Carrion birds, crows, circled overhead as they approached and passed through the dolmen portal. Cullen eyed them warily, as had Cathbad, but Emery took little notice of them. She was more concerned about where exactly they'd pop out on the other side. New York City was huge, and what if they came out in the middle of a street or on top of a building? But the druid and God had done well; the travelers arrived in a patch of bushes next to a reservoir in Central Park. Literally nobody was anywhere near them.

The park was pleasant enough at night; the evening was early, and the farther they walked, the more people they came across. Emery had been correct in assuming no one would think anything of their clothing and weaponry. Or, if anyone did think something, nobody accosted them about it. Emery had dressed in her leather breeches and a tunic and thrown her black-and-gray-furred cloak over that. Cullen had forced her to put on protective gear, though he'd struggled to find much to fit her narrow frame. She did wear mail over her tunic as well as some plating. She'd skipped any sort of decoration beyond the blackthorn twig at her neck, happy enough to strap Great Fury at her back and Little Fury at her hip instead. The walnut from Cathbad was in a pouch on her belt. Her hair she'd fishtail-braided with Tess's help, and the braid hung thick down her back.

Emery had tried to convince Tess to wear breeches and was surprised at her friend's reluctance. Since Emery had been away, Tess had molded into life with Cathbad in Dun-Dealgan quite seamlessly. A certain sadness touched Emery when she realized the Tess she'd known--the one with the sparkly purses and cute barrettes and rainbow apparel--had lost much of her whimsy; Tess had, in a sense, grown up. She'd had to, surely, to deal with all the troubles she'd experienced. In any case, Tess had been insistent on wearing her blue dress--it was a pretty color, and it was lovely against her hair, brought out her eyes, but Emery was sure the long skirt would become a hindrance. She had, however, been able to get Tess to carry a knife, even though her friend much preferred the healing herbs and trinkets Cathbad had begun teaching her to use.

The druid was his usual self, wizard paraphernalia and all, billowy cloak with all its hidden folds, knotted staff out and obvious. He was more serious now, as well. When Emery had first met him, he was bumbling, eccentric. He was still those things, for certain, but he had also sharpened; he wasn't quite so positive as he'd once been. He and Tess seemed utterly devoted to one another, Emery thought, and perhaps having someone to worry about had sobered them.

And then there was Cullen, of course, impressive and intimidating as ever in full regalia. He'd prepared as if he were going into battle: a deep green tunic long enough that he needed no breeches, leather boots with thick-furred tops up to his knees, chainmail and copper breastplate, leg and arm plates, thick sheepskin cloak, all straps and studs and furs--and over and under all of that were multiple weapons, enough for several men let alone one. The only decoration he wore was his hound's head brooch pinning a red tartan across his shoulders, under his cloak. He'd foregone a helmet and instead wore his hair in his standard knot at the back, braids along the sides. Emery had always wondered how he'd been able to style his hair so neatly, and as they'd prepared themselves, she'd been surprised to see he'd done it himself.

They did receive quite a few looks as they began to immerse themselves in more crowded areas, tending to walk four in a row rather than behind one another, but the looks were entertained, not frightened. Everyone moved aside, and several people actually asked to take pictures with them, surely thinking they were actors. Emery wondered whether she should've always worn such attire; maybe the crowds in the high school hallways would've parted for her as well.

All kinds of people were about. Cullen and Cathbad didn't seem particularly impressed by the types of people so much as the sheer amount of people, boating and dining and skateboarding and jogging and playing music and doing yoga and getting wedding photos taken and filming random things with their phones and on and on and on, and when they reached the end of the park and hit a busy street with cars racing by and honking and hot dog vendors and busy pedestrians of all kinds, the men were taken aback.

"What is this pandemonium?" Cathbad snapped.

"This city is absolutely huge," Tess remarked. It's noisy and crazy. Just please stay away from the cars. What's our plan, anyway? How are we going to find this building?"

Emery frowned. They'd paused at an intersection, at the curb, and she told the others to ignore people that asked them questions or called things as they passed. "I don't know," she admitted, feeling foolish. Cullen and Cathbad couldn't have known how big New York City was. In fact, she hadn't really known how big it was. She'd never actually been there. "I feel so dumb. I guess I figured I'd get some sort of vibes when we got here, or I'd just kind of look around and eventually run into it. Or maybe I thought we'd just be closer." She sighed. "We could be searching forever. I do know it was somewhere really rundown, though, where there were pretty much no people, and all the buildings were abandoned except for the one we went into."

