I look down at the paper and see a mostly naked woman, wearing only two thin strips of red material lined with white fur, standing in a very … provocative position.

“You planning on making a visit to ‘Sexy Mrs. Claus’?” Daphne asks.

Heat rushes into my face and hands. I drop the paper, feeling strangely ashamed that she saw me looking at it.

“Don’t take anything from anyone,” Tobin advises me. “And avoid making eye contact.”

I nod and pick up my pace, hoping not to get lost in the chaos of the strip. I am glad when we enter the hotel, but I can still feel the grime from the street clinging to me. The lobby is so bright, it hurts my eyes. A sea of potted red flowers fills most of the space, encircling another tall evergreen tree strung with shimmering lights, stretching up to the vaulted ceiling. Garish, glittering globes of green and red hang from almost everything. Loud, grating, overly cheerful music fills the lobby from an unknown source, and an additional barrage of noise and flashing lights come from an area called the casino. It’s all so overwhelming, I almost want to retreat back outside.

I don’t understand why humans would want to come here to relax.

Garrick collapses into a plush chair in the lobby, looking as though he might vomit again. If I find this place overwhelming, I’m sure his throbbing head can barely handle it.

“Hey,” Tobin says to Daphne, pointing at the entrance to the Crossroads Blues Club on the other side of the casino floor. “Isn’t that the club where your dad got his big break?”

“Yeah,” she says, after thinking for a moment. “I thought this place sounded familiar. Some big talent scout saw him play here … which means this is also the place where my parents met. Weird.”

“I’m going to go talk to the front desk,” Lexie says, and makes her way through the crowd in the lobby. I can’t get over the amount of people here. Daphne is right; finding this Sarah Smith in a city this overrun feels improbable, if not impossible.

“So how do we find this Oracle?” Tobin asks. “The sooner I can get a lead on Abbie, the better.”

Daphne and I exchange a look.

“I think you need to tell him,” I say. I feel gutted at the idea that, because of me and my family, she has to share such horrible news with her best friend. I’d do it myself, but I know he’ll take it better from her than from me.

“Tobin, can I talk to you for a minute?” Daphne asks him. “In private.”

“Yeah, of course.”

I watch her lead him to an empty bench near a fountain in the lobby. The spray of the water drowns out their voices, and I am too far away to read their lips, but I can tell from their body language that Daphne is filling Tobin in on what Dax told us—or didn’t tell us—about what happened to his sister. She places her hand over his. His bright face darkens, and he crumples forward against her shoulder. I turn away, no longer able to watch.

It’s a good ten minutes later when Lexie returns from the front desk. “There’s some big teen talent contest or some garbage being hosted by the club tonight, so the place is pretty booked up. I couldn’t get the penthouse, but I did manage to swing us a two-bedroom suite. A room with a king and the other has two queens. I don’t know how you all want to deal with your sleeping arrangements, but I finagled the room, so I call dibs on the king.”

“I don’t care,” Tobin says, approaching with Daphne. “As long as I’m not sharing a bed with him.” He gives me a pointed look that says that even though I wasn’t here six years ago, he’s holding me responsible for what happened to his sister.

“Tobin, I—”

“Save it,” he says. “I’m not giving up on Abbie until that Oracle looks me in the face and tells me there’s no way to get her back.”

“I don’t think …” I let my sentence trail off, not seeing the point of trying to dissuade him. Some people won’t see the truth, no matter how hard you point it out to them.

“Now can we go to our room?” Tobin says.

“Yeeessss,” Garrick answers, sounding like he’s about to black out again.

“Suit yourself,” Lexie says, handing us each a key card. “I’m headed to the spa.”

Daphne hangs back. “I think I’m going to stay down here for a while,” she says.

She doesn’t quite sound like herself.

Chapter fifty

DAPHNE

I realize as I sit with Tobin near the fountain, that the lobby of a Vegas hotel isn’t the best place to tell him the worst news of his life—but it’s too late. I’ve already made up my mind to do it, and if I stop now, I don’t know how I’ll find the courage to do it later.

“I know what happened to Abbie,” I say before my words fail me. “She’s gone, Tobin.”

“Yeah, she was taken by one of these Underlords, right? That’s why I need to go see this Oracle. She’ll tell me how to get her back.”

“It’s not that simple.” My voice catches, and I clear my throat.

“What is it, Daphne?” he says, like he can see the trepidation on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“I am afraid … I’m afraid she’s dead.”

He pulls his hand out from under mine. “How do you know that? You can’t know that!”

“I met the Lord who was supposed to bring her back to the Underrealm with him.…”

“What do you mean, ‘supposed to’? Like he didn’t …?”

“Your sister really did run away, Tobin. Or at least she tried to. The Lord who was supposed to take her, Dax is his name.… They fell in love and tried to run away instead of going back to the underworld. But something went wrong. Somebody came after them. And she died.”

“What went wrong?” Tears flood his eyes. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” I bite my lip, trying to hold it together. “I don’t know any more than that.”

Tobin covers his eyes with his hands. He crumples forward and I catch him, leaning his head against my shoulder. He quakes as I hold him, giving off notes so strained with sorrow that it drowns out the Christmas music and hotel noises. They wrap around me and I feel as though I am engulfed in a cocoon of his grief.

“There’s more, Tobin.” I don’t want to say it, but I have to. I can’t keep the truth from him any longer. I would want to know if it were me. “That list you showed me. The one of all those missing girls. Those have to be all the girls who have been taken to the underworld; these Boons as they call them.… And if my name is on your mother’s list now, before … before I was even taken … that means …”