Kate Daniels 02 - Magic Burns

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    MAGIC BURNS
    An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the authors
    Copyright © 2008 by Andrew Gordon and Ilona Gordon.
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    ISBN: 1-101-12857-7
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To the late David Gemmell.
    You have inspired me with your books.
    It was my dream to meet you,
and I deeply regret your passing.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    I’m grateful to so many people:
    Thank you, Anne Sowards, my editor, for your wisdom, your guidance, and most of all your faith in my ability as a writer. You took a mess and shaped it into a book.
    Thank you, Rachel Vater, my agent, for your tireless devotion to your clients. You’re the best thing that could happen to a writer’s career.
    Thank you, Cam Dufty, Ace’s editorial assistant and quite possibly the most patient woman the world has ever known, for your help with copyedits and a million other things. I owe you a chocolate martini.
    Thank you, Kristin del Rosario, the interior text designer, for the gorgeous layout and for making the book a reality.
    Thank you, Judy Murello, the art director, for the spectacular cover design, and thank you, Chad Michael Ward, the artist, for creating fantastic cover art.
    Thank you, Valerie Cortes, Ace’s publicist, for tirelessly promoting the books in the Kate Daniels series.
    Thank you, all of the generous people who have suffered through my beta drafts, for making this book so much better than how it started out: Charlene Amsden, Bianca Bradley, Susan E. Curnow, Shannon Franks, Elizabeth Hull, Jackie M., Jill Myles, Reece Notley, Lizane Palmer, May, S. K. S. Perry, G. Jules Reynolds, Lys Rian, Melissa Sawmiller, Sonya Shannon, P. J. Thompson, Heidi Tallentine, and Amber van Dyk.
    Finally, thank you, all of the people who read the Kate series. Your e-mails keep me going.

CHAPTER 1
    THE PHONE RANG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. THE magic wave was in full swing, and the phone shouldn’t have worked, but it rang anyway, again and again, outraged over being ignored, until finally I reached over and picked it up.
    â€œYehmmm?”
    â€œRise and shine, Kate.” The smooth cultured voice on the line suggested a slender, elegant, handsome man, all things that Jim was not. At least not in his human shape.
    I clawed my eyes open long enough to glance at the windup clock across the room. “Two in the morning. Some of us sleep during the night.”
    â€œI’ve got a gig,” Jim said.
    I sat up in the bed, wide-awake. A gig was good—I