"I should've known, too, Em," Tess added. "I don't know why we thought we could just come here and find one building in the midst of thousands."

Emery put a hand instinctively to her necklace. "I could call Charlie out, see if he'd tell--"

"No," Cullen firmly interrupted. "We will not use his help."

"All right," Emery replied, rueful for having mentioned it. "Well, if that was Central Park, we must be in Manhattan, and there's no way that building was in Manhattan. We can't just stand here, so let's start walking. If anyone thinks of something, speak up."

Emery guided the party in crossing 5th Avenue, and they headed into streets of brick and brownstone apartments and buildings. They carried on, really without much purpose except to keep moving, and crossed more streets, all the while observing zigzagging stairways and lamplit windows, people moving in and out of doors and cars winding their ways. Emery felt strange, seeing all the things she should've felt used to seeing. She'd been away from this world for too long, now, this place without magic and mystery, and yet for all its lack of mystical intrigue, it was wonderful and dangerous in other ways. She didn't quite feel as if she belonged, though. Emery had thought that returning would be comfortable, but it wasn't, and not just because of the looks she received. This world didn't sit right with her anymore. She knew too much, now; she was aware that even in a place so seemingly ordinary, evil could thread its roots. Hadn't the Fomorians themselves set up home here? And yet this place was entirely unsuspecting.

The longer they walked, the more Emery wondered what Cullen was thinking. He'd been in her hometown, back when he'd first appeared to try to tell her who she was, when he'd startled her with a kiss, when he'd tried to tell her she was his wife . . . so he must know of many things of this time period, like cars and architecture and electricity. But he and Emery hadn't spent any time talking about the modern world, what he'd seen or thought of it.

Every time they passed some sort of eatery, Cathbad was particularly interested, but Emery reminded him that money was necessary to eat, here. One couldn't just enter a place and request hospitality. The druid dealt with his disappointment and didn't speak much otherwise until, suddenly, he cried out so abruptly and joyfully that the others immediately stopped.

"Here is what we seek!"

Emery was briefly excited but then saw where he pointed. Across the street, a neon light in a storefront squashed between a duplex and a convenience store read "24-Hour Psychic" in blinking blue. Cathbad surely hadn't been able to read that sign; instead, he'd seen the display in the window: an arrangement featuring a hooded mannequin hovering over a crystal ball, waving its hands over the top. A variety of stones and chakras and dreamcatchers and all other manner of spiritual apparati hung around the figure in a collage of flea-market eccentricity.

"It's just a scammer," Emery assured him.

"No, Lady. Observe the charms!" He unknowingly touched the pendant at his neck and a blue stone hanging from his ear. "A druid of this time can surely aid us."

"But that's not really a druid. Right, Tess? Tell him. Those people aren't real." Emery suddenly remembered who she was talking to--Tess, who'd always tried to interpret dreams, who'd loved (even if she hadn't always believed) fortune tellers and tarot readings and Magic 8 Balls and even those little red crinkly fish that you held in your palm to watch which way they curled.

Tess needed hardly a second before replying, "Why not? We haven't got any other ideas."

A distinct irritation flared in Emery. She couldn't help but feel they were wasting time as Tess took directional charge and led them across the street. For a brief instant, she considered taking Cullen aside and suggesting they keep going on their own, but before she could say anything, they'd reached the store, and Cathbad was pushing on the glass door, which tinkled multiple chimes upon opening. Before following the others in, Emery took stock of the cheap purplish LED string lights lining the perimeter of the window display, casting an ugly hue over the items within. This was stupid. She held the blackthorn twig between thumb and forefinger, wondering if Charlie agreed with her, and then forced a "thank you" as she entered the door Cullen held open.

"Greetings!" Cathbad tried again. He'd called once or twice before Emery made it through the door. The interior of the place was full of stuff but, at present, empty of any person. It wasn't large by any means, and it was packed with shelves of crystals large and small, figurines, overgrown plants, seashells and coins, bones and cheap good luck charms, stacks of books on all manner of bizarre topics, bells and gongs and flutes, windchimes and three glowing aquariums, among many, many other things. It made for interesting snooping, but the mounds of junk only confirmed, in Emery's mind, that this psychic was a charlatan. Incense burned on top of a register, making the atmosphere close and thick, and a beaded curtain beyond the register hung still and tempting.

