Grantstood nearby, hands lifted in a gesture of having just thrownsomething. Grenade, maybe? Some arcane whatsit? It hardly mattered.
Sheclosed her eyes, hoping once again that it was all an illusion and thatit would go away. But she could smell charred flesh, a rotten taste inthe back of her throat.
Fromnearby, Grant asked, “Are you all right?”
Leaning toward the wall, shethrew up.
“Julie—”
“Yousaid it was an illusion.”
“I had every—”
“Itrusted you!” Her gut heaved again. Hugging herself, she slumpedagainst the wall and waited for the world to stop spinning.
Hestood calmly, expressionless, like this sort of thing happened to himevery day. Maybe it did.
Shecould believe her eyes. Maybe that was why she didn’t dare open themagain. Then it would all be real.
“Julie,”he said again, his voice far too calm. She wanted to shake him.
“Youwere right,” she said, her voice scratching past her raw throat anddisbelief. “I should have stayed behind.”
“I’mglad you didn’t.”
Whenshe looked up, the burned stain streaking across the hall andthe puddle of vomit in front of her were still there, all too real.Grant appeared serene. Unmoved.
“Really?”
“Youhave a gift for seeing past the obvious. You were the kid who alwaysfigured out the magic tricks, weren’t you?”
Shehad to smile. For every rabbit pulled out of a hat there was a tablewith a trapdoor nearby. You just had to know where to look.
“Youare all right?” he asked, and she couldbelieve that he was really concerned.
Shehad to think about it. The alternatives were going crazy or muddlingthrough. She didn’t have time for the going crazy part. “I will be.”
“I’mvery sorry,” he said, reaching out to help her up. “I really wasn’texpecting that.”
Shetook his hand and lurched to her feet. “You do the distracting nexttime.” She didn’t like the way her voice was shaking. If she thoughtabout it too much she’d run screaming. If Grant could stand his ground,she could, too. She was determined.
“Iwas so sure it was an illusion. The players at your table—they had tohave been illusions.”
“Theguy from yesterday was sweating.”
“Verygood illusions, mind you. Nevertheless—”
Shepointed at the soot stain. “That’s not an illusion. Those playersweren’t illusions. Now, maybe they weren’t what they looked like, butthey were something.”
Hisbrow creased, making him look worried for the first time this wholeescapade. “I have a bad feeling.”
Heturned back to the door he’d been working on, reaching into bothpockets for items. She swore he’d already pulled more out of thosepockets than could possibly fit. Instead of more lockpicks or key cardsor some fancy gizmo to fool the lock into opening, he held a string offour or five firecrackers. He tore a couple off the string, flattenedthem, and jammed them into the lock on the door.
Hereyes widened. “You can’t—”
“Maybethe direct approach this time?” He flicked his hand, and the previouslyunseen match in his fingers flared to life. He lowered the flame to thefuse sticking out of the lock.
Juliescrambled back from the door. Grant merely turned his back.
The blackpowder popped and flared; the noise seemed loud in the hallway, andJulie could imagine the dozens of calls to the hotel front desk aboutthe commotion. So, security would be up here in a few minutes, and oneway or another it would all be over. She’d lose her job, at the veryleast. She’d probably end up in jail. But she’d lost herchance to back out of this. Only thing to do was keep going.
Granteased open the door. She crept up behind him, and they entered the room.
Thiswas one of the hotel’s party suites—two bedrooms connected to a centralliving room that included a table, sofa, entertainment center, and wetbar. The furniture had all been pushed to the edges of the room, andthe curtains were all drawn. Light came from the glow of a few dozenred pillar candles that had been lit throughout the room. Hundreds ofdull shadows seemed to flicker in the corners. The smoke alarms had tohave been disabled.
Theplace stank of burned vegetable matter, so many different flavors toit Julie couldn’t pick out individual components. It might have beensome kind of earthy incense.
Apattern had been drawn onto the floor in luminescent paint. A circlearced around a pentagram and dozens of symbols, Greek letters, zodiacsigns, others that she didn’t recognize. It obviously meant something;she couldn’t guess what. Housekeeping was really notgoing to like this.
Twofigures stood within the circle: a man, rather short and very thin,wearing a T-shirt and jeans; the other, a hulking, red-skinned being,thick with muscles. It had a snout like an eagle’s bill, sharpreptilian eyes, and wings—sweeping, leathery-bat wings spread behindit like a sail.
Juliesqueaked. Both figures looked at her. The bat-thing—anotherdragon-like gargoyle come to life—let out a scream, like the sound oftearing steel. Folding its wings close, it bowed its head as a columnof smoke enveloped it.
Grantflipped the switch by the door. Light from the mundane incandescentbulbs overpowered the mystery-inducing candle glow. Julie and the guyin the circle squinted. By then, the column of smoke had cleared, andthe creature had disappeared. An odor of burning wax and brimstoneremained.
Theguy, it turned out, was a kid. Just a kid, maybe fifteen, at thatawkward stage of adolescence, his limbs too long for his body, acnespotting his cheeks.
“You’vebeen summoning,” Grant said. “It wasn’t you working any of thosespells, creating any of those illusions—you summoned creatures to do itfor you. Very dangerous.” He clicked his tongue.
“Itwas working,” the kid said. He pointed at theempty space where the bat-thing had been. “Did you see what I managedto summon?”
Hewas in need of a haircut, was probably still too young to shave, andhis clothes looked ripe. The room did, too, now that Julie had a chanceto look around. Crumpled bags of fast food had accumulated in onecorner, and an open suitcase had been dumped in another. The incenseand candle smoke covered up a lot of dorm-room smells.
Onthe bed lay the woman’s purse with several thousand dollars in casinochips spilled around it.
“Ithink you’re done here,” Grant said.
“Just who
