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

own key. “And the Professor’s found something too. He picks it up just as Ricardo fits his key into the first lock, while Kevin Kazan is out with an injury. He forfeits his chance at the prize.”

John pulled his key from the sand, and the knowledge that Kevin was now safe steadied his hand. He thrust the key into the first lock on the first try, and it slid home smoothly, and turned. The second lock was the same. John didn’t spare a glance for Ricardo. If he was to have any chance of being the next magician to finish, he needed all of his focus for the task. One more lock to go, and….

“Ricardo the Magnificent is free, Professor Topaz right on his heels. Well done, magicians! We’ll find out what our judges make of Jia Lee’s unconventional strategy, and hear the final scores…after this commercial break.”

“Everyone take five,” Iain called through his bullhorn, then headed over to check on Kevin. The stunt tech peeled off John’s sweaty helmet and relieved him of his goggles and respirator. Another tech did the same for Ricardo.

“Why are they talking to judges?” Ricardo asked his tech.

John looked over to Jia, who stood at the far end of the lawn with her hair now hanging loose in sweaty hanks, hands on hips, scowling. “We were not specifically told how to open the locks,” she insisted to no one in particular. “The exact words were that the key fit all four locks, and that the first magician to open the door and step onto the platform would win. That’s all. Nothing about being required to use the key.”

“She picked the locks,” Ricardo said with a dazed smile, shaking his head. “Hairpins.”

He stepped over to John and stood close at his side, not touching, but almost. There was sand in his hair. John brushed a few loose grains off his sweaty cheek from a spot that neither the goggles nor the respirator had covered. “If the judges disqualify her,” John said, “you know what that means.”

Ricardo searched John’s eyes. “You don’t sound very happy about it—or are you just worried that I’ll be crushed if I get my hopes up and then Jia wins?”

Maybe it was best to agree. The last thing John wanted to do was sour Ricardo’s potential victory. “As far as I’m concerned, you are the winner.”

Marlene crossed the lawn and told them, “We’re checking with the legal department and running through the tapes. It’ll take a few more minutes. Come sit down, we’ll have the stylists touch you up. There’s plenty of shots of you under the scaffolding anyway…and the way things have been going, I wouldn’t be surprised if it collapsed on the bunch of you.”

Might John have performed better if it weren’t for Kevin’s predicament? Possibly. He swore there was another key that had sifted through the opening while he was still upside down, and maybe he would have found it if he’d tried harder, even without his True magic. Nothing to be done for it now, he supposed. He’d allowed himself to be distracted, and now it was time to see what his distraction would cost him.

The lighting director selected a spot to film the final segment against the side of the mansion where the landscaping looked a bit haggard, and the greensman’s assistant hurried to snip off brown fronds from the palms and pick shreds of plastic shopping bags from the bushes. When one of the crew bent back the undergrowth, sun glinted off a pane of glass, and John realized…that glass was the window to his room. The room he shared with Ricardo. And suddenly the afternoon seemed incredibly surreal.

Kevin joined the other players with a patch taped over his eye and a diagnosis of a scratched cornea. Iain stood him on one side of John, Ricardo on the other, and Jia on the end, then answered a call on one of his cell phones that left him whispering furiously with his hand cupped over his mouth so none of the contestants could see. John sighed.

“Medic told me you was the one who got me pulled out of the stunt,” Kevin said.

And now, on top of everything else, John would have the privilege of being blamed for Kevin’s forfeit of the contest, too. “That’s right.”

“That was some fucked-up shit,” Kevin said quietly. Not as if he was upset with John, either. “I’ll bet it cost you some time, having to worry ’bout me.” He jammed his hands in his pockets. “Thanks.”

As John absorbed the unexpected gratitude, he spied Marlene striding across the lawn with Monty in tow, and he steeled himself.

The time had finally come.

Chapter 40

THE WINNER IS

Two stationary cameras, a jib, and a swarm of handhelds surrounded them. Marlene, for once, joined them from her trailer for the taping as she directed a couple of techs to set up…were those confetti canons? John stared dumbly. The end was in sight. It was really happening.

Once everyone was in place and Iain gave the go-ahead, Monty turned his inscrutable smile onto the contestants, and said, “Welcome back to Magic Mansion. We’ve gone through the tapes and consulted with our judges, and we’re ready to announce the quarter million dollar winner. But first…let’s check in with Kevin Kazan. Kevin, you were injured during the final challenge, and you ended up forfeiting. What was going through your mind?”

Kevin cocked his head and considered his reply, and when he answered, his voice was more thoughtful than John had ever heard it. “Funny, you always ask dat, Monty. And sometimes, I just don’t know. I was in the zone, dig? I was pumped up. Ready to show everyone Kevin Kazan gonna smoke the competition and take the prize. But then…everything went red. Alls I knew was the pain. Yeah, I’m disappointed I didn’t even finish the challenge. But they say my eye’s gonna be okay, and after what I thought I was gonna hear them say….” He seemed a bit