Chapter Twenty-Three The Infinity Pool

Teddy led the way. The sky was just beginning to lighten when they reached the infinity pool, and the water was the deepest shade of purple-black. Lights from the nearby trees glinted off the surface, making it impossible to see the stairs that curled around the central pedestal and descended into the water.

“So there’s just one problem,” Teddy said, and pointed his flashlight to where the infinity symbol twisted in the light breeze. The beam of light hit the sculpture’s base, where a keyhole waited. “I don’t think we can reach it.”

He was right. Even with a running jump, the pedestal was too far, an unreachable island in the center of a deadly pool of water.

“What are you talking about?” Camilla kicked off her flip-flops. “Gimme the key. I’ll swim to it.”

“No!” Piper and Teddy yelled together. They quickly explained why, and Teddy tossed a few blades of grass in to illustrate their point.

“Are you guys forgetting that I can teleport?” Kenji said, clearly offended. “Give me the key. I’ll do it.”

“You’ve never been to that exact spot before,” Piper said, pointing at the pedestal. “You can see it, sure, but what if you misjudge the distance? If you land in the water, you’ll drown.”

“Hang on!” Julius expanded his spyglass—awkwardly with his injured wrist—and examined the pool. “There’s something here—residue of the work of a magi. Everything’s … fuzzy.”

“Can I look?” Piper asked. “If there was any sort of invisibility spell performed, I have a feeling only I’ll be able to see it.”

Julius handed her the spyglass. She peered through the eyepiece. And there it was, a small stone bridge that extended from the edge of the pool where they were standing, across the water, and to the pedestal in the center. Piper’s amplifier warmed against her chest at the sight of the hidden walkway.

She clacked the spyglass shut and gave it back to Julius. Then she walked forward.

Without his amplifier, she could no longer see the bridge, but she could practically feel it—a warmth tugging her forward.

“Piper, wait!” Teddy yelled.

But her foot hit something solid, and the others gasped as she moved ahead, seemingly floating in air.

Piper crossed the bridge and scrambled onto the statue’s pedestal. Clinging to the rod that supported the twisting infinity symbol, she leaned down and fitted the key into the keyhole. She saw her reflection briefly in the water below, but when she turned the key, the water rippled. There was a thunderous rumble, and for an instant, Piper feared the pedestal was giving way, collapsing into the water, where she would be sucked to the bottom and drown.

Only it wasn’t the pedestal that was falling. It was the water. Piper watched the surface level sink down into the pool, lower and lower, until it had completely drained, leaving only a few small puddles on the uneven stone bottom.

Empty, the infinity pool reminded Piper of a well, and at its center, instead of a bucket for drawing out water, was the giant stone column where she stood, a set of stairs wrapping around it and leading into the depths.

Piper looked to her friends. They stood wide-eyed at the pool’s perimeter. “Go on,” Teddy urged. “What are you waiting for?”

She descended the stairs in a bit of a trance. There was supposed to be a third trial, but the pool had drained immediately. Maybe the trial was waiting behind the trapdoor. Soon she was in the belly of the pool, bathed in shadow, the wrought-iron handle of the trapdoor in her palm; she was shocked to find it unlocked.

It was almost too easy.

The door heaved open with an ancient creak and a puff of stale air. Piper fanned it from her eyes, and when it cleared, she found herself looking down on a shallow cavity. Inside was a corked glass bottle, round with a slender neck, its liquid a brilliant ruby red. Piper picked it up, fingers trembling. The bulbous part of the bottle fit neatly in her palm.

Here it was. The drink that would save her father.

In the bottom of the cavity, carved into the stone, was a short inscription.

For this magic to work, it must willingly be traded.

Have you truly earned it? Is this fated?

Piper frowned. She’d clearly earned it, because the elixir was in her hands. She’d passed every trial, proven herself a worthy recipient. She’d broken the concealment, and now all that remained was getting the elixir to her father.

She looked up, finding her friends high above, heads craned over the edge of the pool. She lifted the elixir for them to see. Julius beamed. Camilla gave her a thumbs-up. Kenji shook Teddy’s shoulder with excitement.

“Bring it up,” Julius called. “It’s time to teleport outta here!”

But when Piper turned around, a gleaming black portal was materializing at the base of the stairs. Unlike the fear portal she’d entered with Teddy, this portal wasn’t pure black. She edged nearer, peering into the darkness. If she stayed still, looking very carefully, she could make out something in the distance. Blurry lights and shapes. There was something long and rectangular and white. A peach smudge above it. Squares beyond the smudge. The shapes pulsed and sharpened, like an image coming into focus.

A pattern appeared on the long white shape.

The squares framed sky.

Piper knew what she was seeing, where this portal would lead. Of course it would appear now, bringing her—the finder of the elixir—exactly where she longed to be. She wouldn’t need her mother to drive her to Atticus or for Kenji to teleport her to safety. She didn’t need anyone.

Distantly, she heard her friends calling for her, but Piper’s attention was focused on only one thing: the hospital room, with its stiff bedsheets and sterile windows, and her father lying atop the bed. She could see the heart monitor now. Hear it, even. It was beeping—faint and weak—but there was still time. And at the end of the day, the truth was that Piper didn’t care what she’d promised. Now that the elixir was in her hand, she knew she’d break any promise she’d made to save her father. The way to him had materialized before her. All she had to do was take it.

She glanced up at Teddy. He gave her a quick nod, as if to say, Do it, and that was all the encouragement she needed.

Piper squeezed the elixir bottle and stepped through the portal.