A nightmare filled the corridor, all eyes and sinuous body. It couldn’t rise to its full height, so it stretched its bulk lengthwise, like an enormous snake.

“Woo!” Gabrielle yelled. “Everyone get behind me!”

She ran at the monster, her hands full of white magic, her feet moving with a dancer’s grace. She wanted to fight it single-handedly, I realized, and expected the rest of us to take cover.

Forget that. But I had no storm to help me, Mick was in chains, Titus only stared mildly down the hall, and Maya, though she’d sensibly fled the other way, was still on her phone.

Gabrielle sent a ball of crackling white Beneath magic to the dark, sinuous body of the demon. It had a dragon-like head, though thinner and narrower, and pointed teeth sticking out around its snout like an alligator’s.

Gabrielle’s magic struck. The creature whipped itself out of the way at the last minute, and the magic bounced off the ceiling and plummeted downward. The demon whacked the ball of brilliant light with its talon, then screamed when the talon burned.

The creature dropped, fixing its red eyes—all eight of them—on Gabrielle.

She laughed. “You wanna play, do you?” She gathered a more intense ball of magic, one that would bring down the ceiling and probably most of the hotel above us, and drew back her arm like a major-league baseball pitcher.

“No!” I yelled at her.

Chains exploded in Mick’s cell. He charged out, flinging away the manacles as he strode past Titus, who did nothing to stop him.

Mick wore not a stitch, his torso caked with dried blood and covered with abrasions. The demon caught a whiff of the blood, snarled, and started for him.

Gabrielle leapt out of the demon’s way, her feet connecting with the wall. I scrambled past Mick and Titus as the demon whipped past Gabrielle, heading for Mick.

Mick waited, his eyes black in the gloom, arms outstretched, as though ready to embrace the demon as it came on. He snarled a very dragon snarl that was nothing but noise to me, but the demon abruptly halted, blinking its eight eyes at Mick.

Gabrielle, the crazy woman, launched herself from the wall and landed on the demon’s back. The demon roared, whipping its head this way and that, trying to find the flea clinging to it. Gabrielle loaded her hands with magic, ready to plunge her power into the demon.

Mick snarled again. The demon swung around once more, fixing on Mick as though it understood him.

Gabrielle raised her hands high, Beneath magic glowing around them. “Stop!” I shouted. If she struck, she’d get hit with the magic too, like a person tasing herself by holding on to her tased victim.

My sister crashed her hands to the demon’s hide, plunging magic into its body.

The creature howled, and Gabrielle screamed, shuddering as though she’d been struck by a thousand volts. She slumped forward, the magic dying, but she didn’t fall. She lay flat on the demon’s back, and I heard her faint laughter. “Wow, what a trip.”

Mick growled more sounds at the beast. The demon raised its head, eyes filled with pain, and met Mick’s gaze in understanding.

It turned itself around, somehow managing to squeeze itself down like the snake it resembled, to navigate the narrow hall. Gabrielle remained limp on its back as it slunk toward the cell it had broken from.

I turned to Mick, my eyes wide. “What the hell did you say to it?”

Titus answered for him. “He explained the consequences.” Titus hadn’t moved during the entire encounter, and now he brushed off his coat sleeve as though annoyed by a speck of dust. “Every being here has come of his or her own accord, to fulfill a contract. She knows what will happen to her children if she breaks out and flees.”

“Her?” I asked, staring at the retreating creature. “Children?”

Titus gave a brief nod, and Mick’s expression told me he knew this too. “She signed the contract,” Titus said.

“Aw.” Gabrielle’s voice drifted down the hall. “Poor snaky.” She patted its hide. “How about we kill Titus and blow this joint?”

She was talking to the demon, I realized. I heard the creature growl, a sound like Mick had made. Gabrielle cocked her head to listen, then she nodded.

“Yeah, I like that idea,” she said to it. “Close your eyes.”

“Gabrielle!” I yelled, but too late.

