For a moment I’m nervous that someone will recognize we don’t belong here, that we’ll be kicked out or punished. But no one turns as we enter the room at all. A few hands reach out as I step into the room with my tray of caviar on little crackers. But I’ve never been looked at less. I didn’t need a spell to become invisible. All I needed was a uniform.

The foyer is comically grand with sweeping ceilings painted gold and crystal chandeliers that throw rainbows over the marble statues lining the room. The parlor is built like an atrium, open all the way to the ceiling, all four soaring floors. It makes the parlor of the Commodore Club look like a poorhouse.

The men stand in groups or three or four, clutching sweating whiskey glasses and laughing uproariously.

It reminds me so much of the political fundraiser I attended with Helen at the Hotel Astor. My magic hummed in my veins then, begging to be released. I was scared of it then, but there was something exhilarating in knowing I contained so much. For months, there’s just been a hollow spot in my rib cage where the power used to live, and I’ve felt awful and unmoored without it.

But tonight feels so much like that night, I can almost imagine the magic kicking, and alive. Like a phantom limb, I remember it so vividly it almost feels real.

I scan the room, searching for Finn and Oliver among the men. It’s difficult to find them with the masks and the identical black tuxedos, but then I spot him. I’d recognize Oliver’s back anywhere. It’s in the particular way he holds everything that worries him in the space right between his shoulder blades.

I circle the room until the tray is almost empty to get a better look at his face. He’s standing next to Finn and a few other men, smiling as if he’s nothing more than delighted to be here tonight. Oliver has his own kind of magic, the ability to make anyone like him. On my quick pass by him, I hear one of the men call him “my boy.”

We don’t make eye contact, it would be too dangerous, but I feel him watching me as I pass. It’s a relief to know he’s all right.

I return to the basement kitchen and refill my tray. On my way back up I pass Lena on the stairs.

“Anything yet?” she asks.

“No. I found Oliver and Finn. It doesn’t look like Finn is up to anything, but you can never be too sure.”

She nods in agreement. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”

The magic flickers in me. I suppress a gasp. I can’t draw attention to myself.