“I repeat, so?”

“You have to be there. You should be there. Just in case.”

“As I believe I mentioned last night, there’s no just in case.”

“But I . . .”

“Yes. I got your message. You used a really bright light on the shadow leaving Mr. Nicholas and you think you destroyed it, but you’re not one hundred percent positive.” She folded her arms. Tony had read somewhere that people folded their arms as a protective gesture. Arra didn’t so much look like she was protecting herself as putting up battlements, raising the moat bridge, and hanging out no trespassing signs. “The shadow could have returned unaffected,” she continued, “and therefore the shadows that would have been sent today still will be sent. It could have been injured but not destroyed in which case shadows will come through to find and remove the threat. It could have been destroyed and so nothing went back through the gate at all in which case shadows will come through to find out why.

“The Shadowlord will continue to send his shadows through. You might as well just live your life while you can because there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Hey, I have access to a 6,000 watt carbon arc lamp!”

“If the lamp destroyed the shadow, can you shine it on the gate every time it opens?”

“No, but you can . . .”

“I can what?”

“I don’t know!” Everything he knew about wizards came from the movies and none of it was particularly helpful. “You could help!”

“I helped last night and unless my memory is faulty, which it isn’t, I told you that I’m not going after the shadows. As you might say, been there, done that, got the scars.” Her arms still crossed, her right hand gripped her left sleeve with white-knuckled force.

“You fought before!”

“Older and wiser now. Didn’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

He looked at his watch. Shit! “This isn’t over.” Arra shrugged—although a certain twist to her mouth made the motion look more fatalistic than nonchalant. “That’s what I keep telling you.”

“All right, let’s get Mom’s reaction shots.” Finding himself at the end of his tether, Peter yanked off his headphones and tossed them back to Tina before walking out onto the set. “Lee, if you don’t mind . . . ?”

Cracking open a bottle of water, Lee indicated that he didn’t.

There were stars, Mason Reed among them, who saw no reason they should have to reread their lines so that the cameras could catch the reactions of the secondary characters. On more than one occasion, Tony, as the least essential member of the crew, had found himself holding a script and trying not to sound like a complete idiot while reading Raymond Dark’s dialogue. Given Raymond Dark’s dialogue, that wasn’t exactly a job for an amateur.