Jade opened her mouth, then closed it. “I don’t know,” she said, sounding confused.

Zhang shook his head. “You’re right, Ace, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Exactly,” Arthur said. “Come on, we don’t need more things that don’t make sense.”

Their group turned around and began to walk again. The pub at the corner hadn’t opened yet, and neither had the fish and chips shop, but there was a light on in the art gallery. Arthur stared more closely at the painting in the window. It was a colorful Impressionist-style rendering of a coastal city, with church steeples rising up out of clustered homes and what might have been the Mediterranean in the distance. A couple, hand in hand, walked away, toward the edge of the painting, on a boardwalk under a bright sun.

Sebastian de Leon’s cousin was a paranormal painter—

Rory abruptly turned. “Let’s go back to the hotel.”

“Oh yes,” said Jade. “Wasn’t the Great Eastern mentioned in Dracula?”

“I loved that book,” Zhang said.

The three of them turned around and started walking back in the direction they had come.

Arthur blinked again, then once again scrambled forward and got in their way. “You just had that exact conversation.”

Rory, Jade, and Zhang looked at each other. “We did?” said Jade.

Arthur let out a sharp huff. “You three. Paranormals. We are not going back to the hotel.” He pointed behind them. “There is something strange in that street and we should start by investigating the art gallery.”

“What art gallery?” Rory said blankly.

“The art gallery!” Arthur said impatiently. “Across from the chemist.” He looked from Rory to Jade and Zhang, and found them staring at him with just as sincere confusion. “Oh, we are definitely starting with that gallery,” said Arthur. “You lot just—keep your eyes on your feet or something.”

Wrangling the others down to the gallery was a bit like herding paranormal cats who kept accidentally glancing at the wrong thing and getting the urge to leave. Finally, though, Arthur got his friends past the painting on display in the window and into the gallery itself, a small space with wood floors and statues on pedestals. Several framed paintings hung on the wall, but—tellingly—their canvases were covered with cloth.

“You three with me?” Arthur asked quietly, eyes on the biggest painting, covered by what looked like opaque window drapes.

“Mostly?” Jade was studying one of the statues. “I’m not walking out the door without my own consent, but something feels—odd.”

“Like Niagara Falls.” Zhang’s lips were pursed. “But—swirling.”

“Swirling?” Arthur winced. “Well. Thank you for not reassuring me in the slightest.”

“I got goose bumps all over,” Rory muttered. “This place is crawling with magic. Anyone else feel it?”

“Crawling with magic, perhaps, but someone else doesn’t want to look at the paintings either,” Jade pointed out.