Eliot had come to the gift shop that morning looking for answers, and he only had more questions. He could accept the fact that Jake was apparently some kind of magic item collector if he didn't think about it too much—after all, he'd had conversations with cousin Lindsey too, and he'd seen things in his line of work that didn't have any rational explanations. But being willing to believe something was possible and making a plan to steal it were two completely different things.

And yet here he was, squinting at Robert Flores's business card and typing the number into his phone. "Put it on speaker," Alex suggested. He had joined Jake at the checkout counter and was leaning against it casually, as if he'd fully accepted the situation. For someone who had been forced into retirement because of high blood pressure, he was taking things annoyingly well.

"Wait a minute," Eliot said. "How do I know which Flores I'll be talking to?"

Jake tilted his head thoughtfully. "Jenkins mentioned a regrouping period after 24 hours. If Flores was split into three versions of himself yesterday, he would have had to regroup overnight. He might still be... you know, together."

"And if he's not?"

"Then I guess you hope the one you meet with is the one with the ring."

That wasn't exactly how Eliot liked doing things, but he supposed he didn't have much of a choice. He put the call through, setting the volume to speaker mode so the others could listen. So Kai could listen, and hopefully refrain from arresting him for a little while longer.

On the third ring, a cheerful voice answered, "Hello?"

"Flores," Eliot grunted.

"Ah, Mr. Spencer! I'm so glad you called. Have you thought over my offer?"

Jake's eyebrow went up. "That's Flores?" he mouthed.

"Yeah," Eliot said. "I hear you had some trouble with that detective yesterday."

Flores laughed. "Oh, she was nothing. Don't concern yourself over her, Mr. Spencer."

Eliot glanced at Kai, who looked ready to rip the phone out of his hands. "How did you escape?" he asked, as much to distract Kai as to get an answer from Flores.

"Oh, well," Flores said. "I have ways around things like that. I'm sure you've done some research on me by now. Let's just say those reports about my being in multiple places at once weren't exaggerated."

What was he supposed to say to that? Who would speak so openly about having that kind of ability? Of course, he probably didn't expect anyone to take him literally—and he certainly couldn't know that Eliot had a brother who worked with magical items—but still. He opened his mouth to answer, but Jake beat him to it.

"Because you have the Ring of Harmony?" he asked, lowering his voice until in came out in a gravely growl.

There was a pause on Flores's end. "Why—yes! You are a surprise, Mr. Spencer. You know much more than I gave you credit for."

"Like you said," Jake rumbled. "I do my research."

"How did you know about the ring?"

"Uh..." Jake's face went blank. Eliot gestured to the phone, but Jake shook his head and mouthed, "The Library is secret!"

"Mr. Spencer?" Flores asked.

"Uh, yeah," Jake said. "It's because—"

Alex leaned forward. "Because I have one too."

All eyes in the room snapped to him. He turned up his palms and shrugged sheepishly.

"You... you have one too?" Flores asked.

Jake waved him off, but Alex pushed his hands down and kept talking. "Yes. There are three total, and I have one."

"Well, the rumors really don't do you justice, Mr. Spencer!" Flores sounded delighted, but Eliot just felt tired. Give him a room full of armed goons any day—this was too much. "This makes things even easier! I'm a busy man, you know, and having a couple extras certainly helps get things done! Wouldn't you agree?"

"Sure," Alex said.

"Imagine how much we can get accomplished together!"

"Right." Alex cleared his throat to make his voice lower and added, "But I don't do business over the phone."

"Of course not. We can meet at my hotel—you remember the room?"

"When?"

"An hour?"

"Fine. I'll be there."

"Wonderful." Eliot could hear the smile in Flores's voice, and it made him want to scowl. "Until then, Mr. Spencer."

Flores ended the call, and Alex leaned against the counter and coughed. "Why do you talk like that, man? Doesn't it hurt your throat?"

"Why do—I don't—" Eliot sputtered. "That's just my voice!"

"At least we have confirmation that he's got the ring," Jake said.

