He immediately realized that was a strange way to phrase it, since looking at the hourglass was a tremendously bad idea.

You know what I mean. Be careful. Trust your spooky sense.

Emrys resisted the urge to stare at the screen waiting for a reply, but only because Serena was waiting. He opened the door to see her standing there with her arms crossed. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Emrys replied. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” she answered. “My brother just got back from lacrosse, and he’s stinking up the whole apartment. I thought … if you still needed help with your, you know, ‘homework’ …”

“I just finished, actually.” Emrys tried to sound casual, but he could hear the brittleness in his own voice. Serena’s hurtful words were still too fresh.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “What did you learn?”

Emrys perked up at that. “Do you really want to know?”

“Probably not,” Serena said, sighing. “Sorry. I’ve got a lot on my ‘stuff to process’ pile right now. But I was hoping we could talk.” At the operatic sounds of Emrys’s dad preparing dinner, she added, “Somewhere private.”

“Sure,” said Emrys. “You want to hang out in my room?”

“I had somewhere else in mind,” she said, already turning to go. “Leave the book.”

Emrys naturally assumed that Serena would lead him downstairs. Instead, she went up. On the landing midway between Emrys’s floor and the next, she put her hands on the bottom edge of a grimy window. She had to strain to open it, but with a bit of exertion, she managed. The early evening tousled Emrys’s hair with icy fingers, and he suppressed a shudder.

“After you,” said Serena, and after a momentary hesitation, Emrys clambered onto the metal fire escape. He was in the space between buildings. Looking down at the alleyway below, all concrete and piled trash, gave him a rush of vertigo. If he fell, it wouldn’t be a pleasant landing.

Serena clambered out beside him, and she went up again, gripping the thin, rickety railing of the fire escape and ascending one careful step at a time. Emrys followed.

The fire escape went all the way to the roof, which was strangely uneven and softer than Emrys would have suspected. It was almost springy beneath his feet, and while the rooftop was enclosed on three sides with a raised ridge, its fourth side was open. Emrys couldn’t help imagining rolling right off the edge. He eyed it warily.

Serena walked fearlessly across the bright white surface of the roof, homing in on the solitary pop of color: a vibrant green plant in a terra-cotta pot. She pulled a few small tomatoes from the greenery, handing one to Emrys.

“The only plant I’ve managed to keep alive inside is a cactus,” Serena said. “I’m having better luck up here. Try it.”

Emrys popped the tomato into his mouth and bit down. Flavor burst across his tongue—a far cry from the wan, watery taste of the tomatoes from the supermarket.

“Good, right?” said Serena. “There’s a whole bunch of people in the neighborhood who use their rooftops for gardening. You can see a few of them from here. They aren’t growing, like, potion ingredients or man-eating fly traps. They’re growing cucumbers and strawberries and basil. Look there.”

Serena pointed, and Emrys peered into the distance. New Rotterdam spread out before them, lit by the fading glow of the setting sun. He saw dozens of townhouses and apartment buildings just like theirs; he saw the early evening traffic, backed up at the major intersections around the Shallows, and the holes in the skylines where the city’s scattered parks, gardens, and cemeteries crouched between buildings. Beyond it all, he could see a shadowy strip of ocean, its outline framed by distant lighthouses that shone like the first stars in the growing dark of the eastern sky.

“You see that basketball court?” Serena asked. “That’s where my brother, Dom, broke his leg when he was trying to climb to the top of the hoop. It’s one of my earliest memories. I was so scared when it happened that Dom had to comfort me. And there.” She pointed at a church steeple. “That’s the church where my dad took us to help out with a food drive. They told him that his ‘lifestyle’ would make people uncomfortable. I avoided walking past it for years because I didn’t trust myself to not throw a rock right through their gaudy window.”

“That’s awful,” said Emrys.

Serena shook her head. “It’s depressingly average, actually,” she said. “Just your run-of-the-mill ignorance. The everyday kind of evil. And that’s my point.” She swept an arm out to encompass the city. “New Rotterdam is my home. It’s where I took piano lessons and came in second place in a soapbox derby and where I threw up on the boardwalk when I ate too much cotton candy. They wouldn’t tell you that on a ghost tour or on America’s Most Haunted or on that ridiculous wiki. But there’s more to this town than ghosts and goblins.”

