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close?” I called to Heath, who was still pulling on my arm.
    â€œI think so!” he called back to me, using his shoulder to push aside someone who, in his panic, was trying to get between us. Abruptly, Heath stopped and I nearly bumped into the back of him. “It’s here,” he said, and I felt around a little with my free hand and found a velvet rope near my waist. I then heard a clicking sound and the rope fell to the floor. Heath guided me forward and then my hands were on the glass case that housed the dagger. I could feel a wave of the foulest energy waft over me, and then, all of a sudden, it was gone and all the lights came back on.
    I blinked in the sudden brightness and the nearly immediate shocked silence that rippled through the crowd. People had frozen in place when the lights came on—many were clinging to each other in fear. One poor soul had soiled his pants, and he was the first to bolt out of the exit. Many of what remained of the crowd followed. Hastily.
    Turning my attention back to the dagger, I tried to lift the glass housing it, but it wouldn’t budge. I thenscanned the crowd for any sign of Gilley, as I was hoping he’d know how to get into the display, but he was nowhere in sight. Frustrated, I dug into my vest and pulled out a few extra magnets, placing them directly on the metal podium that held the glass case and the dagger. They stuck there nicely, and while I could tell that there were a whole lot of other magnets already placed there, my four extra certainly couldn’t hurt.
    â€œDo you see Gilley?” I asked Heath, who was also scanning the crowd.
    â€œNo,” he said. “I think he might’ve made it to the door and out.”
    I stepped away from the display and looked at the dispersing crowd anxiously. I wasn’t leaving without the dagger, and Gil was the key to getting the glass case unlocked. More scanning of the crowd failed to reveal my best friend, but Phil Sullivan and Murdock were still in attendance. They both appeared quite shaken by the ordeal. But then Phil’s petulant expression returned and he stalked over to us. “I’m going to call the studio and complain,” he told me with a snarl. “Maybe they can’t fire you for pulling a stunt like this, but I hope they fine you or withhold some of your royalty checks. And then I’m gonna call the police and see if they can issue you a citation!”
    â€œWait,” I said. “You think
we
did this?”
    Phil pulled up his own smartphone and eyed it with irritation. “I don’t know how you managed to drain everybody’s phones, but I’m not in the mood for stupidstunts like this. There’re laws against inciting a panicked riot like this, you know!”
    â€œMr. Sullivan,” I said firmly, my voice rising, “we didn’t have anything to do with this. Not us and not the studio.”
    â€œThen who did?” he demanded, his face flushing yet another time.
    Next to me, Heath pointed to the glass case holding Oruç’s dagger. “I’m guessing the ghost and his demon, housed inside that dagger, are flexing their collective muscle.”
    I glanced around the room. There were magnetic spikes everywhere.
“How
did they get through the field created by all the spikes?”
    Heath shook his head, his expression grave. “Don’t know. But it’s something to worry about, Em.”
    I turned back to Sullivan. “We need that dagger back,” I said. “And we need it now.”
    If Oruç was simply giving us a demonstration of how easily he could get through the magnetic field in the room, then I was worried indeed.
    Sullivan glared at me, then turned to Murdock. “Charlie, throw these two outta here, and if they come back, call the police.”
    Murdock stepped forward and squared his shoulders, and my husband did the same. For a moment it looked like things were about to get physical,