“Bullshit. I’m not stupid, Tony. Or blind. What’s going on.” He took a step closer, well within Tony’s personal space. “Talk to me.”

“All right.” He raised a hand to cut off any immediate questions. “But not tonight.” He touched his throat. “Hurts. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Green eyes narrowed. Wrong color but otherwise a dead man’s expression. “Promise me.”

“I promise.”

An easy promise to make since Arra was already erasing the chalk memories drawn on the floor.

“No, CB says Mason’s fine.”

Arra snorted as they crossed the soundstage. “I can’t say that I’m really surprised. If anyone had ego enough to cope with being shadow-held for so long, it would be Mason Reed.” She nodded toward the stepladder. “It’s almost time. If there’s anything you want to know . . .”

She wanted him to ask about meaning-of-life stuff. She’d been rediscovering her wizard roots over the last three days and wanted him in on it. Tony started to shrug but cut the motion off short as Whitby protested the movement. Both cats had been protesting the indignity of the cat carriers since they’d left the co-op.

“Anything at all,” she insisted.

Fine. Tony sorted through unanswered questions searching for one he wouldn’t mind having an answer to. There were a lot more of the other kind. “If the Shadowlord had no power here, how did he hold CB?”

“I’m about to leave this world forever and that’s it?”

“Yeah. Why? Don’t you know?”

Arra snorted and turned toward him at the base of the ladder. “Probably a minor binding spell. The close confines of the coffin helped hold it and hitting the floor broke it. Don’t forget to get the gas gauge on the car fixed.”

“I won’t.”

“I’ve left my laptop down in the workshop.”

“It’s still working?”

“Apparently it landed on Everett and bounced. But that’s beside the point; it has some things on it you might be able to use.”

“I’m not a wizard.”

She snorted again. “Damned right you’re not. Here.” She handed him the second cat carrier. “Hold Zazu until I’m up the ladder.” First step. Second step.

Not very interesting to look at actually. “It would look a lot more wizardy if you levitated or something.”

Third step. “And you’d block this area from the rest of the soundstage? Or maybe you’d rather tell a studio audience where I’m going.” Fourth step.

“You didn’t have to go through this morning. You could have gone through tonight.”

Fifth step. Sixth. “I didn’t feel like it. The police have finished with me, I’m out of here.”