Free Lives of Magic (Seven Wanderers Trilogy) by Lucy Leiderman Page A

understood. Kian turned back towards the television screens.
    He doesn’t know how many he’ll find because he doesn’t know how many are left.
    I pondered all of the events that could have befallen me had I never met Kian. What if these memories came back, and I didn’t know what to do? What if he hadn’t been there last night to drag me down by the ankle? What if I was just overrun by magic and collapsed under its weight? What if something else had happened to my human self? Has this happened to any of us?
    I checked myself after the word “us.” No turning back now.
    “ BREAKING NEWS .” The television screens behind us flashed red. The muttering died down and people turned to the screens to watch and listen. I could hear a few parents shushing their children.
    The noise of the crowd was still too loud to hear the announcer, but the closed captioning on each screen was flashing wildly. Suddenly, each of the dozen screens began showing an image of the Atlantic Ocean, with a red target sign over top.
    “What …?” I began, but my question was cut off as the pier beneath us lurched and I toppled to the side. Kian caught my arm in a painful grip, but others weren’t as fortunate. Frantic screams erupted as people fell into the water, which was swaying in uneasy and violent waves.
    “There’s been an earthquake somewhere offshore,” Kian said through gritted teeth. I instinctively looked up towards the screens for the news anchors confirming this, but everything had short-circuited.
    The pier jolted and I lost my footing again. This time, for a terrifying few seconds, the pier groaned and shook as the water was sucked out from underneath it and into the ocean. We were faced with a giant wave forming offshore. More screams cut through the air. The wave broke but its tide still hit the pier and raised it. Through my panic, I saw more people tumble into the swelling ocean. The only thing keeping me away from the water was Kian’s death grip on my arm. He was hanging on to the railing of the pier with his other hand.
    We rose with the water until the pier stood nearly vertical. The only thing louder than the roar of the sea was the grating of metal and wood as aged infrastructure gave out. And when I thought we were about to flip, the wave was gone and the pier crashed down.
    Water engulfed us and I inhaled it in terror. The feeling of the pier slamming into the ocean was akin to when I had fallen into the Pacific only a few days ago. The ache reverberated off my heels, up my spine, through my neck, and into my head. I was disoriented and half drowned when Kian dragged me up.
    “Run!” he shouted over the noise. I tried to scramble away, but my gaze kept turning back to the sea. People were in the water. Some struggled, some did not. I stared hard at the dangerous dark surface, expecting the magicians to emerge from within it.
    “Gwen!” Kian was still yelling at me. “ Run !”
    I finally gathered the strength to run towards the end of the boardwalk and land, but not before I saw the Statue of Liberty violently rocking and shaking with the ocean’s surges.

Chapter Nine
    T he slippery and uneven wood did not make running easy, especially since I was still sore and aching. I eventually had to stop. My breath was becoming ragged, and my chest seized as the blood pumped through to my head, each heartbeat like a hammer blow.
    I pulled Kian to a stop and realized we had been holding hands as we ran from the ocean’s fury. He let go and knelt in front of me, looking worried, while I doubled over and heaved. Something unfamiliar tugged at my chest. It threatened to overthrow me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
    When I regained some energy and air, I straightened. We stood on a street that must have held lots of banks and offices, since the people who flooded the streets and crowded the windows were all dressed in smart black suits. Everyone eyed the sea nervously and spoke amongst themselves. I was at a