Seeing Uncle Leonard and Ian standing safely in the room, Jessica, who had been worried about them the whole time up on the Floating City, finally relaxed her tense body and let out a long breath. Ian looked at Jessica, who stood beside Owen and had grown much thinner, and frowned. For an instant, he thought Jessica had been brought here by them as a hostage, but then he laughed at himself. Allen was not the sort to use such methods, and if the other side really wanted to do something, they would not need a hostage...
With a series of sharp swishes, the highly alert, taut-nerved American Aurors drew their wands and gripped them in their hands. But before these American Wizards could say anything, Penelope swept her empty hand through a half circle in the air—then suddenly stopped, frowning as she looked at Owen and Leonard. A moment later, she bit her lip in irritation, forced the tip of her wand downward as she shifted the motion, and the staff in her hand abruptly released a spell.
The American Wizards who had drawn their wands and pointed them at Allen, Owen, and the others found that blue sparks had suddenly burst from the tips of the wands in their hands. Crackling explosions rang out, and flames began to burn bit by bit down the shafts.
The flames spread very quickly, forcing the Aurors to fling their wands away at once to avoid being burned. In the end, the wands turned to ash and scattered across the floor. One wizard reached out as if to snatch his back, but caught only air; his fingers dug into his palm, and in the end he could only look at Penelope in terror.
Penelope gave a cold snort, but after she spoke,