Roman’s eyes narrowed but Tracy just shook his head. “Don’t listen to her, Roman. You’ll see for yourself in just a few minutes.” He holstered his gun and then lifted his hands, eyes unfocusing briefly. Queasiness hit me, and I had no doubt he was activating the diagram. I couldn’t see the energies, but I was quite sure that he was getting things started.
Roman smiled. “I’m not a summoner, Kara. But I do have sensitivity to the arcane—enough to allow me to work the gate. That sensitivity is one of the reasons I was drawn to you, though I didn’t realize it at the time. It wasn’t until I met Tracy, and we became friends, that I figured it out. He’s the one who told me I didn’t have to sit on the sidelines. And after the Symbol Man murders he knew you were a summoner.” He gave an ugly laugh. “You were an obvious choice.”
The queasiness grew a fraction, and Tracy’s forehead furrowed in concentration. Clearly he was expecting something to happen, and it wasn’t. “But he was wrong, Roman,” I said, shrugging. “I’m not a summoner.” I gestured around me at the diagram. “The gate would be open if I was, right?”
“Don’t listen to her!” Tracy snarled. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face despite the chill in the building. “She is a summoner. You know she is! It’s just taking longer to open than I expected.” His eyes snapped to mine. “The focus. You destroyed the focus.” His lip curled. “Doesn’t matter. I can still do this without it.”
“But you still need a summoner,” I said, acting a hell of a lot more casual than I felt.
Roman shifted, frowned. “Are you sure about this, Tracy?”
“She’s a goddamn summoner!” he shouted, fury suffusing his face. “Now shut the fuck up and let me do this!”
I took a deep breath. This was going to suck. Hard. “If I was a summoner, I wouldn’t be able to walk out of this diagram.”
Tracy’s eyes widened. “You’re bluffing,” he said. Then he sneered. “Badly, too. You’d be torn apart. You wouldn’t risk that.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I wouldn’t.” Come on cuff, don’t fail me now, I thought as I walked out of the circle.
Okay, the first step was walking, the second and third were stumbling as the nausea slammed into me. It was gone as soon as I was past the outer perimeter, but I fell to my hands and knees in front of Tracy and puked on his shoes anyway.
He gave a shout of horror and dismay as he leaped back, then he looked to the diagram. “I don’t understand,” he said, utterly flabbergasted. “I know you’re a summoner.” He shook his head as if trying to get his thoughts to fall properly into place. “And even if you’re not, the wards should have dropped you.”
Shakily, I wiped my mouth and got back to my feet. “Yeah, well, I’m clever that way. Now why don’t you be a good boy and shut this thing down before someone gets hurt.” As if to underscore my point the sound of gunshots came to us from the foyer.