The bodies were lifted higher. Maggie began moaning so loudly Roman heard it twice over, echoing off the steel lids of the strange Goblin caskets. The corpses went higher…higher yet…and Roman could feel her, the promoter, watching from behind a tree. Which tree? Roman didn’t look. He opened his hands, extending his fingers, sending the bodies higher still until they were indecipherable from the many drops of rain falling fast from the sky.

Maggie screamed in ecstasy.

And then…the bodies were gone.

Roman let his chin fall to his chest. Maggie came up beside him and covered him with the black umbrella.

“Presto,” Roman said.

“That was your best work yet.”

Roman looked to her.

“And now…the encore.”

24

By midnight Pete was gripping the quarter so hard it left an imprint on his hand. Everyone was there. Mike, Victor, Randy, Susan, Christopher, everyone. A lot of their parents, too.

Pete thought of Dad working. Of Mom asleep.

The Domino Theater was smaller than Pete imagined. He’d read a hundred times how the Spell Circuit magicians performed for sixty people or less, but to see that part of it up close was staggering. It was really no more than a box of a room, four wood walls nailed together, hardly capable of containing a genius like Emperor. But Pete would take it. The stage was so close. And because Roman didn’t hide his moves, Pete would be able to see it all.

The lights went out and his classmates’ chatter ceased with it. The unbearable silence that followed was broken by boots on the stage.

The lights came on.

Maggie.

The crowd was shocked by her. Pete knew they must be. But he wasn’t. He already knew all about Maggie and Roman. Everything there was to know. When Maggie started talking, Pete felt a power in her voice that no magazine had ever mentioned.

She introduced Emperor.

And from the cave-black shadows backstage, he emerged.

He walked out with such confidence and control that the tired face Pete had seen in person seemed like a false memory. He wore the brown pants. Black boots. White shirt and a vest. His hair was wet and Pete was proud that it was because of the Goblin rain.

Goblin.

Roman Emperor was in Goblin.

Without hesitation the pair went headlong into their show. Pete couldn’t imagine how it looked to Mike, someone who had no idea what Emperor was about. And the parents, resigned to take their kids to a midnight magic show, were obviously taken aback. Pete knew they’d been expecting some square in a top hat, but not this brilliant, dark artist who could bend metal with his mind.

People gasped. People called for more.