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PROLOGUE

“Nick? Honey? You’re not really asleep, are you?”

Nick blinked his eyes open as so In fact, he was surrounded by all kinds of noise Like a party

What the…?

He lifted his head from his folded arms to find himself not in the bed he’d fallen into, but at a …

Prom?

Yeah, it was a fancy proh pink fabric to make him feel like he’d fallen into a Pepto-Bis, he scanned the darkened hotel ballroo hard to sootten here?

When had he coet all of that for a one to bed…

Weren’t pro?

Yeah, they were

Crap

How had he lost six months of his life? When had he lost the at the round table with hiht, but instead of the pretty-boy jock he was supposed to be, Caleb was a bit heavyset and wore a retainer

At a prom?

Huh?

Retainer? Was it a costume party of some kind? After all, it was New Orleans—the only place in the world where they could turn opening a regular envelope into a grand procession Yeah, that

Especially the usually fla an understated pink frilly dress down to her ankles with a sweater buttoned up to her chin He frowned as he followed the line of her arm to where she held Caleb’s hand

Demon …

Si icicles in his hot tub My dad must have sucked out my brains when he died Or maybe this is Caleb’s idea of a joke? The demon did have a sick sense of hunitude of possible and awful paranorhtjacket seem like thea pair of thick glasses and an outdated dress that looked like sohes movie

Is this a dream?

It was too real for that, and yet …

“Nick, you’re looking kind of sick Like you’re about to hurl Are you okay?” Casey rubbed his hand

No He was definitely not okay He felt like soaze locked on a short, stubby … geek whose eyes and dark hair were all too familiar

No … it couldn’t be

“Stone?”

He beaet you? You don’t look like you should be driving”

“I can take hinize No, no, no There was no way he was here Why would an eleven-thousand-year-old all-powerful i would be bored, given all the things out to end therisly car wreck—Nick had to His stohtmare would take him this tione to the real hell That was the only plausible explanation he could wrap his head around The only explanation that made sense

Because this …

This was the freakfest of all time

It was definitely Acheron Parthenopaeus All five feet tall of him, with short brown hair and blue eyes

And in a pink tux

Nick laughed at so that was a lot scarier than it was funny But he didn’t knohat else to do … except screahtjacket for real

Maybe I have lost my mind

Yeah, that was a little htmare

He sed hard then returned his attention to Stone “Can I ask a weird question?”

“If you ure out why he was having this screwed-up drea finally eaten hi, he had no choice except to ride this … horror out to its conclusion

“What’s hed

Yeah, so not funny Nick forced hiuys Just play along and answer the question”

Ash snorted, then answered in a nasal tone “You know your dad, Nick Michael Burdette He’s an accountant orks with Caleb’s father”

Caleb had a dad, too?

Sure, and fat flying fairies ht and left them for him in the bathroom

Nick arched a brow at Caleb “And your father would be…?”