Jim and Claire stepped from a shadow portal onto Camelot's landing pad, set atop one tower. They hurried into the castle.
"Douxie?" Claire called. "A reporter from New York's in Arcadia!"
"Doux?" Jim checked several rooms while Claire covered another section of the floating castle. "Douxie, you here?"
They found him, asleep in Merlin's old workshop, sagged over the table, Nari's potted plant snugged into one elbow.
Jim could have sworn one of the plant's leaves brushed stray bangs out of Douxie's face while he slept, but in a blink, the plant looked no different from any other garden shop flower before it blooms.
Claire gently shook Douxie's shoulder.
"What? What'd I miss?" Douxie shot upright, blue-tipped hair a mess.
"There's a reporter in town," said Claire. "From New York."
"Well, that's lovely," he grumbled. "The illusion spell must be breaking down. She shouldn't have been able to see anything past the town line. It would have looked like a flat stretch of road, and she'd have come out on the highway."
"Can you fix it?" Jim said.
"I'd need help for that, and Zoe's out of town on Hex Tech business. She won't be back for two more weeks. After tutoring Zoe, Merlin vowed never to teach another hedge witch, so no one else there even knows the incantation."
"Can I help?" Claire said.
"This kind of magic requires a great deal of energy—more than you can lend at the moment. More than I can lend, for that matter. If something went wrong, both of us could end up asleep for a week or more."
"We can't afford to lose that much time." Jim laid Excalibur across the library table. Sunlight filtered in through an ornate stained-glass window and left dancing rainbows on the blade.
"There's something else, isn't there?" Douxie stood, Nari's plant still in the crook of his arm. When a green shaft of light hit the closed bud, one petal popped loose, and something inside the bud glittered. "Come on. Out with it."
Jim worked his jaw. He didn't want to tell Douxie what he'd seen in the Chronosphere.
To his relief, Claire didn't reveal his secret. "We… can't say yet. But the sooner this reporter leaves, the better it'll be for all of us."
"I can't renew the illusion spell, but if I can get close to that reporter, I can plant a repellant charm. It'll make even the thought of Arcadia Oaks repugnant, and she'll leave on her own."
"There's a slight problem with that…" said Claire. "After you switched bodies with Nari, this reporter saw you. You won't recognize her since Nari was in your body at the time, but she's going to remember you."
"All right. Then you can do it." Douxie reluctantly set the plant on the table while he flipped through a spell book.
"She saw me too."
"Jim, looks like it's all yours," said Douxie.
"What do I have to do?"
Douxie pointed to an image of a quarter-sized clear crystal. "Just slip this into her purse—if she's got one—or a pocket would work even better. She'll be gone within an hour of planting it."
"How long before it's ready?" said Jim.
"Give me two hours."
Jim picked up Excalibur. "We'll come back." As he and Claire left the workshop, Nari's potted plant seemed to reach toward Douxie's hand. He didn't look at the flower but brushed a finger along one leaf as he read instructions for making the repellant charm.
Claire portaled them to the copse of trees near the shelter.
A group of kids kicked a ratty soccer ball in a clearing not a hundred feet away. None of them seemed to have noticed Jim and Claire's arrival.
"Did you see that?" Jim whispered.
"Yeah. The only time that plant did anything was when Nari wanted it to. You think it could be linked to Douxie now since she's gone? We should have told him about the Chronosphere."
"I know you wanted to," Jim said. "Thanks for not mentioning it. Unless something else happens, I don't want anyone to know until that reporter's out of town. If no one knows, they can't unintentionally tell anyone. Those pictures the reporter found—they're Mary's. She's been posting stuff about Arcadia Oaks to 2.3 million people for who knows how long."
"She only had 30,000 a couple years ago."
"Guess her following's grown," Jim said.
"How many of them believe her?"
"One's enough."
"I'll tell NotEnrique what's going on so he can lie low. The problem's going to be if that woman starts asking questions. People here have learned to accept things most of the world doesn't consider possible, but if they told a stranger a fraction of what's happened here over the past few years, the whole town would be committed," Claire said. "Can you tell Aja about Newberry?" She handed him an Akiridion communicator.
"I'll let her know." Jim took Claire's other hand. "Be careful. If what really happened here gets out, we won't be able to keep the cameras away, and who knows what could happen to Blinky and AAARRRGGHH! and the rest of the trolls, not to mention Aja, Krel, and Doux."
"Stop worrying so much. Nothing's going to happen to our friends." She squeezed his hand and headed for the shelter.
That's what we thought before the Titans came. This could go wrong fast. He gripped Excalibur's hilt tighter. No. I won't let that happen again. Mom was right. We never give up. Ever. And I'm not starting today.