down at me. Nothing of the kindly old grandfather remained; all that was left beneath his black, pointed eyebrows were two merciless chips of ice. I was too terrified to speak.
Almost.
“Why are you doing this to us?” I whispered.
“I have always been forthcoming about my goal,” he said, his genial tone belied by the cruelty in his eyes. “ ‘The one and only.’ I am to become in truth what I claim on the stage—the last of the magicians, the last and greatest mind to look out on the world with the same eyes as those first wizards who began to see the world with greater eyes at the dawn of man.”
“For the love of God—”
“Spare me this idolatry,” Mirabilus said, jerking the dagger loose, spinning the altar so the world whirled around and stopping it short with a cold, clammy hand slapped on my thigh.
“Oh, God,” I said, squeezing my knees together, throwing my head between my elbows and pressing myself as close as I could to the cold stone. This… disgusting old man was going to rape me before I died. “Oh, Jesus—”
“Enough,” he said, and the dagger embedded itself again into the altar with a sudden ring, wobbling back and forth, slapping itself against my buttocks a few times before finally coming to rest, not touching me in any way—except I could still feel it there, a ghostly echo of cold silver and the cool smooth bumps of the jeweled guard hovering there, a ghostly threat hovering beyond sight or reach. “Do not speak the name of that Hebrew fuck again. I don’t want to hear it—especially not from you. Not from a skindancer. We are the priests of Ba’al Shaman, the children of Ba’alat, you and I; keepers of the secret art, masters of the hidden flame—”
“Oh, G—,” I began, and choked it off. I didn’t want him to start using the dagger now. I didn’t want him to start using it at all. There had to be, had to be something I could do. And then I realized: what the hell was he doing walking around after taking that bullet?
“Y-you were shot,” I stammered. “You faked it. H-how did you—”
“Stalling for time by asking me how I do my tricks? Dakota, Dakota. For shame. You might as well ask how I pulled off the Dueling Mirabiluses,” he said. He smiled at me, then began miming sarcastically: “ ‘Did he use a double?’ ‘Maybe he’s twins? ‘Or maybe triplets?’ ‘Is it a hidden projector?’ Bah! What an endless parade of fools.”
He stepped back, holding his arms wide, and two shimmering copies of himself appeared where he opened his hands. “You know the truth, Dakota. Magic is real, and I know how to use it. How did I survive the Masquerade? I was never on the stage of the Masquerade—not before tonight. I created those projectia without ever leaving my dressing room!”
“But… but…” I said, now really stalling for time. Wait—his image had gone to the hospital. “But the doctors examined you! They did bloodwork, took X-rays—”
“I could say that I’m just that good,” Mirabilus said, “but why lie to you, Dakota? You’re in the club. I did a simple switcheroo: I let the projectia get shot, then took its place in the ambulance. A pair of stab wounds, a little more magic, and, voila, a simulated gunshot. Didn’t you hear when the X-rays came back? ‘Miraculously’, the bullet missed bone. It didn’t hurt the illusion that those damn clods infected me with a very real bug.”
And that was it. I was out of options. I looked around desperately. My friends were laid out around me like ninepins, and Transomnia was at the entrance Buck had blasted, nailing sheets of plywood over it to hide the interior of the Masquerade from the street. Maybe Doug knew where we were, if Jinx had told him—but supposedly he couldn’t tell the police without Mirabilus knowing. We were fucked.
“Oh, please feel free to ask me something else,” Mirabilus said, checking his watch. “I’ve lugged this altar across five continents. I’ve had many, many women on its surface. And I know stalling for time. But it’s useless. The full moon is hours off yet, and I’m not yet peaked enough to sample your goods—”
I cringed on the platform, pressing my forehead to my bound hands. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. The creepy old geezer was going to rape me before stripping the skin from my body. I was fucked. Or was about