The concern peering out at me through his eyes told me I hadn’t made the wrong choice.
“I didn’t think about the effect being here would have on you,” he admitted, his forehead wrinkling as he gazed around him with a touch of frustration. “And I should have. The casinos in this town are almost all run by spooks. The spells are meant to lower human inhibitions to make them gamble more.”
That wasn’t all. There were also numerous curses designed to prevent spooks cheating. Nasty things that were best steered clear of. Then there were the basic befuddlement charms to make humans pliable and prone to bad decisions.
The entire building was a honey trap meant to part humans from their cash.
What concerned me most, though, was the thread that looked like it was siphoning away some of the life force of humansgathered around the gambling tables. Not all of them. Just certain ones.
If I hadn’t already disliked casinos, the sight of all these spells would have made me hate them.
“I’m surprised you don’t have a raging migraine,” Nathan observed.
“I would have if I wasn’t shielding so hard.”
A side effect was that I was now practically blind. Magically speaking, that was. I could see enough of it to spot the thicker pockets but getting details was impossible unless I loosened my stranglehold over my ability.
“Keep that up because it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Nathan warned as a flash of magic swallowed Anton and Deborah.
Belatedly, I realized we’d left the main path and had strayed toward a section that was largely deserted. A pair of ancient looking, feline statues whose features had been worn away by weather and time flanked either side of a marble hallway. One that I realized was an illusion as Connor and Caroline disappeared into it.
Then it was our turn.
Nathan wrapped an arm around my back and ushered me forward. “Don’t falter now.”
A buzzing sensation lifted the tiny hairs on my arms.
I shivered, feeling like I’d just stepped through a low voltage electrical fence.
“What was that?” I complained, rubbing my arms to get rid of the unsettling sensation.
“Welcome to the Playground.” Nathan threw his arms wide, indicating a space so vastly different from the one on the other side that it was hard to believe they existed so close to each other. “A place where every spook can feel right at home as they enjoy the delights and splendors of sin city. You just steppedthrough the barrier meant to keep humans from discovering our little secret.”
I didn’t comment immediately, more preoccupied with the large number of creatures flowing past us, many of whom I didn’t recognize. Some of them were humanoid. Fae so beautiful they hurt my eyes. Werewolves and vampires. A harpy dropped out of the sky to mess with a creature that seemed more beast than human. Eyes peered at us from the shadows. The faces they belonged to more bestial than anything.
The strange part was seeing glow necklaces and bracelets on many individuals. Drinks, like those you’d find on the Vegas strip, were clutched in their hands as they stood around gambling tables.
Anton appeared from the crowd, Deborah at his side. Both carried trays of shot glasses filled with a neon blue liquid.
Nathan grabbed two from Deborah’s tray, handing one to me while keeping the other for himself. “Bottoms up.”
This sneaky bastard. He was challenging me. He knew if I was up to something dangerous that I’d be reluctant to compromise my judgment with alcohol.
And he was right.
I was in a strange city. One where I didn’t know the major players. Potential enemies were everywhere.
It would be reckless to lower my inhibitions under these circumstances. Complete and total madness.
“Unless, of course, there’s a reason you don’t want to,” Nathan murmured with a knowing look.
Caroline reached around me, plucking a shot off Anton’s tray and tossing it back like we really were here to get our party on and not embark on a dangerous mission we might not survive.
“No reason,” Caroline answered with an edge to her voice that warned me not to blow it. “Right, Lena?”
I lifted the glass to my lips and swallowed the contents. It burned all the way down.
“Right.” I gritted out a smile that probably looked as combative as I felt.
