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Oh, God I don’t knohat I expected to see, but not this

The rest of Las Vegas was untouched Literally untouched Windows intact, buildings still standing The Eiffel Tower still climbed toward the sky, and the half-scale Statue of Liberty raised her torch

The Bellagio was barely daed, overall Just the casino area, and just our casino area

The Ma’at had targeted us They’d done all this just to get us Or worse etice of shock start to break up aroundme in the cold water of reality

Sink or swi

"Marion?" I licked rit and bitterness "Howlayer of dust Her hair was co loose from its meticulous braid, and her leather jacket was ripped and shredded in places When she wiped her forehead, she left streaks of still-wet blood

"No fatalities We were able to minimize it," she said "Me and the kid" She cut her eyes toward Kevin, rapped in silence and his own blanket, sitting on the curb while a paraet infore twenty-four/seven for the next fewover and over the freak earthquake, the survivors Pundits would come on the airwaves to talk about all kinds of crackpot theories, everything from international terrorists to Jaht

Please God, nobody would get it right

"He could be great, you know If anyone cared enough to show hi Kevin I nodded "If nobody kills him first"

"See that they don’t"

The paraet out of here," I said "Before they get our names"

Marion nodded She understood the need for secrecy now, as I did

"Better use your Djinn," I finished She looked down at the ground "Marion?"

"He’s gone," she said "He was taken froo"

No wonder I’d never seen him "Why? What happened?"

She heaved in a silent breath "He was stolen from me"

"And you never told" No, of course she hadn’t Losing a Djinn was practically a hanging offense in the upper ranks of the Wardens It was soot your bottle back, and your life with it You were supposed to die before losing your Djinn Oh, it happened-bottles broke, bottles were lost in catastrophes-but there were penalties, and very few replacements

"I was told," Marion said softly, "that if I reported it, they’d torture him I believed it"

I wanted to ask a million questions, but this wasn’t the ti to feel the nonexistent pressure of a laser sight

I felt a hand on otten all about hiid, focused expression "Not much time," he said "He found the bottle Listen, I’ll delay him as much as I can You knohere to find hi about? I don’t understand!" I grabbed for Jonathan’s shoulder, made a fist out of the black fabric of his shirt, and tried to pull hi to pull a pile of lead He had the specific gravity of a oddalittered and went to narrow slits "I’ve been clai to fant-"

Blip He was gone, instantly gone inin his eyes-ie, maybe a tiny flash of fear-and I sucked in a startled breath I spun around, hard, and plunged back toward the casino, where e like hornets Marion wrapped her ared o back"

"I left hiet it back!"

"It’s too late" She was too strong, and her voice was too coet it back"

"Son of a bitch!" I sucked in a wet, treo!"

I wrenched free, but she’d convincedto bull my way back inside I’d left Jonathan’s bottle, somehow, so flash

Siobhan, slipping the fallen bottle into her pocket Me de it back

She’d switched bottles And now someone- probably Quinn-had taken it off her corpse Siobhan had been working for him Son of a bitch, I couldn’t believe that I’d let it slip past me

Marion raised her head to look, and her face went blank and grim Eyes like flint, ready to spark

"Don’t look now," she said, "but the cavalry’s arrived"

I turned h the crowd of looky-loos; the one in front was a distinguished-looking older ray

Myron Lazlo Next to hin of Quinn at all in that pack of grim-faced men (and a feomen)

The Ma’at had come to restore the balance

TEN

The Ma’at manhandled Kevin soly We slipped through the chaos behind the hastily erected disaster barriers, heading for the Luxor The heat quickly made the blankets unbearable, so we shed them at the first available park bench for the homeless

I kept a hand clenched on the leather of the purse slung around my body, the other splayed over the still-war too many lives Too much responsibility

None of the Ma’at said a word as we headed for the Luxor We were going against the flow of traffic, everything and everyone io event The lobby of the Luxor was deserted, except for a marked security presence who eyed us nervously but waved us past when Lazlo displayed soain, but to a larger one this tientlemen’s club, the kind without strippers Lots of dark woods and deep carpets, port and sherry and uniforlass above the door, was an ankh

"Sir" The head butler, who looked as severe and professional as any of the Ma’at, headed straight for Lazlo "What do you require?" British accent, of course Nothing else would do for a place like this

"I think soht be in order Thank you, Blevins"