“I can show you what Zander saw. This place really is haunted, you see. The ghosts manifest in the mirror engine.”

“Are you talking about that bunch of old mirrors at the back of the lab?”

“That’s right.”

“There aren’t any ghosts.”

“Sure there are,” Gwen said. “But it takes talent to raise them in the mirrors.”

“Your kind of talent?”

“That’s right.”

Riley was clearly skeptical, but the energy in his aura throbbed with the need to get answers.

“If you kill me now, you’ll never know what really happened at the end of Zander’s last game,” Gwen said softly.

“Show me.”

She held her breath when she turned her back on him and started toward the rear of the old lodge. Everything depended on how accurately she had read his aura.

The bullet in the back did not come. She heard Riley’s footsteps echoing on the concrete floor as he stalked her deeper into the maze of workbenches. The strips of automatic lights illuminated and then went dark as they moved through various sections of the lab. She was intensely aware of the hot energy in the atmosphere.

“This place is so weird,” Riley said.

“How often have you been inside?”

“Couple of times. Always thought the place was just a big junkyard full of Ballinger’s crazy test instruments.”

“I’ll bet you’ve never gone into the mirror engine.”

“No reason to go inside,” Riley said.

“There was a reason. You just didn’t know about it. The engine is where Evelyn hid some of her secrets. That’s how I found out that your father was still in business.”

“You’re lying. Why would Ballinger hide her secrets in this old lab? People keep their secrets on their computers.”

“Not always. This may come as a shock to you, Riley, but not everyone trusts computers.”

She stopped at the entrance to the mirror engine. In the darkness, the energy locked in the silvered glass seethed and burned. She had no idea how the trapped currents appeared to Riley, but she knew that they were affecting him. He was already aroused by the game he was playing, but under the influence of the engine, his excitement flared higher.

“What’s going on?” Riley kept the gun aimed at Gwen, but his attention was on the sparking, flashing mirrors. His growing intoxication blazed in his aura—a junkie sensing a dazzling fix.

“The mirrors are arranged in a specific way to make them work as an engine,” Gwen said. “Ever been inside a maze?”

“Sure. Mazes are simple for someone with my talent.”

“I doubt if you can get far inside this one. Zander couldn’t. He took a few steps in and that’s when he started screaming about the ghosts.”

“Zander wasn’t as strong as I am. With my talent, I know I could go into this thing.”

“I doubt it.”

“What’s at the center?” Riley asked.

“A collection of incredibly valuable paranormal crystals,” Gwen lied softly. “They’re the fuel source for the engine.”

Riley motioned with the gun. “You go first. I’ll be right behind you.”

She moved through the entrance of the maze. Riley followed. When she looked back over her shoulder, she saw the unholy excitement in his eyes.

“This is powerful,” he whispered. “A real rush.”

They were deep into the maze now. The dark mirrors reflected their images into infinity. The hot glass also reflected Riley’s aura.

It was now or never.

Gwen flashed into the zone and focused on Riley’s dreamlight. She found the wavelengths and plunged him into a dreamscape.

Then she followed him down into the nightmare that she had designed for him.

The mirrors still loomed around them, but now they appeared as open doorways suspended over a bottomless sea filled with fog. The peaks of crystal mountains speared the mist. It was a place where no one could survive.

Horror and panic etched Riley’s face. He went to the nearest doorway and looked down into the bottomless well of ice and fog.

“Where are we?” he gasped. “What’s happening?”

“We’re in a dreamscape,” Gwen said. “I created it just for you.”

“That’s not possible.”

“It’s true that I usually need physical contact to do this kind of dream work,” she said. “But the mirror engine changes everything. It heightens my own talent. That’s what Evelyn designed it to do, you see.”

The feverish excitement rekindled in Riley’s eyes. “Then it must be strengthening my talent, as well.”

“No,” she said. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s tuned to my energy patterns, not yours.”

The ghosts of Evelyn and Louise appeared in two of the open doorways.

“About time you brought him here,” Evelyn said. “We’ve been waiting.”

“Sorry it took me so long,” Gwen said. “Things got complicated.”

“But you always knew that there was some piece of the puzzle missing, didn’t you?” Evelyn asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I did.”

“I thought no one could kill the demon,” Louise said.

“He’s gone now,” Gwen said.

“I told you that you were a witch like me,” Louise said. “But I was wrong. You are stronger, much stronger.”

“What’s going on?” Riley demanded. “Who are you talking to?”

“The ghosts of Evelyn and Louise,” she said. “Don’t you see them?”

“No.” Riley was sweating now. “But there’s something out there. What is it?”

“Hard to say. You’re seeing images from your own nightmares. I don’t know exactly how they appear to you, but to me your dreamscape is a hall of open doorways floating in midair above an ocean of fog. The jagged peaks of crystal mountains are visible in the mist.”

“Yes, yes, that’s exactly what I’m seeing now.”

“Excellent. That means I’ve got good control of your hallucinations. This engine really is amazing.”

“Make it all go away.”

“No,” she said. “If I do, you’ll murder me.”

“No, I won’t hurt you, I swear it.”

“Zander said that, too. But he was a liar. Like you. Runs in the family, I guess. The only way for you to escape is to run. That’s what Zander did.”

“Where?”

She waved a hand. “Pick a doorway, any doorway.”

“No,” Riley screamed.

“Your choice. There’s no other way out of here. I’m leaving now. This dreamscape is yours.”

She stepped through the nearest doorway—back into the reality of the lab and straight into Judson’s arms. Well, into one of his arms, she thought. He had his gun in his other hand.

She felt the brush of fur against her legs. Max bolted past her into the mirror maze. She never knew what the wildly hallucinating Riley saw when he saw Max, but she knew it must have been terrible.

Riley started to scream.

“What did you do to him?” Judson asked. He looked into the mirror engine.

She turned in the circle of his arm and looked into the glittering, sparking maze of mirrors. Riley had disappeared into the labyrinth of energy-infused glass.

“I put him into a dreamscape and I left him there,” she whispered. “The same thing I did to Zander Taylor. The only difference this time is that Riley ran into the heart of the engine, not outside into the river.”

“He was running from Max.”

Riley continued to scream for what seemed like forever. A shot rang out. The screaming stopped.

She heard the first sharp crack a heartbeat later. The hot mirrors started to shiver as though an earthquake had struck.

“Max,” Gwen shouted. “Max, come here. Please. You have to get out of there.”

To her surprise and overwhelming relief, Max trotted back out of the maze.

“Thank goodness.” Gwen scooped him up into her arms.

The tremors grew stronger and increasingly violent. The sound of splintering glass echoed from the heart of the engine.

Judson drew Gwen and Max away from the rainstorm of shattered mirrors. They watched the engine destroy itself.

And then it was over.

The body of Riley Duncan lay in a pool of blood in the middle of the pile of glittering shards.