“Come with me,” I whisper, taking her hand. I haven’t held her hand in years, and it brings back the memory of us huddling together on the boat to Finland, when I was sick and she was strong. We were once so close you couldn’t slide a piece of paper between us. Now the mere touch of her hand feels alien.

“I’m so tired,” Adelina confesses as we climb to the second floor; we’re halfway to the north wing and the belfry protected by the padlock. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

I do. “Do you want me to carry you?”

“You can’t carry me.”

“Not with my arms,” I say.

She’s too tired to argue. I focus on her feet and legs, and a few seconds later I’ve lifted Adelina off the floor and begin to float her down the dusty corridors. We pass the ancient statues cut into the rock wall and enter the narrower hallway in silence. I worry that she’s fallen asleep, but then she says, “I can’t believe you’re using telekinesis to fly an old lady like me down the hall. Where are we going?”

“I had to hide it,” I whisper. “We’re almost there, I promise.”

I unlock the padlock and it falls from the oak door’s handle, and soon I’m following a floating Adelina up the stone stairway that circles around the north tower leading to the belfry. I can hear Legacy faintly meowing from the top.

I open the door to the belfry and set Adelina gently down next to the Chest. She props her left arm up on the Chest lid and leans her head against it; I can see she has just about lost her battle with the pills, and I’m angry with myself now for tricking her. Legacy climbs into her lap and licks her right hand. “How is there a cat in here?” she mumbles.

“Don’t ask. Listen, Adelina, you’re almost completely asleep, and I need you to open the Chest with me before you are, okay?”

“I don’t think I have . . .”

“Have what?” I ask.

“Have it in me right now, Marina.” Her eyes are closed.

“Yes, you do.”

“Put your hand on the Chest’s lock. Put my hand on the other side.”

I press my palm against the side of the lock and it feels warm. I use telekinesis to pull her right hand away from Legacy’s tongue and onto the other side of the lock. She interlocks her fingers with mine. A second passes. The lock snaps open.

“Uh, guys? Something is, uh, something’s totally happening back here.” The seven orbs that hover in front of my chest in the backseat of the SUV are speeding up, and I can no longer control them. It gets so bright that I have to cover my eyes.