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“I know!” Cassie exclaimed. “Come on!”

She pulled Izzy out from beneath the shelter of the umbrella and into the snow, leaning on the balustrade at the edge of the terrace to stare down into the canyon of Madison Avenue. It was an arctic world down there, the snow piling up quickly, all the streetlights and headlights blurred by the storm. A few adventurous people were trudging through the drifts, heads bowed and hoods up. Behind Cassie and Izzy, in the bar, the pianist finished a slow number and started something faster, some sort of jazzy arrangement of a big band classic that Cassie vaguely recognized.

“Take my hand,” Izzy said, grinning.

“What?” Cassie asked, looking at her friend as she squinted against the snow.

“Dance with me, Cassie!” Izzy said.

“You’re drunk!”

“Yes!”

Izzy pulled Cassie close and for a minute they danced to music from the bar, just them and the snow and the piano notes pirouetting in the cold night sky.

“This is crazy,” Cassie said, as they collapsed into the seats under the umbrella, wiping snow from their faces.

“I still think I’m dreaming,” Izzy said. “Did we just dance in the sky?”

“Some crazy person grabbed me and made me fox-trot,” Cassie agreed.

Izzy smiled and watched the snow, shaking her head. Behind themthe pianist finished the piece and moved back to something slower, something more suitable for late night in a New York bar.

“What could you do with this ability?” Izzy asked a few moments later. “If you can go anywhere whenever you want?”

Cassie thought about it.

“Never need to catch the subway to work?” Izzy suggested. “Just walk from the bedroom to the bookstore.”

Cassie smiled at the thought of that. “I quite like the journey to work, sometimes. Not when it’s cold, though.”

“Cold is the worst,” Izzy agreed. She looked over her shoulder into the bar. “I really feel like getting a drink.”

Cassie’s mind was playing with possibilities. “Never have to use a public restroom again.”

“Oh my god, yes!” Izzy exclaimed. “How good would that be? No more hovering to pee.”

“I can just use the bathroom at home,” Cassie said. “Anytime I want.”

“But what if you do that and I’m in there?” Izzy asked. “What if you walk in on me peeing?”

“Please, you use the bathroom with the door open anyway.I’ve seen it all before.”

“You know, it’s lucky you ended up with that book,” Izzy said, shuffling close to Cassie on the bench for warmth. “I mean, rather than someone else, someone less good. Think about what you could do with it if you were not a nice person.”

Cassie was quiet, not wanting to turn her mind to such thoughts. She wanted to play with the possibilities and enjoy the excitement, not wallow in worries.

“Imagine a sicko who can get in and out of any woman’s bedroom,” Izzy said. “Anywhere in the world.”

“Yeah,” Cassie said.

“You could go to another country and commit crimes and come back here and nobody would know who you were. Even if people thought it was you, you would have the perfect alibi of being in a different country.”

Cassie nodded silently.

“Or a thief,” Izzy continued. “In and out of any safe. Don’t need tobreak in. Don’t even need to step into the bank. You could open the safe door and reach in. Or any jewelry shop. Nothing would be safe.”

“Okay,” Cassie said, scowling. “Can we not list all the horrible things someone could do? This is amazing, Izzy. It’s like... the best thing ever. A magic book that can take me anywhere I want to go! Don’t spoil it!”