On the other hand, the explanation wasn't likely to win him any friends.

"We're waiting, Tony."

While only Kate looked actively hostile, even Amy, Zev, and Lee-the three who'd been on his side throughout- looked impatient. Well, mostly Lee still looked shattered, but the impatience was there as well.

We know you're hiding something from us. Spill.

He took a deep breath. Tom was dead and Brenda was dead and Hartley was dead, so in comparison . . . "Arra left me the laptop . . . her laptop. She left lessons on it. Lessons on how to be a wizard."

"Say what?" Amy spoke first, but they all wore nearly identical expressions of incredulous disbelief.

"Arra was a wizard." He had to take another deep breath before he could manage the corollary. "I'm a wizard."

"Harry Potter," Brianna announced.

"Gandalf," her sister added.

"Fiction," Mason snapped as Sorge muttered something in French that sounded distinctly uncomplimentary.

"That's not like some strange euphemism for gay, is it?" Adam demanded.

Tony's turn for incredulous disbelief. "For what?"

"Because we all know that."

"No. Wizard. Like Harry Potter." He gestured at Brianna. "And Gandalf." And at Ashley. Finally at Mason. Seven words. Mason's lighter lifted off his thigh and slapped into Tony's hand. "And it's nonfiction." He tossed the lighter back to Mason who instinctively caught it, then let it slide out of his hand onto the floor. Yep, it's covered in wizard cooties.

"According to Arra, it's just a slightly left-of-center way to manipulate energies."

Brianna dove for the lighter. "I want to manipulate energy!"

"It's not something everyone can do."

"I'm not everyone!"

"Why doesn't Tony check you out later," Zev suggested, pulling the lighter from her hand.

Amy's hands were on her hips. "So Arra was a wizard?"

"Yeah."

"Did CB know?"

"Yeah."

"And you're a wizard?"

"Sort of."

"And does he know about you?"

"Yeah."

She smacked him hard on the arm. "So why the h.e.l.l didn't you tell me?"

"CB didn't want any of this to get out." CB hadn't actually said Tony couldn't tell people. They'd been in full agreement on that. He glanced around the circle of staring faces. "You know how weird people can get about this kind of thing."

"What kind of thing?"

"You know, telling people you're a wizard."

"He has a point," Sorge murmured, nodding.

"His head points," Amy snapped. "h.e.l.lo! Haunted house! People dying! I think at that point CB might have let you mention . . ."

Dance music drowned out her last words.

The lights came up.

Great. The ballroom.

Before he could decide what to do-should he put himself physically in front of the doors in case Brianna slipped the leash again-he heard laughing from the drawing room.

That couldn't be good.

Brenda and Hartley danced out into the hall. Like Ca.s.sie and Stephen, Brenda remained drenched in blood. Hartley had lost the duct tape and was remarkably light on his feet. Tom shuffled gracelessly behind them; his broken bones an apparent handicap.

Who the h.e.l.l is coming up with the rules for this s.h.i.t?

Both men shot him somewhat sheepish looks as they pa.s.sed.

"Come and dance with us," Brenda purred over Hartley's shoulder. "Just let the music pick you up and carry you along."

"I don't think so," Tony snarled.

"I'm not talking to you, a.s.shole."

Oh, c.r.a.p . . .

He turned and could just barely make out the translucent forms of Kate and Mouse and Lee and Mason. The shadow- held. And Brianna-whose youth made her susceptible to the other side. Currently, the side he was standing on.

"Don't let anyone leave the circle." Loud enough to be heard over the music. Loud enough to be heard over any shouting going on back in the real world. Loud enough to be heard across the divide. Loud enough they realized he was serious. "Sit on them if you have to!"

"Leeeeeee . . ." Brenda sang the vowels. "You want to be with me, don't you? You let me die. You owe me."

"Cheap shot," Tony growled, placing himself between her and the actor. She smiled; her teeth red. "He's mine, not yours."

"You'll have to go through me to get him."

"Through you . . ."

He stood his ground as the ghosts danced closer.

". . . all right."

"Dancing. We should all go dancing!" Smiling broadly, Mason grabbed Ashley's hands and began to swing her around.