She let loose. Magic left her fingers in streaks of lightning, streaming along the walls in a blast of white fire that had me hitting the floor. When I climbed to my feet, I saw that Gabrielle’s magic had burst open every cell door. I heard chains shatter, creatures bellowing in surprise and pain.

Mick sprinted after the demon with Gabrielle still clinging to it. Another deluge of Beneath magic burst from Gabrielle, the air so bright I had to duck away and fling up my arms to shield my face. Even Titus flinched and closed his eyes.

I lost all track of Maya. Hopefully she’d headed upstairs and the hell away from the hotel.

When I could see again, it was to watch Mick leap to the demon’s back and reach for Gabrielle. I dashed after them. Mick was resistant to Beneath magic, but resistant wasn’t the same as immune.

I didn’t make it two steps. The creatures Gabrielle had freed flowed from their cells, bellowing and shrieking. They filled the corridor with not only a crush of bodies but also a stench of excrement mixed with brimstone.

Many of the demons crashed their way to the far end of the corridor, seeking a way out, breaking down walls as they went. Others slithered around the creature filling the hall, Gabrielle riding it like a bronco buster, and headed for me.

No, not me. Their rage was focused on Titus, who turned to face them, his eyes still screwed shut from the bright flare of Gabrielle’s magic.

Well, shit.

If Titus died, would Mick and the rest of the arena’s combatants be released from their contracts? Would they hurry quietly home, or would the demons burst out into the hotel upstairs and wreak havoc, with Gabrielle spurring them on?

Mick turned and shouted at me. He put magic into that yell, so I could hear and understand: “Save Titus!”

No time to ask him why. The adamance in Mick’s command jolted me—he’d never ask without good reason.

In the second after Mick’s shout, I was throwing myself between the surging demons and Titus. I dug deep inside me for the Beneath magic Gabrielle tossed around so easily, and slammed up a wall of it in front of me.

The demon leading the charge smacked into the energy and screamed as its hide sizzled. It bounced away, whimpering, and the others halted uncertainly.

I faced a motley crew of beings from every hell ever opened. Some were human shaped, some flickering from man to animal and back again—skinwalkers. I saw giant beasts and small ones, the smallest of them raising its claws to shoot streams of liquid at the magic shield. The liquid slid ineffectually down my barrier but burned into the concrete floor like the strongest acid. Smelled like acid too.

Titus regarded me in surprise and with a little more respect. “Hmm. I should put you into the arena.”

“Not if I can’t fight without magic.” I clenched my teeth so they wouldn’t chatter with the energy surging through my body. “I couldn’t arm wrestle one of these guys.”

Titus put his head on one side, studying me with very dragon-like assessment. “Individual restrictions are set for individual combatants, according to their abilities. Each fight is different.”

His lack of panic irritated me. “Well, right now, these combatants want to take out their hostility on you, so you might want to make a run for it.”

Titus shook his head, to my surprise. “I’m as bound here as they are. I can’t run.”

What? “Great. So what do we do?”

“We see what you and your sister can accomplish.”

He spoke as though he had no stake in the outcome of this fight. I tamped down my anger and concentrated on keeping the barrier steady against the demons trying to figure out how to break it.

Mick was busy attempting to tame Gabrielle. He had his arm around her, but she ignored him, enjoying herself blasting holes in the walls. If she burned her way up through the hotel, a whole lot of people would die.

But she was on the other side of my barrier, out of my reach. I had to leave it to Mick to talk her down.

Most of the creatures released simply tried to escape, but the ones just beyond my barrier had murder in their eyes, the need for vengeance.

Some of these creatures came from the hells of Beneath—which was the remnant of the world before this one, from which the first humans had emerged. Those beings might be able to best me. Already power crackled as they prepared to raise their magic against mine.

Then there were hells that contained Earth-magic creatures, like the dragons—the demons that emerged from those were different, but just as dangerous.

At the moment, the Beneath demons and the Earth-magic demons had a common cause—breaking through the barrier and killing me and Titus.

The ceiling imploded in a cloud of dust. Instead of falling in and crushing us to death, it peeled slowly open, Gabrielle holding it up with her power. She did it easily, Mick’s efforts not stopping her at all. Her laughter drifted among the chaos.

