Magic Mansion by Jordan Price (best fiction books to read .txt) 📕

week traveling back in time, working on your fantastic new routines. But as you all know, time only runs one way…and that’s forward. As you also know, time has a tendency…to run out when it’s least convenient.

“Harry Houdini’s time ran out on Halloween morning, 1926, from a ruptured appendix he sustained following a blow to the stomach. But we trust none of you have taken a punch to the gut recently?”

John shook his head. Who wrote the patter for this show, anyway? He was certainly glad he didn’t need to deliver it.

“We’ll have medics standing by anyway, just in case. Because you’re going to duplicate Houdini’s infamous stunt, the Suspended Straitjacket Escape. Only you won’t be hanging from a crane, like the great Houdini. Instead, you’ll be dangling inside these hourglasses, facing off against not only each other, but…the Sands of Time.”

John was familiar enough with sand. Usually it was wet, saline sand, riddled with mud and bottle caps and weeds and jetsam. But one thing he knew for sure: sand was heavy.

“Escaping the hourglass will take skill, determination…and luck. Once your competitors strap you into your straitjackets and lock you inside the glass chamber, the countdown begins. You’ll be turned upside down, and the sand will flow. Your first task will be to free yourself from the straitjacket and get upright, since you’ll be needing your hands…to unlock the exit in the hourglass wall. The key? There are several of them…distributed throughout the sand. The first magician to open that glass door and step out on the platform will win…not only a quarter million dollars, but a fabulous four-month world tour, complete with shows in all the great cities Houdini played, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Moscow.”

John was fairly certain the heart monitor, had he been wearing it, would have made a very undignified noise…because as far as he could tell, his heart had just stopped. Four months? That was a full season. A third of a year. How could he deal with being away from Ricardo for four months when he could hardly imagine being torn from him for a single night?

If Ricardo won, of course he would want John to come along. But John would need to get back to work right away, to take full advantage of whatever gigs his time on the show might generate. If John won the quarter million, there was no question he’d be willing to pay for Ricardo to accompany him. Ricardo was young, his career was just beginning, and his romance with John would generate as much buzz as a string of performances for him. It would be like all the trips John had taken with Casey—only he’d be working this time, not lolling around in the sun. And he’d have Ricardo by his side.

That was it, then. John had to win.

The four eliminated contestants appeared from behind a curtain to a flourish of dry ice, which didn’t look particularly imposing in the bright afternoon sunlight. Despite the lack of working theatrics, they looked plenty threatening to the Final Four.

There was no elegant way to get them up on the platform. The cameras would need to cut from the reveal—maybe for a commercial break—to their appearance, standing behind the Final Four, with the straitjackets in their hands. Ken Barron was the first to climb the platform. He was in good shape, unlike Chip, and he’d been allowed to wear more sensible shoes than the ladies. “Good to see you,” he told John, and shook his hand while the other magicians struggled up the scaffolding. His grasp was firm and dry. The costume was flattering. Hawkish nose, high widow’s peaks—Ken’s face lent itself to the melodrama. His calm demeanor was reassuring as well. Better to have all the melodrama going on in Ken’s costume, rather than in his head.

He saw John assessing him, and said, “You’re miked, aren’t you?”

John nodded.

“That’s fine. Just listen. When I heard you’d done so well on the Boardwalk Challenge, I was disappointed. Not for you, but for me. Because you were the magician I really wanted to be paired up with. Ricardo and Kevin…their styles and mine just don’t mesh. Their acts are too modern. And if I ended up with Jia Lee—let’s just say there’s no way I wouldn’t come out looking like a creep for tying her up too tight. This challenge is too physical for her. You ever hung upside down?” John shrugged. “Then you know what it takes to curl up with only the strength of your quads and abs to get yourself turned around. What’s the choice? Kick free of the gravity boots and fall on your head?”

Images of Ricardo being wheeled out in a neck brace with a broken spine flashed through John’s mind, and a chill seized him. No, he told himself firmly. Ricardo was in fabulous shape. He wouldn’t just flop out of the boots and hurt himself. He’d curl up and right his body properly.

But the capacity for an accident now seemed ridiculously huge.

“You know how to work your way out of a jacket?” Ken asked. “Dominant arm on top, pinch out some slack?”

John nodded again.

“Okay. Good. I figured you would. Just promise you’ll do one thing for me.”

Down on the ground, Iain yelled through his bullhorn, “Okay, people. Places.”

“Struggle,” Ken whispered. “I mean, really struggle. Make us both look good.”

John nodded, wondering at the hope that maybe his European sojourn with Ricardo might indeed kick off their relationship…and then a stunt tech approached with an armload of gear, and there was no more time for what-ifs.

In addition to the straitjacket they would shortly don, each magician was fitted with a helmet, goggles, and respirator. No wonder they’d let the contestants provide their own wardrobe for this final stunt. The viewers would hardly be able to see past all the gear. Iain’s voice came through a radio monitor in the stunt helmet. “Testing. Test test. Can everybody hear me?”

“I hear you,” John replied. He couldn’t hear whether