The old man spoke no more, as there was a knife suddenly embedded in his chest. Riley saw his own hand on the hilt and for a sickening moment thought that his muscles had betrayed his heart and done the deed, but then he felt the tingle of Garrick’s cold fingers releasing his forearm and he knew that his hand had been forced.

‘There it is,’ said Garrick as the warm blood coated Riley’s sleeve. ‘Hold on tight and you will feel the life leave him.’

‘It wasn’t me that did it,’ Riley said to the man, the words trickling from his lips. ‘It was never me.’

The old man sat stiff as a board, the pendant’s chord fraying against the dagger’s blade.

‘I do not believe this,’ he grunted. ‘All the people on my tail and you two clowns get me.’

Garrick’s words crawled into Riley’s ears like slugs. ‘This is not credited to your account, boy. Mine was the hand that found the gap between this pigeon’s ribs, but there are circumstances here, I’ll give you that. So, I may allow you another chance.’

‘I do not believe this,’ said the old man once more, then his pendant beeped and he was gone. Literally gone. Fizzling into a cloud of orange sparks that were sucked into the pendant’s heart.

‘Magic,’ breathed Garrick, his tone approaching reverence. ‘Magic is real.’

The assassin stepped sharply back, protecting himself from whatever the consequences of the vaporization might be, but Riley did not have the presence of mind to follow. Still holding the dagger, all he could do was watch as the cloud spread along his arm, dematerializing him quicker than a beggar could spit.

‘I am going,’ he said, and it was true, though he could not know where.

He saw his torso turn transparent and his organs were visible for a moment, packed in tight behind translucent ribs, then all the workings were gone too, replaced by sparks.

The gas that Riley had become was sucked into the pendant’s heart. He felt himself go in a vortex that reminded him of being tumbled by a wave on Brighton beach and of a boy watching him from the shore.

Ginger. I remember you.

Then Riley was reduced to a single glowing dot of purest energy. The dot winked once at Garrick, then disappeared. The old man and the boy, both gone.

Garrick reached for the pendant, which had fallen to the sheets, thinking, I have seen this device before, or one like it. Many years ago... But his fingers touched only a smear of soot left behind where the strange talisman had been.

‘All my life,’ he said. ‘All my life...’

He mouthed the rest but did not say it aloud, as he was alone in this room of wonders.

All my life I have searched for real magic. And now I know it does exist.