Page 22 (1/2)

Vegas was nothing like that It was empty The aetheric was almost flat There was history here, but it was layers of darkness, not light Where the city in the real world was a blaze of light, on the aetheric it was shadow and er and the death of hope This place consu and shi away fro across an e else

The absence of fire A flickering blackness full of shadows, gravity, hunger

It was consu everything around it in ever-increasing spirals

We dropped back out of the aetheric I fell hard back into my body with an all-over jolt that pulled sore muscles Winced

"That’s Kevin?" I asked Lewis slowly nodded He looked mortally tired, even by so brief a journey "Hey Sit before you fall"

He lowered hied position on the floor "So You understand?"

"Not really"

"I told you, she’s useless," Ashworth said, and gripped the silver head of his cane ain "Try putting it in words of one syllable for her"

Lewis put his hands on his knees, palh power anymore," he said "His natural talent was fire; he exhausted that weeks ago He’s burning through what he took from me too fast, and now in order to sustain hi how to take power from the world around him"

I felt a sudden chill "Like a Djinn"

"No Djinn do it on apower like a dee, he’s beco that’s walked the earth in ages He has to be stopped, now" Lewis sucked in a deep breath, then let it out

Lazlo took up the thread "We need you to draw hi"

"Excuse me?"

"He doesn’t coet you out of there, because he was about to kill you, but we can’t do it again He’s ready for us now I need you to draw him out in the open so Quinn can take hiical attacks He won’t expect this kind"

I stared at him, stunned "You want ain his trust and then betray hiht kill you before we can take hi at the chance to help you out now"

Lewis reached out and tookfor the burn of power that had always passed between us, but felt nothing Of course all his poere gone, drained away, leaving a huge bleeding hole that was killing hiain Even if we succeeded in

"No!" I yanked my hand back "Lewis, daet your powers back You know that!"

I wasn’t saying anything they hadn’t already thought of themselves None of them had so ged "That’s how it has to be He can’t be allowed to get any stronger It’s tearing things apart And that’s just hi those powers, God help us all"

"No!" I practically yelled it Lazlo glanced at Lewis So did Quinn "You’ve got power, I know it, I can feel it! Coe ass! All we have to do is get Jonathan away froet o," Lewis interrupted ure, Jonathan wants to be Kevin’s Djinn"

That made no sense at all Why would Jonathan-who I kneas no one’s bitch-stay a slave? Unless there was solu in front of a plate-glassthat didn’t really exist, watching the world go by, his eyes dark and bitter and angry There are days when every single one of them deserves to be wiped off the face of the earth

He’d been looking out at the mortal world

And Rahel had said, He is the one true god of your new existence, little butterfly

I said slowly, "Kevin’s not doing this At least, he doesn’t know he is, and he probably doesn’t want to do it It’s Jonathan He’s found a way to give the world back to the Djinn As far as Jonathan’s concerned, Kevin’s the perfect answer-nearly unli to know that he’s being stupid Too innocent to understand that Jonathan’s using him, not the other way around Jonathan just says ’yes, oes about his own affairs He’s killing Kevin by drawing off every scrap of power inside of hih Kevin to suck it out of the world around him"

Silence Lewis’s expression was unreadable

"But you already knew that," I finished softly "Didn’t you?"

Lewis nodded

"And you knohat he’s trying to do"

Another nod Leasn’t looking so good I could al hi the hu for lost Djinn"

"Lost" I frowned "You hed "The Wardens have been losing Djinn, and we haven’t been finding theuess And it’s tooSoot them"

"Somebody around here?"

"Think about it Jonathanhere, remember? He put the idea in Kevin’s head He wanted to be brought here That means the answer must be here, too"

"And you’re sure it’s not your friendly neighborhood Ma’at"

Lazlo looked offended "We don’t ilanced at the leet the boy out in the open, where we can stop this If we have to take this fight up on theThat’s what Jonathan wants That’s what he needs You have to"

His eyes rolled back in his head I reached for hiht and easing hith