Arthur kept his face as emotionless as he could. “I didn’t come here to tell you my secrets. I came here to make a deal.”

The seller’s lip curled. “Don’t pretend you’re here to deal when you’re nothing more than a snake.”

The man on the stage threw another knife. Another round of whoosh-thunk-gasp filled the air.

“You actually believed you, mundane as a rock, could hide magic from me.” The seller leaned into Arthur’s space. “Whose is it, I demand to know—”

The velvet curtain suddenly moved. “It’s mine.”

Jade. Arthur forced any surprise or relief off his face, muscles tensing as both of the seller’s henchmen stepped forward.

But the seller held up a hand to his men. “Wait.”

His gaze flicked over Jade, from her tiny top hat and tuxedo to her boots. Beautiful and composed, and only someone who knew her as well as Arthur would catch the more rapid than usual rise and fall of her shoulders, the breaths of someone who’d sprinted to the rescue.

Arthur held his breath. How had he known Arthur had magic in his aura? Was the seller a paranormal?

If the seller somehow had aura-sight, like Gwen, he would know what kind of magic was in Arthur’s aura and would never believe it was Jade’s.

Arthur tensed, ready to fight.

But after an endless moment, the seller sat back in the chair. “Very well,” he said, with some semblance of politeness. “Come in.”

Jade came all the way into the box, the curtain falling into place behind her. Arthur hurriedly got to his feet, offering her the seat he just vacated.

There was still a suspicious set to the seller’s mouth as he eyed Jade. “I’ve made Lieutenant Kenzie’s acquaintance. And who are you?”

“Shelley Laurent.” Jade gracefully took Arthur’s seat. She glanced casually down at the show below, then back to the seller. “Arthur here plays my cover. It’s my magic in his aura—please forgive us the deception.”

“And what is your magic?” the seller asked.

Arthur studied the seller from under his own top hat. Not aura-sight, then, if he couldn’t see what Jade’s magic was.

“Dream-reading.” Jade said it so easily Arthur would have believed her. “What’s yours?”

The seller’s expression turned uglier, unsettling and cruel. “It doesn’t work right anymore.” His gaze cut to Arthur, and for a moment, there was something so disturbingly predatory about his expression that Arthur’s skin broke out in chills. “I don’t like talking about it.”

Christ. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

The seller looked back at Jade with an air of being done with Arthur completely. “I much prefer to deal with paranormals directly. You’ll forgive my anger, won’t you? One can never be too careful.”