“What do you mean?”

“Break those up,” he says, nodding at the guards. “Stop them all firing at once.”

“How?” I frown.

“Magic, dummy!”

“But I can’t—”

“Of course you can,” he snaps. “Just focus.”

I feel uneasy about it, but I do as Dervish says, set my sights on a group of guards and direct a ball of magic at them. Seconds later, unnatural energy floods through me, smashes into the middle of the group of guards and sends them flying in all directions.

“Way to go!” Juni whoops.

I grin at her, pleased with myself, then disrupt more of the guards, causing as much chaos as I can, careful not to seriously injure anybody.

We advance through a series of corridors, up and down staircases, Shark leading, the rest of us—apart from Juni—providing cover from the guards. Eventually we come to a door which is operated by fingerprint recognition.

“This is your field of expertise,” Sharmila says, winking at me.

“No problem.” I step forward, lay my hand on the panel and trick the computer into believing I’m Prae Athim, much like I did back in the D workshops. The door slides open. We enter a large, dimly lit room. Grim brick walls. Lots of cells, cased off by hard glass panels, like those in the movie The Silence of the Lambs. Several lab technicians in white jackets. A handful of guards.

And Prae Athim.

The scientist is scowling at us, her dark eyes like a couple of drill bits. “You’re trespassing on private property,” she growls.

Dervish laughs. “Sue us!”

“This is outrageous,” Prae Athim says. “You have no right to come in here.”

“You have no right to steal my nephew,” Dervish retorts.

“I don’t know what you’re—” she starts to say, but before she can complete the denial, we hear a voice shouting from one of the cells.

“Dervish! Hey, Dervish, I’m in here! Help!”

Prae Athim glares at one of the technicians close to her. “I told you to dope him so he couldn’t speak!”

“I did,” the underling whimpers.

“Magic is stronger than drugs,” Sharmila laughs. She smiles at me. “I thought they might try something like that, so I sent out a wake-up call when we came in, guaranteed to raise just about anybody who was not dead.”

I race to the cell where the call came from. Bill-E’s inside, smiling shakily. “What took you so long?” he says flippantly.

“We weren’t going to bother coming at all,” I reply, turning the glass in front of me to water, stepping back as it splashes over the floor and washes away. “But Dervish said every family needs its simpleton.”

“Charming!” Bill-E huffs, then steps through the puddles of water and hugs me hard. “Thanks for not leaving me here,” he whispers. I can hear tears in his voice.

“I’d never leave you behind,” I whisper back, then push him away before things get any more mushy.

“Did they harm you?” Dervish asks, standing where he is, keeping a wrathful eye on the quivering Prae Athim.

“Hark at our old maid of an uncle!” Bill-E sniffs, winking at me. “Nah, they gave me some nasty injections, but they didn’t have time to do much else. You came too quickly—ruined their well-laid plans.”

“That’s a habit of mine,” Dervish laughs. He stares coolly at Prae Athim. “Now, we just have to decide what to do with—”

“No,” I say softly, interrupting. Dervish glances at me, one eyebrow raised. “No,” I say again, shaking my head, staring at the cells, the technicians, Prae Athim, Bill-E. My head’s clearing. All the little bits that didn’t add up… that seemed out of place or too familiar… I’m starting to see it now. Bill-E helped me make the breakthrough. Provided the jolt that shattered the spell. He called Dervish his uncle. Nothing wrong there—Dervish is his uncle. Except Bill-E doesn’t know that.

“What’s wrong?” Dervish asks.

“Wait,” I mutter, waving his question away. Thinking hard. Cutting through the web of lies and crapola.

These cells don’t just look like the set from Silence of the Lambs—this is Hannibal Lecter’s institution. And now I realise where I’ve seen the building before. In James Bond movies. There are elements from several of the films, all jumbled roughly together.

I step away from Bill-E, dizzy, fighting to hold on to my train of thought. “Grubbs,” Juni says, concerned, stepping towards me. “Are you OK? Can I help? Is there—”

“Shut up!” I shout, breaking through the labyrinth of untruths, rapidly, one lie falling after another, mental dominoes toppling quickly.

I’m a mage, not a true magician. I was only able to draw upon my potential in Slawter because of all the magic in the air. There’s no magic in this laboratory, so how come I’m able to unleash great energy bursts and turn glass into water? The same goes for the Disciples. They shouldn’t have so much power here.

All the logical hiccups and flaws reveal themselves in quick succession. The Lambs turning up at just the right moment to knock us out and kidnap Bill-E. Dervish handily knowing the location of the main laboratory. Prae Athim taking Bill-E there. Shark so conveniently having seen the plans of the building.

Sharmila knew that I’d opened the fingerprint-operated door in the D workshops—but we hadn’t told her about that. In the second airport, Juni referred to Bill-E as my brother—but she doesn’t know we’re related.

And in the restroom, the first time I became aware that something was wrong. I get it now, what I saw but couldn’t make connect. My reflection was clean. It had been all the time, even before I washed my face. Clean skin, hair, clothes. No grey demon blood. But I got soaked in the D chamber. I never washed the blood off. It should have been caked on at the airport, just as it should be now. But it wasn’t and it isn’t, because…

“None of this is real!” I scream, startling everyone around me.

“Grubbs,” Juni says softly. “Calm down. You’re losing control.”

“You’re not real!” I shout. “None of you are!”

“What’s wrong with him?” Dervish snaps at Juni.

“I don’t know. Maybe he—”

The magic part of me whispers something. It’s been quiet all this time, even while I thought I was working magic. But now it breaks its silence and tells me what to say. Ignoring the chatterings of the figures around me, I bellow out loud, words of magic and power. Prae Athim’s face contorts with hatred. Demon eyes glare at me. She shrieks, as do all the scientists and guards—but it’s too late.

The walls of the cells bubble. The human Lambs turn into demons, then fade. A red haze comes down around Dervish and the others. Magic phrases trip off my tongue. Pain washes over me. I fall to my knees but keep on shouting, ripping the vision to pieces. The redness thickens. Fills the room, blocking out everything, humans, demons, all.

I utter the final words of the spell and wearily close my eyes.

Everything goes silent.