"Someone must be back there," Tess said with a bit of a frustrated huff. She put a hand on Cathbad's arm. "Let me try." Boldly, she walked right around the register and swiped back the curtain with a wave of her arm. "Is anyone here?" she called. Then she gasped and disappeared through the curtain.

The others looked at one another and followed Tess into a small, dark back room to find a woman slumped over a round table, cards scattered in front of her. The walls of the entire room were draped in thick curtain, and the four of them had to crowd in there--especially Cullen, who was twice the size of each of them in his attire. Tess shook the woman, fearing she was dead, but then all of a sudden, the woman sleepily raised her head to reveal herself a middle-aged, overly-makeuped caricature of what Emery would've thought a psychic would look like. She wore a sheer scarf around her head, lots of dangly costume jewelry full of false stones and cliché symbols, and a wrap covered in celestial imagery. She saw Tess first and muttered some sort of gratitude, but the minute she sat up entirely and caught sight of the others, she gave a wide-eyed start.

"What is this? Who are you?"

Tess crouched by the woman's side. "Please, we just came in for a reading, and we couldn't find you, so I came back here and you were passed out."

The woman heard Tess but kept her eyes on the other three, particularly settling on Cathbad and addressing him. "You . . . magician!"

"I prefer druid, Madam," Cathbad returned. "However, yes, I am of your kind. We seek your aid."

The woman shakily rose from her chair. She was taller than she'd appeared, thinner, too, and she glittered and clinked in all her charms and sparkly attire. "Ooooh . . . . no. No, no. I did not believe this day would come. Even as I sat in my cards this evening and the trance came over me--no. I didn't believe it."

Emery rolled her eyes. "Believe what? We just wanted to know if you could help us locate a specific place in this city. That's all. If you can't help, we'll just leave." Good. Emery wanted to leave, anyway.

"Lady!" Cathbad jumped in, addressing Emery, taking her hand. "Please, let me attempt to work with this druidess. I will find our location." He scooted around the table, past Tess, and said to the woman, "We surely understand one another, whatever time and place."

The woman stared at him, leaning away a little. "You aren't from here, are you? These--" she waggled her fingers at Cathbad, "--these aren't costumes, are they?"

"You are correct! I perceived you'd be of a discerning eye!"

She nodded, but her expression was cold. Emery knew where things were going. "I can't help you," the woman informed them. "You need to get out of here. Just go." Nobody moved. "I said get the Hell out!"

Cathbad, agape, not quite processing what the woman had said to him as he'd thought everything had been going so well, just stood there. Tess pulled gently at his arm, urging him to come along, which he did. But they paused at the beaded curtain, waiting for the other two, who didn't budge. Cullen and Emery stood their ground, Emery scrutinizing the woman before her. She sensed something about her, recognized something familiar, and moved closer to her. "You knew we were coming, didn't you?"

The woman scowled but said nothing in reply.

"What else do you know?"

"You get out," the psychic hissed between her teeth, "or I'll call the police!"

"Emery, please--let's just go," Tess begged, her hand rattling the strings of beads.

But Emery wasn't having it. She suddenly pulled her dagger on the woman and shoved the point right up under her chin. "Tell me what you know, or this is going up into your brain."

Emery heard Tess's and Cathbad's horrified gasps behind her, sensed even Cullen was uncertain, but she didn't care. This woman knew something, and she was going to get it out of her.

The threat changed everything. Unable to back away, the psychic suddenly shed her irascible façade and melted. "Don't hurt me! Don't--please--I saw--I saw it in the cards! Days ago, I saw it. Travelers from another time and place, and they'd--" she shivered, her chin dangerously near being punctured if she trembled too hard, "--they'd be the death of me. Th-that's all, I s-swear!"

"I will be the death of you if you don't tell me where I can find them."

"F-find wh-who?"

"You know who!"

At that moment, the lights went out. And not just the lights--all light. As in, not a speck of anything glinted anywhere; it was lost-in-a-cave dark, eyes-closed-even-though-they're-open dark. And suddenly, Emery knew--she knew what it was.

Dark had returned.