of it.
“Say…” Idris said thoughtfully, “can she go back to her puppet at will?”
“Oh yes,” Myra said with a nod. “It’s no trouble. Now that I know where you are,” she added, looking to Twist, “I think I can move back and forth.”
Twist quickly relayed what she’d said to the others.
“Holy hell, we might be saved,” Jonas said in astonishment. “Myra, you see that map?” he said to her, pointing to the lighted glass. “That blinking dot is where we are. If you can go back and tell Kima, then she and that Rook agent can tell Aden, and he’ll send a submersible to come and get us.”
Twist’s heart raced with excitement at the simple and reasonable plan.
“Oh, that’s all right,” Myra said with a smile to Jonas. “Arabel already knows where you are. She, Kima, and Monti are all working together to get a Rook submersible ready as quickly as possible. Mama’s even helping them, too. I think that, under the circumstances, she doesn’t mind helping the Rooks. She just wants you both back, safe and sound. They sent me to tell you and help you if I can.”
Twist listened to her in pure astonishment and then repeated what she had said to the others. He could hardly believe that he’d forgotten about Arabel’s Sight, which allowed her to find anything, anywhere in the world. Of course she would have found them in moments, and of course she would have told the Rooks immediately. Most of Twist’s most trusted and loyal friends had been with them as well, not to mention his own family in the gypsy troupe.
“Rea
lly?” Jonas asked, seeming bewildered by the news. “Mama is working with Rooks?”
Myra nodded with a smile. “Isn’t it wonderful? All you have to do is wait to be rescued.” She paused thoughtfully. “But what’s become of Storm?”
“He’s just over—” Twist began casually, pointing toward the boy.
His words caught in his throat as he watched Storm—still standing near the dais in the center—tear the gag off of his mouth with now-freed hands. Terror gripped Twist’s heart, freezing him to the spot, while Jonas dashed for the boy.
Storm opened his mouth to speak. “I wish Twist and Jonas were chained on the ground, right beside each other, this instant!”
Twist felt himself thrown sharply forward. His body stopped moving just as suddenly, as he lay awkwardly on the stone floor. He pushed himself up again quickly, meaning to run, but a thick iron collar was now closed around his throat,and was clearly connected solidly to the ground behind him by a strong, short chain. He found that he could pull himself up to kneel but could move no further. Jonas struggled with an identical chain and collar just beside him. Horror pulsed though him in freezing-cold waves as Twist realized that he was suddenly and completely helpless against the boy’s terrible will.
“Stop this!” Idris bellowed at Storm, moving to stand in his way. “Let them go, you awful little troll!”
“Oh, darling!” Myra gasped, appearing at Twist’s side. She tried to tug at the collar around his neck, but he felt her fingers slip right through the metal as if it weren’t there at all. “I can’t touch it!” she cried in terror.
“Try to focus, and you might manage it,” Twist said, desperate to hold his own terror in check. He knew that her ghostly hands could hold great power, if she could focus her intentions sharply enough.
Storm ignored Idris’s admonishing pleas and stepped past him. Twist strained his neck to see that the boy was walking toward the contraption that Jonas had taken from him earlier. It lay on the floor not far away; Jonas must have dropped it when the second wish had been granted. Seeing the same thing, Jonas gave a curse.
Storm placed the contraption on over his right eye and ear and then looked around slowly until his pink eyes found Twist. The boy’s smile was cold, electric, and deeply inhuman. Twist’s heart began to beat faster as the boy approached him.
“Hi, Twist,” he said casually. “It’s good to see you.” He held a small pocketknife in his hand, which he’d likely used to free himself while Twist and the others hadn’t been watching him.
“Storm, you don’t have to do this,” Twist said with as much calm as he could fake. “We’re your friends, aren’t we? Just let us go, and everything will be all right.”
The boy chuckled at him. “Don’t worry, Twist,” he said sweetly as he stopped just before him, looking down at Twist with the knife still in his hand. “You’re right. Everything will be all right, very soon. But I do have to do this.”
“Keep him talking,” Jonas said, pulling and prodding at the collar on his neck with his hands.
Myra, meanwhile, seemed to be desperately trying to do the same to the chain behind Twist, moaning in frustration from time to time. Idris stood behind Storm, watching with nothing but misery on his face.
“Storm, please,” Twist began, though the boy seemed uninterested in continuing the conversation.
He was reaching out into the empty air on Twist’s right with his hands, as if searching for something he couldn’t see. Twist instantly realized that Storm must be looking for Jonas, who was still invisible to him thanks to the magical tattoo.
“Have we done something to upset you?” Twist asked. “You know we didn’t leave you behind in Australia by choice. We were arrested.”
Storm seemed to have realized that Jonas wasn’t on Twist’s right; he moved to his other side, where Jonas actually was. Jonas dropped low swiftly, dodging out of the boy’s initial reach, but Storm’s hand soon found him anyway.
“There you are!” Storm said brightly, grasping blindly to get a hold of him. Jonas sat up again quickly to try to lean away. “Hang on, Jonas! This will only take a moment,” Storm said, having finally caught a fistfull of Jonas’s shirt front. He raised the small knife in his other hand.
“No! Stop this!” Twist bellowed at Storm desperately.