I was sweating, my legs shaking with the effort of keeping my shield up and the demons away from us. The acid-flinging one tried again, and this time, my barrier wavered the slightest bit. My heart sped in panic. Not the way I wanted to die.

A demon escaped through the hole in the ceiling. And another, and another. The creatures facing me caught on, and they began to turn away and fling themselves upward, slithering, climbing, flying out through the upward tunnel Gabrielle had created.

Gabrielle shouted in unholy joy, Mick growling at her. The beast they rode lunged for the hole, Gabrielle clinging to its back, Mick hanging on to Gabrielle.

After a few turbulent moments, Titus and I stood alone in the corridor, dust filling the air and making me cough.

I closed my hand to disperse my barrier and sagged heavily, catching myself on the wall. My nerves buzzed, and I felt sick, as I always did after I wielded too much magic. I needed Mick to ground me, but at the moment, Mick was busy trying to keep my little sister from destroying Las Vegas.

My legs buckled, and I started to slide downward. A pair of strong hands caught me. I felt a bite of fire, smelled a whiff of ash, and found myself landing against the soft cashmere of Titus’s suit.

“What are you?” he asked me, his eyes changing from blue to silver to black as he stared down at me in dragon curiosity.

“I’m a Stormwalker.” One weak as a kitten at the moment. “Usually,” I amended.

“Interesting. Mick didn’t catalog all your abilities.”

I wanted to stand up and give Titus an indignant look, telling him my abilities were none of his business, but my body wouldn’t obey. I had to lean on Mick’s enemy and soak up the Earth magic within him, drawing on it to stabilize me.

“Probably because he was too busy trying to stay alive,” I croaked.

Titus put his hand under my elbow. “You all right? You’re taking magic from me.”

I nodded, my long hair falling into my face. “Sorry. Can’t help it. Your Earth magic is bolstering mine so I can calm down the other side of me. Mick usually takes the edge off.”

“Hmm,” Titus said again, studying me with eyes that remained dragon-black.

I drew a ragged breath. “You and I need to have a long talk. But right now, we need to go upstairs and stop demons from every imaginable hell from killing all the people in the casino.”

Titus raised his brows. “Yes, I think you’re right. On both counts. Shall we?”

He turned me around, his grip on my elbow inflexible, and led me down the corridor in the opposite direction of the hole, where the ceiling was still intact, and to the elevator, which amazingly still functioned. The arena was quiet now, the audience having fled.

I heard the screaming as soon as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor. Titus had helped me regain some of my equilibrium, and I ran, if shakily, down the maintenance halls to the main part of the hotel. Titus moved ahead of me in a graceful sprint, running lightly even in his elegant suit.

The casino was like a scene from a creature feature. Demons swooped and swirled or slithered across the floor—three were busily ripping down chandeliers, while others knocked over slot machines, nearly crushing people beneath them. Still others plowed through the card tables, scattering chips, cards, chairs, and people.

Fleeing humans streamed out the doors, meeting with a crush of those outside struggling to see what was going on. The sun was hours away, but in the heart of Las Vegas, the lights were bright as day.

Gabrielle rode the demon, who flung its body every which way, its giant tail causing havoc. Mick hung on grimly behind her.

I caught up to Titus and grabbed on to him for strength as I gathered my power once again to stop the demons. Titus’s eyes widened as he felt me drag his magic out of him, but he caught on quickly and let me take it, at the same time building dragon fire in his hands.

I’d have to strike at all the demons at once, and I’d have to kill them. I knew most of them didn’t want to be here, were as trapped as Mick, but if I didn’t stop them, this hotel and likely most of the city would become a bloodbath.

I shakily gathered my force, Titus flinching as I pulled hard on him. At the same moment, Maya pushed her way in from the street through one of the casino’s revolving doors.

Behind her strode a man with buzzed black hair and gray eyes, a Taser in his hands. This man halted in front of the demon Gabrielle rode, aimed the Taser at her, and shouted, “Stop!”