As much as he hated the source of the information, Alex decided to follow the vision he’d seen in his mind.

Holding the beetle tightly in his hand, he ran his anti-magic through the mechanisms, feeding the black and silver strands through the cogs and over the magic already within, coating the gold with the contrasting gleam of his powers. The two streams of energy merged, brightening for a moment before fading to a dull glisten.

Nothing happened.

Alex frowned, knowing he had followed the vision exactly as he had seen it. Frustrated, he shook the beacon, as if it might miraculously make the thing work, but still nothing happened within the metal carapace.

“I thought you were supposed to be helpful!” he shouted toward the shady overhang.

He waited a few moments more, and even fed a few more strands of anti-magic into the mechanism, willing the device to flash or beep or do something at least, but still nothing happened. With a growl, Alex threw the small oval of metal away, watching it arc through the air before it tumbled away into a snowdrift.

Annoyed at being back to square one, Alex sat down on the edge of the rocky outcrop and gazed out toward the horizon, willing it to grant him some form of inspiration. He wondered if he could simply get on Storm’s back and fly aimlessly, hoping to end up in the direction of Falleaf, but he had no idea where the fourth haven was, or if it could even be reached from this realm. It seemed hopeless, and with the potential threat of specters following in his wake, he wasn’t comfortable staying put. There had to be something he could do—a way to reach the others without the beacon.

Storm pecked at the back of his head. He pushed her beak away, but she was insistent, ruffling his hair and tapping lightly on his skull.

“Stop it!” he said, trying to duck away from her latest attack, but she would not stop. She nudged the side of his face like an overexcited puppy. Alex shot her an annoyed look.

With a high-pitched chirrup, she clamped her beak onto the back of his shirt and dragged him away from the edge of the mountain with surprising strength, yanking him toward the snowdrift. He cried out in surprise, trying to get her off him, but she simply would not let go.

As he neared a pile of snow, he realized why. A dim light flashed against the ice shelf just in front of the snowdrift, blinking a steady rhythm. He dove toward the freezing snow and scrabbled to dig the beetle out. As he clutched it in his hands, the beetle gave a low whine, the snow having dulled its shriek. Alex didn’t care about the sound—it was the light he sought, the northernmost bulb showing the way to Lintz and the others.

Excitement pulsed through his veins as he turned back toward Storm, who was eyeing the beetle curiously, perhaps wondering if it was a tasty treat. She tried to peck it from his hand, but he quickly moved it away.

“You wouldn’t like the taste,” Alex teased. He held his palm flat, waiting for her to touch her beak to the center. “We need to go north,” he told her, still not certain how much she could understand.

It seemed she had a vague idea, however, as he clambered onto her back and held on tight. Before he had even managed to get settled, she was charging toward the lip of the mountain, taking to the air in one smooth movement, her wings spreading wide. He didn’t know how long it would take to get to Falleaf House, or if it was even possible, but the Thunderbird’s apparent understanding put him at ease.

As they flew, Alex took in the landscape around him. There were endless forests, peppered with the shattered remains of ancient towns, and sparkling rivers that wound through the deep green canopies, off to some unknown ocean. To the east, strange shapes emerged on the horizon. Alex thought they might be a distant mountain range, but as the scene grew clearer, he could see structures that looked distinctly manmade shining from within the dull gray rock. Golden spires as tall as any skyscraper rose from vast, palatial buildings that shone against the glare of the sun, the elegant dwellings poking up from gaps in between the peaks of the mountain range.

Alex wondered if it was somehow the real world, glimpsed through the fabric of the magical realm, or if it was something else, something private and reserved for the crème de la crème of mage society. It certainly looked regal enough. There was nothing ordinary about the buildings; they were almost otherworldly, with a gauzy haze covering them, like a mirage in the desert. It looked to be a barrier of some sort, protecting whoever lived inside. Part of him wanted to take a closer look, but he knew that his current schedule would not permit such a luxury—they had to get to Falleaf House as quickly as possible; there was no time for detours, however tempting.

“How are we going to get to Falleaf House?” Alex asked Storm, feeling slightly silly for speaking to an animal who couldn’t talk back. The Thunderbird, however, continued to surprise him.

After a moment or two, she began to speed up, beating her wings faster and faster until she was rocketing through the sky at an alarming rate. It didn’t seem possible that a bird could fly so fast, and where once Alex had felt exhilaration, he now began to feel the adrenaline-pulse of fear. It was too fast. He was barely holding on.