"Yeah," Eliot said. "And we don't. He's expecting me to be able to split into three people, Jake. You got something in your library that can do that?"

"I dunno, probably."

"Well we've only got an hour to figure it out," Eliot snapped.

Kai frowned. "We don't—"

"Don't get mad at me," Jake said. "Alex is the one who said you had the ring."

"I was just trying to buy some time!" Alex said.

"Then you say 'hang on, I've got another call'. Not 'oh yeah, I have a priceless magical artifact with extremely specific powers, let me just bring it over to show you'."

"Guys," Kai said.

"You had the phone," Alex said. "You could have said whatever you—"

Kai gave a sharp, loud whistle, cutting off the argument Eliot was about to add. "How are you three so smart and so stupid at the same time?" she said, exasperated. "We don't need a magic ring. We just need two other people who look like Eliot."

For a moment all Eliot could do was blink at her, and when he glanced at his brothers he saw them doing the same. How had he overlooked such an obvious answer? He'd gotten so wrapped up in the idea of magic and assumed that the answer to a magical problem would have to be magical as well. Maybe he could blame it on lack of sleep. He'd been outside Flores's hotel all night, waiting for him to make a move, but the man spent most of the night drinking on the balcony and making phone calls before disappearing inside a little before midnight. Eliot had come straight to the gift shop as soon as the sun came up, leaving no time for rest.

What were his brothers' excuses? Hell, Jake was supposed to be a genius.

Alex crossed his arms. "I don't want to be Eliot."

"Then come up with a better suggestion," Kai said. "Until you do, we're going with my plan. You three will go to meet Flores—however many versions of him there are—and get his ring so I can arrest him."

"Well I—" Alex started, but a knock on the door interrupted him. Eliot was closest to the door, so he made his way carefully across the shop, listening for any signs of trouble. When he heard nothing, he opened the door and stepped back to admit Ernesto, who was again carrying coffee.

"Morning!" he said, following Eliot into the shop and distributing the drinks. "I see I'm late to the party. What'd I miss?"

Kai sighed. "You three get dressed. I'll catch him up."

"I already am dressed," Jake said. "Can I stay and watch you attempt to explain magic to Ernesto?"

Kai sighed, taking the cup Ernesto offered her and shaking her head. "There's not enough caffeine in the world for what we're about to deal with."

"Here," Alex said, reaching past Jake and pulling three button-up shirts off the rack. He handed one to Jake and tossed another to Eliot, who scowled.

"I'm not wearing this."

"What's wrong with it?" Alex frowned.

"It looks like something a suburban dad would wear on vacation."

"It—no it doesn't!"

"He's right, it doesn't," Jake said. "A suburban dad would wear sandals with his long socks."

"Shut up! My socks are—it's just a shirt, Eliot—and they're just normal socks. Shut up."

"You're supposed to pretend you're me," Eliot said. "And I wouldn't dress like this."

Alex slipped his arms through the sleeves of his shirt and started buttoning. "Unless you have three identical shirts back at your place, this is what we've got to work with."

"I don't travel with luggage," Eliot said.

Alex shook his head at Jake. "What's with you two? Am I the only normal one here?"

"Definitely not," Kai muttered.

Alex ignored her and pointed to another rack. "El, grab some hats—there, yeah." He caught the hats that Eliot frisbeed across the room and set one on Jake's head before donning his own. "Does this work?"

Kai blinked, taking in the sight of all three of them together. The shirts Alex had picked were blue, dark at the bottom and fading to a sky blue at the top. Their hats were straw fedoras, and when Eliot swept his fingers through his long hair and set the hat on top, he really did look just like Alex. And Jake, who stood between them with the same hat and the same shirt and the same open expression while Kai finished her assessment.

She closed her eyes, the pain in her head tripling. "This is my nightmare."

"I'll take that as a yes," Alex said.

"Just..." she said weakly. "Go put some jeans on. Ernesto... This is gonna sound crazy, but... Okay, so apparently Jake works at some kind of library..."