Raina frowns. “I don’t know. I don’t want to make Olivina angrier. I just want to go home.” She steps backward, and her spiked heel gets caught on the curtain hanging behind her, pulling her to the deck. The curtain comes down along with her, revealing a large gold mirror. Moving pictures show people dancing inside it. “Ooh, what is that?”

We all gather around to look. I’ve only seen one set of mirrors like it in my life, and they were in Olivina’s office.

Raina reaches out to touch the glass. “Is that a live look at Royal Academy?”

Prue flicks her fingers and the curtain re-covers the mirror. “That’s not important right now! Come on! You need to be ready!”

Corden runs to a plank off the opposite side of the ship.

“Line up around the deck!” Tara directs us as Prue starts to mumble incantations. As she chants, a yellow glow that looks like a barrier surrounds the ship.

“Keep quiet! They still don’t know our location, and we’d like to keep it that way.”

I hear the screeching before they come into view. A dozen gargoyles are flying toward us. Logan grabs my arm. I forgot how terrifying they look with their molting, battered wings and weathered green bodies. The stench is awful.

The gargoyles stop in midair, feet from the ship. Their screeching grows louder and more frantic as they hover in the air. I inhale sharply and wonder if they’ve found us. One floats so close I fear it can hear me breathing. Logan is shaking. I raise my arm to toss the radish. Heath appears at my side, his arm raised too. I look at Prue. She motions for us to stop.

The gargoyle lingers for a moment, swaying side to side. It lets out a terrifying screech, revealing a mouth of decaying teeth. Finally, it flies off, taking the rest of the creatures with it. Heath and I lower our hands. Logan slides down onto the pirate deck in relief. Raina plops down on a barrel next to the curtain in front of the mirror. The silence is punctuated by the sound of static, followed by a voice.

“Prue, Corden, Tara, are you there? Come in if you can hear me. Urgent!”

Prue and Corden run to a map on the wall. The map is covered with small X’s as if someone is looking for treasure. Instead, Prue wipes her hand along the map, and it ripples like water, and an image appears. It’s a girl in a hooded cloak. She looks vaguely familiar. Tara drops down from the crow’s nest and runs over.

“We’re here,” Tara says.

“There are gargoyles in the area,” the figure tells them. “They’re headed your way.”

“They were here. They didn’t spot us.”

“Good. That’s the closest they’ve come yet. I picked up their signal on the readiness kit I planted near the riverbank by the set of three weeping willows. When they flew past, I was sure your cover was blown.”