With a loud snap like the crack of a whip, Storm broke the sound barrier. She flew faster still, not showing any signs of slowing down. Alex clung to her neck and gripped her sides with his legs, unable to keep his eyes open against the rush of air blasting in his face.

The scene around him stretched and blurred, and he could feel his whole body being pulled in different directions. The wind whipped against his face, but nothing looked normal; there were no clear images, nothing he could recognize as real. It had all become warped and weird, everything bent out of shape and alien to the eye.

Then, with a satisfying whoosh, everything shrank back to normal again, snapping into place.

They had emerged in a different realm.

Alex realized that his Thunderbird possessed powers he had never expected. It seemed Storm had the ability to travel between realms, bypassing portals entirely. Maybe this was why the Spellbreakers had been such formidable warriors, with their ability to appear from the sky like some otherworldly avenging angels, soaring down on the backs of ferocious winged beasts. He imagined it must have been quite the sight from the battlefield.

Storm had slowed to an ordinary pace, and though Alex’s heart was pounding and he was struggling to wrap his head around what he had just experienced, he couldn’t help but think about what other uses there might be for such a talent as Storm’s. Could she punch through the border between the normal, outside world and the magical realms, or would that be too much for her? He wasn’t even sure she could exist in the real world, being what she was, and yet he couldn’t erase the thought from his mind.

First things first, he told himself, returning to the task at hand. The beacon was still flashing north, but it was blinking more rapidly now, the dampened shrieks coming louder. An idea came to him, as he fed his anti-magic into the device, forcing the mechanism to silence the sound, not wanting it to draw any attention, leaving only the comfort of the light. Wherever Lintz and his friends were, Alex was close now.

Ahead of him lay the perimeter of a large, dense forest. It was a familiar scene, vividly remembered from the portal to Falleaf House he had watched Lintz build, but Alex had no idea whether they were near the same spot where that portal had opened. It all looked so similar, the bronzed leaves falling to the ground beneath the warm haze of afternoon sun.

Thinking back to what Caius had told him, about how to find Hadrian, Alex looked across the canopy of the forest, searching for the glint of something golden in the distance. As hard as it was, Alex knew he had to try to trust in the sliver of goodness Caius had possessed, when he had spoken of Falleaf, though, after what had happened between himself and Caius, he wasn’t exactly sure he’d see anything—perhaps, Caius had been lying about the way to reach Hadrian.

But, as the sunlight glanced down onto the forest, something glitzy caught his eye. It lay in the center of the trees, but Alex couldn’t gauge the distance between the tree-line and the glimmering object, which he hoped was the golden top of the pagoda he sought. Keeping the direction of it in his mind, he knew he would simply have to walk until he found it. With Storm being the size she was, and not being exactly discreet, he knew he couldn’t just fly there. He just hoped the others were already inside.

Storm landed softly on a pile of decaying leaves, folding her wings, and Alex dismounted. Realizing she might be a little out in the open if he left her there, he gestured for her to follow as he made his way into the dimmed light of the trees, pausing beside the shelter of an overgrown willow.

“Stay here,” he said. “And if anything comes for you, come and find me,” he added, still feeling foolish about speaking to a bird. Once again, she defied his expectations as she chirped in understanding, walking behind the curtain of leaves and settling down beside the trunk of the tree. From beyond the willow, it was nearly impossible to make her out beneath the camouflage. Alex smiled in wonderment; she was truly an incredible specimen.

Reassured that Storm would have plenty to eat in the forest, he set off into the trees, heeding Caius’s warning about the traps and soldiers that filled these seemingly innocuous woods. The beetle was flashing like mad, restoring his courage—they were nearby, he could sense it.

The forest itself was more oppressive than it had appeared from the portal, and though the canopy was a myriad of gold and scarlet, and everything around him was beautiful to behold, from the tiny wildflowers that grew along the path, to the babbling brooks that cut through the lush green earth, he couldn’t help but feel on edge, knowing somebody could sneak up on him at any moment, or he might set off a trap with one misplaced step.

Alex knew he had to travel north to where he had seen the glint of the pagoda’s top, but from down on the ground, he could no longer see the beacon of it, telling him where to go. The beetle was still flashing, and he clung to the belief that it would lead him to the others.