“But now they weren’t stolen, they weren’t imprisoned. They belonged to Danny. But you knew that. The thing is, that’s how Danny learned that gates could be given. So when the Belmage took over Danny’s body and started trying to get him to make a Great Gate, Danny gave all of Loki’s gates back to him. And then—and this was such an act of genius—he gave all his own gates to Loki as well.”

“Including my private gate?”

“Everything. Stripped himself bare.”

“And he could do that? The Belmage didn’t stop him?”

Veevee shrugged. “He didn’t stop him. But maybe he didn’t know what was happening until the gates were gone.”

“So the gate I went through is Loki’s gate now.”

“Oh, it’s more complicated than that,” said Veevee. “Because Loki took up all the gates.”

“Ate them?”

“No, no, they’re his now, so he just took them up. Like gathering up your knitting and putting it in a bag. So that he was sure none of them were left for the Belmage to use, probably. He doesn’t explain himself to me. All the gates I’ve been using disappeared, which terrified me—how long would it take me to get to Danny without gates to bring me here? I had already bought a plane ticket to get me to Roanoke when all of a sudden all my gates were back. Every one of them. Exactly where Danny had made them.”

“That was … tidy of the Gate Thief.”

“It was incredibly generous. Not at all typical of the behavior of gatemages or Family members. And you know whose gates he put back first? Yours. And then Danny’s other high school friends’. And he only put back the ones I use last of all. Maybe because I’m a gatemage of sorts. Or maybe because he wanted to make sure he wasn’t inadvertently putting back a gate Hermia might use.”

“So the Gate Thief isn’t our enemy anymore.”

“He was never your enemy, darling,” said Veevee. “But now, I don’t know. Because I think I’m seeing a lot of brightness in your outself. What are you?”

Pat was a little confused by the question.

“You went through the Great Gate like the rest of us,” said Veevee. “And now you’ve learned how to do some magery. What do you do?”

“Wind,” said Pat.

“Are you any good at it?”

Pat shrugged. “That’s not why I called you.”

“No, you called because you’re in love with Danny and you have some fantastical idea of helping him and you want to know what you might do that would be of any use.”

Pat sank to the ground. “And because you didn’t come straight to that point, I’m betting that you’re going to say that I can’t do anything.”