“You didn’t do that trick on purpose, did you?” His eyes bore into mine with a seriousness that doesn’t match the question. It’s unnerving, and I can’t get my feet to move, even though my skin is prickling with unease.

“What trick?” My mind’s still half in the past.

“With your little coins.”

I bristle at the way he says “little coins.” Who is this guy? And how would he know anything about what magic I can and cannot do, and why the hell is he watching me in the first place? I’m not the one putting on a show.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I finally get my legs to move and step around him. “If you’re looking for some cool magic, try in there.” I gesture to the door I came from as I walk around him, trying to get him to glance away from me. He doesn’t. He stays still, but he doesn’t stop watching me until I’m past him.

“Don’t come back here,” he says when I’m almost out of earshot.

I think about yelling a retort, but when I turn, he’s facing away from me. So I keep going, glancing back multiple times just to be sure he isn’t following, but he’s still just standing there, hands folded behind his back, staring at the doorway to the club.

CHAPTER 4

My eyes blur from lack of sleep. I stayed up all night researching floating card tricks, but I didn’t find anything that rivaled Xander’s butterfly. There are plenty of tutorials on how to levitate a single card or object or even yourself, but nothing that comes close to touching what Xander seems to be capable of.

What I did find was a familiar video. When Joseph Perry left the flashier stages of magic for dark and dingy little clubs where people rarely knew his name, he was careful about making sure nobody knew exactly where he was or what he was doing, so all his shows had “no recording” rules. It’s easy to find videos of him performing before Mom, but there’s only one of him onstage with Mom. Of course it would come up while I’m searching for butterfly magic tricks.

I’ve already watched it more times than is probably good for me.