Page 100 of No Charm Done

The air bent and the blinking lights blurred into streaks. The hum climbed higher, strained, dangerous. The sentinel lifted a hand, its fingers too long, with too many joints.

“Now hold on,” Elias said. “Let’s discuss⁠—”

The hand clenched into a fist, and a burst of power hit Shaw like a flying building.

His knees buckled. Pain detonated, bright and merciless. Through the glare, through the crushing force, one thought flared, stubborn and furious:

Luna. I’m sorry.

Then everything went white.

Chapter 28

Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly

When the ring lights came out, Luna knew they were in real trouble.

She was standing with her back to Spellbound Books, watching Vex’s minions swarm around the gazebo. Laptops balanced on folding tables. A portable green screen was zip-tied to the back railing, sagging in the middle as if it had already given up on life.

The place looked like a low-budget TV studio had mated with a TED Talk.

And the chairs. My gods, the chairs. Sixty-four empty folding chairs arranged in neat rows facing the gazebo, each one a monument to Vex’s profound sense of self-importance. The only occupied seat was front and center: Chuck the Investor, legs crossed, hands folded over one knee, looking like an impatient king waiting for an execution to begin.

“This is embarrassing,” Delilah murmured beside her. “I want to apologize to the gazebo.”

“The gazebo has seen worse,” Scarlett muttered, scrolling through something on her phone without looking up. “Remember when the Earls tried to reenact WrestleMania?”

“That was high art compared to this.”

Luna barely heard them. Her attention was locked on Vex, practicing dramatic gestures like an overeager mime. Burke stood off to one side, looking sour. One assistant circled the camera for the third time, needlessly adjusting an angle.

“You with us, Luna?” Mama’s voice was low, pitched just for her.

“I’m here.” She forced herself to blink, to look at her mother. “Just thinking through the plan.”

That was mostly true. She considered the plan: which spells Vex might show first, how she and her sisters would respond. They’d drilled this. They were ready.

So why did her chest feel like someone had filled it with concrete?

Focus.

Belinda Chatterjee hovered nearby, tugging at her cardigan sleeves. “I still think we should’ve told Shaw about this. He’d know how to handle these magician types. He handled Burke before⁠—”

“Shaw isn’t here,” Luna said, more sharply than she intended. “Sorry. I just mean, we’re ready.” But then she noticed her hands were shaking. She shoved them in her pockets.

Is he all right?

The thought arrived uninvited, sharp as a fishhook. She shouldn’t care where he was. He’d stolen from her, he’d lied . . . He’d played her for a mark. Those Oklahoma sharks could have him, as far as she was concerned. Shaw, with those sad eyes and soft lips and⁠—

Stop. I no longer care where he is. I no longer care if he is safe, or if he ever thinks of me at all. I don’t care.

“They’re about to start,” Scarlett said.

In the gazebo, Vex had stepped into the center of the camera frame. The ring lights made him look like a televangelist, all white teeth and confidence. He rolled his shoulders and shook out his hands, like a boxer preparing for a fight.

Assistants flanked him with cameras. Nearby laptop screens had multiple chat windows open, already exploding with activity. Luna couldn’t read the text at this distance, but she could see the scroll speed. Hundreds of messages. Maybe thousands.

“Online audience is huge,” Scarlett murmured. “Tech press, investors, crypto people. Some government handles I don’t recognize. And—oh, fantastic—someone from the Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Technologies.”