The time for a delicate search is over. I go to Xavier’s bookshelves and pluck books off one by one, flipping through their pages and dropping them on the floor. Vases are searched, the laptop is opened, rugs are shaken out, bed is looked under, and the mattress too—sheets stripped. Nothing. On my hands and knees, I blow a strand of my hair out of my face. I get up and run to the closet. Clothes fly off hangers as I shove them aside to look inside shoes, open sock drawers—toss out underwear. Nothing.
Outside this suite of rooms, angelic voices are beginning to rise. Powers are flying around like they’re mobilizing for something. I pop my head outside the closet to listen. Panic makes my hands shake. I have to find a portal! The room looks like a typhoon hit it when as I return to it. Slumping down on the bed, I look up at the ceiling, trying to think. What I know about Xavier is he is used to hiding in plain sight. He blends in as human. I glance over at the bedside table. His headphones are attached to his digital music player. Who uses one of those when you can stream music on your phone? I know he prefers vinyl. We used to listen to records in his room for hours. Picking up his on-ear headphones I switch the power on to the music player. My hand that holds the headphones distorts. Instead of playing music, the small phone-like player tries to suck me into it. A portal! I have no idea where it leads, but it’s somewhere other than here, so I’ll have to take my chances.
Now, I have to find Reed. I still feel him faintly, the butterflies inside me pointing me in the direction of my room. He’s somewhat nearby. I hold onto the portal as I move to my room. The tug comes from the door that leads outside onto the icy mountainside balcony. I sprint to it, opening the heavy metal door. It whines in protest from the cold. Stepping out onto the porch, I see nothing at first but darkness and the drift of snowflakes. The butterflies become more intense until, out of the darkness, the shape of my angel takes form. He lands beside me on the stone balcony. His exposed skin is red from cold and he’s quivering from the chill. I wrap my arms around him, hugging him to me. “Did you get the boatswain?” I ask.
“I have it here.” He pulls it from beneath his black shirt. It’s a good thing that his shirt has a detachable panel in the back made for angel wings because without it, he’d be a shirtless popsicle by now.
I waste no more time. “This is a portal. I have no idea where it goes.” I rise up on my tiptoes to put the headphones on him.
Reed stays my hand. “You go first. I’ll follow right after you.”
“Okay.” I shift direction and place the earphones on my ears. Using my thumb, I flip on the music. My body contorts and I’m extracted from the cold world around me and thrust into darkness.
I know where I am the moment I spill out of a record player portal onto the exquisite parquet floor. It’s Xavier’s home in Grosse Pointe. I’ve been here thousands of times. I know my way around it—can navigate every inch of its five stories. It’s almost like being home.
The well-used record player spins on a turntable in the loft room at the top of the massive house. Xavier and I used to sit for hours here after school, listening to music on it. I never once suspected that it was anything other than a benign way to play music. He never once told me what else it could do. Nor did I ever question why he always let it spin, even when the music wasn’t playing. I thought it had been funny, the way he’d set up a little purple-haired troll in the center of it, letting it travel around in circles. He’d ended up giving me that troll. It was in my room for a long time until the Gancanagh took it. A familiar feeling of angst nearly overwhelms me for a moment.
My hands are still freezing. I rub them together and watch for Reed to come through the portal. He is way more elegant than me when he arrives. He lands on his feet. He turns around, removing the needle from the record player, stopping it from spinning. He closes the lid, locking the portal from our side. I get to my feet. “No one can follow us here, can they?” I ask.
“No—at least not through this portal,” Reed replies. He turns and faces me, catching me as I throw myself into his arms. My knees weaken as my lips yield to his. His hand touches my hair. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. You?”
“I’m fine.”
“What happened with Atwater?”
“We fell to the bottom of the cavern. He gave me the boatswain, told me not to tell the Seraphim that I had it or they would attempt to kill me like they had him. He said there’s a reason they aren’t being told the plan—I would know what it is soon. He said he’d find us later. He wished me ‘Godspeed’. Then, he disappeared into a portal of his own. I narrowly avoided Xavier and found you.”