Emrys nodded solemnly. “That’s true,” he said. “But maybe that’s why we can’t ignore what we’ve learned. Because there are normal people—kids like Brian Skupp—who got caught up in something that they can’t understand.”

“Normal people,” Serena echoed, and she sighed, sitting cross-legged on the roof. “I’m sorry I called you … what I called you. That was too far, and I didn’t mean it.”

Emrys lowered himself to sit beside her. “I mean, I am weird. I’m learning to accept it about myself. But it hurt, coming from you with so much … venom behind it.”

“I’m sorry,” Serena said again. “In that moment, I think I wanted to be hurtful. And then I got home, and I imagined telling Hazel what had happened, and I thought about how she would get my version of the story and your version. And I realized there wasn’t really a version where what I said to you was justified. She’d definitely take your side again.”

Emrys felt a little guilty, hearing her put it that way. This is why he’d tried so hard to befriend Serena. He didn’t want to be a wedge. “I don’t want Hazel to have to choose sides,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. Me neither.” She smiled. “Although it’s kind of funny, how she’s basically playing the peacemaker even in my head. She’s so good at it. And for what it’s worth, I’m totally down with the idea that weird can be a good thing.”

“I hope so,” Emrys said. He thought of Van Stavern’s words. “If I can embrace what makes me different … if I can wield it … then maybe I can help people. People who want New Rotterdam to be a sleepy seaside town where the only monsters they’ll encounter are the stuffed souvenirs from the gift shops.”

“People like me?” Serena said, and though it sounded like a question, it didn’t seem to be one she was directing at Emrys. “I’ll be honest. I wish I never saw that place—the reliquary or whatever it’s called. I wish I’d stayed home that night.” She shook her head. “But Hazel was going after you, and I couldn’t let her do it alone. So I can’t say I’d do anything differently. But ever since that night … I’m so scared, Emrys. I don’t like being scared.”

Emrys grinned. “I don’t think anybody likes being scared.”

She drew her legs up, hugging her knees to her chest. “But when I’m scared, I panic. I do stupid things, like pulling a buzzer off the wall. Or saying mean things to a nice guy who just wants to help people.”

Emrys blushed, the compliment somehow just as uncomfortable for him as her earlier insult had been.

“I don’t know what I’d do if something actually bad happened,” she continued. “Like if what happened to Mr. Pierce happened to me? I wouldn’t last five seconds.”

“I know what you mean,” Emrys said. “And, just so you know, I’m scared, too.” He met her eyes. “I’m scared pretty much all the time. But I think maybe the thing I’m most afraid of is doing nothing.”

Serena didn’t say anything for a little while. Emrys wondered if he should have said something different, or if maybe she was expecting him to say something more now. But he stayed quiet, stewing in his discomfort, until Serena finally broke the silence, declaring, “I’m cold. Let’s go back inside.”

It was fully dark now, and the streetlights below did little to light their descent down the fire escape. Emrys felt no small amount of relief when he set his feet down on the inside stairwell. Serena eased herself through the open window behind him. There was a quiet confidence in her movements and a subtle fierceness in how she held her chin. Despite her confession, she still appeared fearless to him.

He was glad they’d cleared the air. Falling into step beside her, he felt himself stand a little straighter. Even if she was scared—and even if she refused to involve herself with the Order more than she already had—Emrys felt more sure of himself, knowing that she didn’t resent him. He turned to wish her good night.

And heard her let out a sudden whimper.

“Oh … oh, no,” Serena said, her eyes fixed on the landing below them.

Emrys followed her gaze. There on the landing sat a beautiful ornate hourglass, its top bulb filled with red sand.

Talk: The Wandering Hour

From the New Rotterdam Wiki Project

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Edna’s kids?

Is it worth naming the kids who went missing under Edna’s care? Do we have those records? Maybe set up a list page? @TheRotterFiles (user) 14:04, 5 May [reply]

Definitely worth it. But while we have the number, unfortunately the names have been lost. If anyone even bothered noting them at all. @LongNeckedDoug (user) 14:32, 5 May [reply]