PENNY POV
“Marcellus,” Mom called, her voice carrying through the club like a blade dragged over silk. “Come out and play before I find you.”
One second the club had been all bass and bodies and dirty magic pulsing under my skin, and the next it went still so violently I could hear liquid dripping somewhere behind the bar. A glass halfway to a man’s mouth froze in place. A woman with black lipstick and silver rings all the way up her fingers stopped laughing with her mouth still open. Two rogues near a back hallway stiffened like someone had shoved invisible knives against their spines.
The whole room was frozen in place.
Then clapping echoed from above us.
One clap.
Slow.
Almost mocking.
Another.
Another.
My head snapped toward the staircase curled along the left wall, black iro
