Continually ducking and looking all around me, I zigzagged toward a display of bathing suits that looked like they were made of pretty flammable material. Lighting a fire wasn’t a problem for me. I could do a fireball in my sleep. The problem was, I didn’t want to attract attention right away. As soon as my fire was noticed, all attention—including the Alchemists’—would head that way, which was what I wanted. But I needed to be well away from there when it happened.
I closed my eyes and summoned up the smallest of sparks in my hand. It was difficult keeping it from growing because my work with Ms. Terwilliger had focused on making the biggest, baddest fireballs imaginable. This one, though, needed to be just a kindling, like I’d made in re-education. Once I had it sustained, I set it on top of a khaki pair of swim trunks—out of principle—and then backed up as quickly as possible, crouching near some carts. Although I could see tendrils of smoke, the swimsuit didn’t actually ignite as quickly as I’d expected, and long, agonizing moments went by as I waited for people to notice it. The Alchemist at the door held his position, and then to my horror, I saw the second one approaching, obliviously unaware that he was headed straight toward me. I was trying to figure out how to get out of his line of sight when someone shouted by the display, and finally, true flames erupted from the cheap material.
The Alchemist headed toward me stopped and stared at the fire while the one at the door gaped as well. With their attention diverted, I was able to slip past them and run three stores down the strip mall to a drugstore. Outside it, an idling tour bus marked LAS VEGAS was loading up senior citizens, and in my haste, I ran into one of them. He blinked in surprise as we made eye contact. I must have appeared out of nowhere for him, but as so often happened when humans encountered the unexplained, he shook his head and turned back toward the bus.
I headed straight to the back of the store, toward the pharmacy, and found Adrian in the contraceptive aisle, as I’d known I would.
“Hope you picked out something good,” I said.
“Thank God,” he breathed, wrapping me in a huge embrace. “I hated leaving you but thought our odds were better if we split up first. I knew you were smart enough to get over here.”
“To the place you forgot to go last night?” I asked with a smile. “Yeah, I figured it out, but I had a couple of tagalongs. They’re down at the megastore … which is also about to be visited by a fire truck, I think. Wish I’d found something less conspicuous.”
“Can’t be worse than me,” he said. “When I heard the explosion in the casino, I used spirit to throw a whole bunch of Alchemists around in order to get out. I don’t think it was obvious that I was the one responsible, but those places are packed with cameras that are now probably going to have some very questionable footage.”
“Actually,” I said, “the Alchemists most likely disabled all the cameras or put them on a loop before infiltrating the place. They wouldn’t want their activities recorded any more than yours.”
Adrian looked relieved. “Well, that’s something. But now what’s the plan? Should we call Marcus for help?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want him coming back here and risking himself when this town is crawling with Alchemists.”
“How do you think they tracked us? The car?”
I sighed, feeling foolish over something that had occurred to me earlier. “Honestly, I’m guessing they had eyes and ears in all the nearest towns to the re-education center, in the very event of something like this happening. They probably put our descriptions out, and someone reported back. Maybe a hotel employee. I should’ve considered that and gone a lot farther before we stopped for the night. This is my fault.”
“The only ones at fault are those freaks who lock people up in dark cells in Death Valley,” said Adrian. “So stop beating yourself up, Sage, and use that beautiful brain I know and love.”
I swallowed and nodded, steeling myself. “Okay. We need to get out of this town fast, and I think I know how.”
“Does it involve hotwiring a car?” he asked hopefully. “I disapprove on moral grounds, but Rose and Dimitri did a lot of that, and it is kind of badass.”
I grabbed his hand and led him out of the store. “My plan is much less badass.”
We stepped outside, and sure enough, there was a fire truck and growing crowd farther down the strip mall. Not waiting to see if there were Alchemists in the crowd, I hurried forward and stepped onto the tour bus that had just finished loading. The driver looked us over warily.
“You guys aren’t in this group,” he said.
Adrian glanced back at the seats on the bus, noting all the white and gray hair. “Very observant,” he muttered.
