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I knew these invitation cards were the only way on or off the island. Whereas Macau used to be a tiny, semi-autonomous corner of the People’s Republic of China, it was now a country unto itself. It had its own security and law enforcement.

It even had its own military.

Revik squeezed my hand, warning me about my thoughts.

I could barely feel his light at all now, despite how close we stood.

I couldn’t feel the light of the human standing in front of me either, so seers on their security team must be shielding the human guards here.

Looking around, I felt another flicker of fear.

I didn’t even know why exactly.

I mean, there were the obvious things, of course.

I knew many who came to this island never left.

I knew the Legion of Fire were gangsters, who didn’t even pretend to follow the Seer Codes. I knew they were slave traders, criminals, murderers, traffickers, and likely already allied with Shadow in various ways.

Still, I didn’t really believe my fear came from these Legion of Fire seers.

Well, not on their own.

Chapter2

A Different World

We exited the security checkpoint some twenty minutes later.

Revik took my hand.

He pulled me closer that time as we walked down the stone path, then along an open-air corridor on the inside of the hotel’s east wing. I noticed he walked solidly between me and the open area of the pool, the rows of balconies on the other side of the courtyard.

We made our way to the casino in a straight line.

We’d been told our hosts were waiting for us.

We’d been told repeatedly that they were waiting from us. From the way the guards behaved, I doubted the Legion of Fire would be okay with us giving ourselves a tour.

Still, I wasn’t blind. I couldn’t avoid looking around a little, even with Revik doing his best to hide me from view.

The wealth on display bordered on obscene.

Marble pillars separated our walkway from the largest swimming pool I’d ever seen, more like a lake than anything I’d come across in the States. Fire pits placed strategically around the lit water were interspersed with tiki torches, palm trees, lounges, tables, hot tubs, and the occasional standing bar.

Residents and “guests” of the Legion of Fire lounged both in and out of the pool, floating naked or in expensive-looking swimwear, or fully dressed and perched on pristine, modern-looking furniture. I glimpsed plates heaped with gourmet food. Expensive-looking cocktail glasses contained lit swizzle sticks and colorful umbrellas, garnished with chunks of pineapple and strawberries.

Servants brought new drinks and plates and cleared away dirty ones while I watched, all wearing those spotless white gloves and bellhop uniforms.

Most of the servants weren’t Chinese, I noticed.

Most appeared to be of European descent, but I saw a few of African descent, and a number who might have been East Indian, Indonesian, or Filipino.

The women and men I saw lounging on that deck with its colorful, butterfly-shaped lights, its fountains and palms and flaming stone-basin torches, looked frozen in time. It was surreal, considering what I knew to be going on in mainland China.

The women wore thousands of dollars in jewels, whether fully dressed or clad in G-string bikinis. Given that a lot of those bathing suits fell firmly into the “why bother?” category, the jewelry looked even more out of place. It was like they had so much of it, they’d forgotten what it was even supposed to be used for.

European, high-heeled sandals wrapped around feet and ankles next to men’s tailored suits and Italian loafers. I saw bodies that screamed plastic surgery wrapped in designer dresses, silk and linen blouses, short skirts, gold and black bathing suits. The men rattled rocks glasses, flashing diamond cufflinks and Swiss watches. The women’s hair was colored and coiffed. Expensive-looking sunglasses sat atop many of their heads, even though the sun dropped behind the horizon hours before we left the ship.