“He came himself. He didn’t trust this to minions. You know something, Arra. Something that can hurt him. Big magic’s complicated, it’s all math and patterns and you have to write it down to work it out. Big magic like the gate. Big magic like whatever’s written on a blackboard he hasn’t erased for seven years.”

The sand wasn’t enough now. The pieces coming together were bigger. Tony tossed his second handful after the first, then started sifting stones out of the beach and piling them one on top of the other. “What did you call it that day in the car? The light of Your-a-manatu or something? You woke up and yelled it out like it was important. Like it was a eureka moment. You wizards, that order of yours, worked out something you thought could stop him. But you did that crystal ball thing and saw that it didn’t work.” A hand against his pocket. The letter crinkled. “You saw him win and you believed what you saw and you ran. The last two wizards weren’t enough. Self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The stone on top of the pile was about as big around as a twonie and maybe twice as thick.

“Just . . .”

The stone felt good in his hand.

“. . . like . . .”

Tony drew back his arm.

“. . . this . . .”

And threw the stone as hard as he could off to his left toward the water. Off the way the wind had been blowing the sand.

“. . . TIME!”

“OW!” Rubbing her shoulder, a hummock of beach became a wizard who turned and glared at him. “I didn’t decide to gate until after I cast the stones and saw him win countless times.”

“I think that deep down you decided to bail when your eldest got flamed.” He picked up another stone. “I think you’d been second to him for a whole lot of years, got used to thinking that he was the better wizard, the best even, and when he was taken out, it all came down on you. They wanted you to save them now and you cracked under the pressure. That’s what I think.”

Arra clutched at her laptop case so tightly her knuckles whitened. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Yeah?” The beach had gone quiet. Even the waves were whispering against the shore. Tony stood, walked across the sand, and dropped to one knee so his eyes and Arra’s were level. “You know how I survived on the street for five years? I heard all the bits and pieces that everyone else heard, but I put them together. I figured out what they meant. You tell me one thing I’ve gotten wrong. One thing.”

The silence continued.

Then a gull screamed and noise rushed back in to fill the spaces.

“It’s the Light of Yeramathia!” Arra snapped. “Not Your-a-manatu.”