I nudged him. “Were you lucky at the casino earlier?”
Adrian took the hint and pulled out his wallet. “We would like to join this group,” he declared.
The driver shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. This is all arranged through a tour company, who then contracts with my boss to—” His eyes bugged as Adrian handed over a couple of hundred-dollar bills. After a moment’s wavering, the driver snatched them and tucked them into his coat. “Come on in. I think there are still some seats in the back.”
The bus’s regular customers stared at us in astonishment as we moved past them and settled into the last seat. Moments later, the door shut, and the driver pulled out of the parking lot. Adrian slung an arm around me and sighed happily.
“Ah, I can’t wait to tell our kids about this. ‘Hey, honey, remember the time we bribed our way aboard a senior citizen tour bus going to Las Vegas?’”
I laughed in spite of myself. “Big romance there. I’m sure they’ll be impressed.”
The amusement stayed on his face, but it was tinged with sadness. “Actually, after what I’ve observed in marriage recently, this is big romance.”
“What are you talking about?”
The last of his smile disappeared. “Nothing worth getting into. Let’s just say I found out my parents’ marriage is a sham, and my mother is fine living with a man who thinks poorly of her, so long as he keeps paying her bills.”
“Adrian,” I exclaimed, resting my hand on his. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
His smile returned, though this time it was wry. “Well, I kind of had some other things to worry about.”
He leaned over and kissed me on my forehead, but his words brought up something I’d kept on the edge of my mind: my own parents. “You saw Carly,” I began. “Do you know what happened to my family?”
The drive to Las Vegas was another hour and a half, and Adrian recapped what he’d learned about my family and the divorce. My heart sank. I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear that my dad had won custody of Zoe, even though I’d held out hope that my mom might prevail.
“It doesn’t mean she’s a lost cause,” I said to Adrian, trying to convince myself as much as him. “Zoe might still break free of all this.”
“She might,” he agreed, but I could tell he didn’t believe it.
When we reached Las Vegas, we learned the bus was taking its occupants to the Tropicana. We unloaded in front of that hotel, where the tour company’s guide was waiting for her charges and the next leg of their journey. She looked startled when we stepped off, and Adrian waved at her obligingly as we walked passed her, like it was totally normal for us to be there. She was too stunned to say or do anything to stop us.
Unfortunately, we then discovered we had someone waiting for us too.
“Adrian,” I said warningly.
He followed my gaze to where a man and a woman standing by the hotel’s door were staring straight at us. “Son of a bitch,” said Adrian, coming to a halt.
I nearly expected a repeat of what we’d left behind, with those Alchemists charging straight toward us. Instead, the woman touched the arm of another man whose back was to us. He turned, revealing himself to be a security guard. She said something to him and pointed at us. Immediately, he strode over, with the two Alchemists in tow. I looked around, trying to see if we could run somewhere or at least catch a taxi.
“That’s them,” the woman was saying. “I told you.”
“Excuse me,” said the guard. “I need to bring you inside and ask you some questions. I understand you may be involved in something of interest to the authorities.”
“Adrian,” I said through gritted teeth. “We can’t go with them.” I knew how these things worked. If we ended up in police or even this hotel’s custody, the Alchemists would simply work a little paperwork magic to get us turned over to them.
Adrian met the guard squarely in the eyes. “There’s been some mistake,” said Adrian amiably. There was a warm, honeyed quality to his voice that even drew me in. “We’re just here to have a good time, spend lots of money in the casino. These two are the ones causing trouble. They’re trying to distract you from what they’re really up to.”
The guard’s brow furrowed as the compulsion poured over him. I shivered, both impressed and a little disquieted at just how powerful Adrian was. The Alchemists realized what was going on too. “He’s lying,” the man snapped. “Seize them, and bring them in. We’ll help restrain them.”
“‘Seize them?’ Really?” asked Adrian. “I knew you guys were into the Middle Ages. I just didn’t realize you were still trying to live in them.” He focused his energy back on the guard. “Let us go. That’s our taxi that just pulled up. And don’t let them stop us.”