Jonas tried to pull away, but the boy’s grip was tenacious, and Jonas’s motion was limited. Jonas reached out to hold the knife arm back, to shove the boy away, but Storm continued to struggle and began to swipe at Jonas blindly with the knife, pleading all the while for Jonas’s patience. Twist wished to aid him but dared not let the boy touch him as well.
Jonas gave a shout of startled pain as the knife finally found him in one of the wild sweeps, fortunately only leaving a small cut on the side of his hand. Storm paused, looking at the knife, apparently able to see the thin line of blood on it. While Jonas inspected the wound and cursed, Myra rushed at the boy. Storm gave a shudder as Twist watched Myra’s body pass right through him, no more solid than a shadow. She tumbled to the floor beyond him.
“What was that?” Storm asked, looking to Twist.
“Let us go, Storm,” Twist answered firmly, “and we’ll forgive you for all of this.”
“I won’t!” Jonas growled, cradling his wounded hand in the other. “Let me go so that I can tear you apart, you demented little freak!”
Clearly not hearing Jonas’s threats, Storm stood and moved away, looking at the blood on the knife carefully. He then took the contraption off of his face and touched the bloody point of the blade to the single goggle lens of the contraption, muttering under his breath as he did. Twist watched the small amount of blood move as if it were alive, crawling down the edge of the blade to vanish around the edge of the glass lens. Storm put the contraption back onto his face and looked directly at Jonas.
“Hi, Jonas,” he said brightly, smiling as he waved. “Now I can finally see you!”
Jonas yelled a highly offensive string of insults at the boy, all in a single breath.
Storm looked startled, his smile fading. “Oh. I see.” He took a heavy breath, looking at both Twist and Jonas sadly. “You really don’t understand. But it’s all right. You’ll be so very pleased with me once I get you home that you’ll never be cross with me again.”
Twist stared back at him in grim disgust. Nothing anyone said seemed to reach the frighteningly insane child. What was the point of speaking to him at all? Jonas also only glowered back at the boy in pure hate, his uncovered eyes fixed safely on Storm’s chest. Storm turned to Idris, who stood beside him with an expression similar to Jonas’s.
“I guess I’m going to have to use my last wish now,” Storm said sadly. “I was hoping to save one, but…” He shook his head with a sigh. “Oh, but wait…” he added, seeming to remember something.
Storm knelt down before Jonas again, reaching for his pockets. Jonas cursed and struggled to push him away, throwing punches and reaching for the contraption on Storm’s face. Storm pulled away with an alarmed expression. He then took off the contraption, placing it on the ground well out of Twist’s or Jonas’s reach, closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, and then dove for Jonas in a swift and wild frenzy.
Jonas tried to fight him off, tried to trap him in his arms or knock him out, but the boy slipped out of his grasp and dodged him with expert skill, managing to reach into his pockets eventually, no mater what Jonas did. Apparently not finding whatever he was looking for, Storm eventually darted away from Jonas. The boy was breathing heavily after the battle—his cheek was bruised and his nose was bleeding slightly, while his clothes had become roughly disheveled—as he put the contraption back onto his face and looked to Jonas.
“Where is the acorn?” Storm asked.
Jonas suggested that Storm do something quite unpleasant, the impropriety of which surprised and alarmed Twist, but he didn’t answer the question. Storm glared back at him ungratefully.
“Well, you wouldn’t just leave it lying somewhere,�
�� Storm said. He looked to Twist. “You must have it,” he said, advancing on Twist now instead. Fright gave Twist a shudder at the though of this clearly deeply damaged boy putting his hands on him.
“Wait!” Jonas snapped, stilling Storm as he lifted a hand to take the contraption off of his face again. Jonas looked to Twist with flame-orange eyes. “Give it to him. He’s not going to give up until he has it. Don’t let him touch you as well.”
Twist nodded. Jonas was right. There didn’t seem to be any hope at all in keeping the acorn away from the boy. Besides which, he could clearly make his wishes with or without possession of the thing. Twist reached into his pocket and chucked the acorn roughly at the boy. Storm jerked in surprise as it struck him and bounced off, rattling across the floor. Storm looked at Twist unhappily and shook his head as he went to retrieve it.
“I don’t know why you refuse to understand,” he muttered, stooping to snatch the acorn off the floor. “I’m doing all of this for you.”
Twist and Jonas both refused to comment on this absurd statement. Storm returned to stand before them and put the acorn into his trouser pocket. Idris and Myra both stood beside him, glaring at the boy in belligerent rage. Storm seemed to consider something as he looked at Twist and Jonas, chained to the floor. Then he looked to Idris.
“I’ve decided on my last wish,” he said.
“When I get free, I’m going to make you the most miserable creature on the Earth,” Idris replied.
“You’ve already done that!” Storm snapped at him angrily. “You’re the reason I had to go through all of this! It’s only fitting that you undo your wretched crime now.”
Idris looked away from him, as if honestly hurt by this remark. Storm calmed himself forcibly with a moment of silence before he looked back to Twist and Jonas.
“I wish for a pair of loaded pistols in perfect working order.”
Twin, gleaming, silver weapons appeared in the boy’s hands. He examined each of them and then pulled back the hammers. He raised both guns, one to aim at Twist and the other at Jonas. Twist heard Myra shriek in anguish and horror, while Idris cursed him in a language Twist didn’t know.
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