"Everything will be fine if we just go dancing."

She tried to pull away. "Tony said . . ."

"Tony's a PA, what does he know?"

"Let go of me!"

"We're going, d . . .AMN it!"

Stephen's hand pa.s.sing through his arm had been cold. This was so much colder it was almost pain with temperature.

Ice shards in his blood. Muscles tensed past stillness into trembling. The taste of copper in his mouth as he fought to breathe.

Tony's legs folded and his knees slammed hard against wood. He jackknifed forward, gasped in pain, managed to fill his lungs. Coughing, hands braced against the floor, he looked up to see Tom leaving the hall with Brenda and Hartley dancing behind.

"No! It's not fair!" The internal struggle to turn the dance was evident on Brenda's face. "I could have had him!"

The call of the ballroom was too strong. Ca.s.sie and Stephen were safe in the bathroom. Their place. Brenda and Hartley hadn't yet had a replay to anchor them in the dining room and Tom . . . who the h.e.l.l knew.

He could hear Brenda protesting until the lights dimmed and he knelt, coughing and shivering at the edge of the lamplight.

"Tony?"

Amy. Beside him. Unable to straighten up, he got his head around. She'd dropped to one knee and was studying him like she was on the bomb squad and he was liable to explode at any moment. "Is everyone okay?" he coughed.

"Are you okay?"

"I asked first." It wasn't much of a smile, but she seemed to appreciate it.

"Well, Mason's a little bruised. Ashley got freaked by the whole 'take me dancing' number and kicked him in the nuts. Did you know she plays soccer?"

He didn't.

"Yeah, well, his Beckham's are a little bent, let me tell you. Mouse curled up in a ball. Zev stopped Brianna from running by lifting her off the floor, and the rest of us did what you suggested and sat on Lee and Kate. And by the way, it totally sucks that I seem to be without any psychic sensitivity."

His eyebrows may have risen. He was still so cold he couldn't tell for sure. "You have no kind of sensitivity."

"Bite me." Shuffling closer, she tucked her hands under his arm. "You're freezing. What happened?"

"Ghosts. Brenda and Hartley and Tom. The ballroom called them and Brenda and Hartley danced through me."

"Danced?"

"I think it was a two-step."

"How the h.e.l.l do you know what a two-step looks like?"

"Square dance club." He tried to keep all his weight from sagging into her grip and almost succeeded.

"Gay square dance club?" she grunted heaving him back onto his heels.

"Duh. I went with an ex."

"I can't think of another reason . . . What's that on the floor?"

Exposed as he lifted his left hand, silver glinted against the wood.

She stopped him from bending forward. "You'll break your nose. I'll get it."

Four rings. Two earrings. The metal slightly frosted.

"I don't think they're working anymore." "No s.h.i.t. I think I'll just tuck them out of sight." Suiting action to words, she slipped them into the lower pocket on her cargo pants and stood. "Right. Let's get you on your feet."

"Actually, I'm fine down here."

"You going to crawl to the back door, then, Mr. Merlin?"

Right. The back door. Tony sighed and let her help him to his feet. He couldn't stop shivering, but other than the lingering chill, he seemed fine. He didn't want to turn and face the voices behind them-rising, falling, accusing, whimpering-but he knew he didn't have a choice.

"I won't need the other lantern."

Conversations stopped. Kate scowled at Saleen and Pavin until they let her go. Mouse remained curled in a fetal position on the floor-best possible reaction for a guy who once won a fistfight with a bear as far as Tony was concerned. Sure, the bear was handicapped by not actually having fists, but that was pretty much moot. Sorge stood next to Mouse. Face red, Mason still cradled his dignity; Zev had both girls now and was glaring protectively. Lee sat flanked by Peter and Adam, his lashes wet ebony triangles, his b.l.o.o.d.y dress shirt in a pile beside him on the floor.

Unfortunately, Brenda's blood had soaked through to the white T-shirt he'd worn beneath it.

s.h.i.t! Where's Tina?

Then he saw her over by the door, tears glistening on her cheeks as she stared down at Everett.

"Is Everett. . . ?"

She shook her head without looking up. "He's still breathing."