“Stop being cute,” Arthur said impatiently. “Did Madame Legrand have anything useful?”

“Why are we outside?” Jade said to Zhang. “It’s freezing.”

Zhang gave Arthur a knowing look.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Arthur lied. He picked up his coffee and took a sip, only to find it had gone completely cold.

“Come on,” Jade said. “Let’s go in. I’ll tell you what I’ve found.”

It was warm and cozy inside the restaurant, the floors dark wood, the walls exposed red brick. The waitress brought fresh coffees and onion soups for each of them, the cheese on the croutons perfectly browned on top.

“Madame Legrand is a paranormal scholar specializing in magical phenomena in nature,” said Jade, who was digging into the melted cheese with the enthusiasm of someone who missed France. “She was very excited to find someone to talk to about her research, you know how scholars are.” That was punctuated with a playful look at Zhang. “Obviously I didn’t tell her about the pomander, but I got her talking about Niagara Falls.”

Zhang and Arthur exchanged a look. “I’m not sure I want to take the pomander over the falls in a barrel,” Arthur said.

Jade grinned. “Some things in nature can affect magic. Think of the lodestone that Pavel now wears, magnetite infused with magic. Madame Legrand says the power of the falls has a neutralizing effect on magic.”

Zhang sat up straighter. “Does it really?” he said with fascination. “But could the falls possibly neutralize a relic’s magic? That’s nothing ordinary.”

“According to Madame Legrand, natural phenomena can also affect each other,” Jade said. “We saw the full moon affect the relic amulet’s tidal magic on Coney Island two months ago. It’s a long shot, but...”

“But it’s the best lead we’ve had.” Zhang was nodding with interest. “I think it’s worth a try.”

“There’s a full moon on the ninth,” said Jade. “That’s two weeks away, enough time to make a plan and get to Ontario.”

Two weeks. Bollocks. “But not really enough time to pop back to Manhattan first,” Arthur muttered.

Jade gave him a sympathetic look, which meant he’d been obvious enough in his recent moping that she’d picked up on his hopes that their next step would swing close enough to New York for a visit. “Sorry, Ace.”

Arthur sighed. “It’s fine. It’s the fate of the world,” he added dryly. “We need to follow this lead.”

She patted his hand. “I’m sure Rory likes the postcards.”

Arthur had sent one every few days, scrawled with his carefully coded messages in case they were read by anyone else. It wasn’t anywhere nearly enough. He swallowed another sigh and forced himself to start planning.