“Okay,” Imani said, voice tense. The room was covered in blood. Two crawlers had been severely injured during the fight with the mimics, including one who’d almost been chomped in half, but thanks to Imani’s quick reactions, they were both alive. We hadn’t lost anyone. “I hope this works. Everyone, step back.”

“Magic is still flowing to it,” Donut said. She pointed to an object on the ground that had broken off the table. “That, too. It’s the button. You press it, and it makes the wheel spin, but if you hold the wheel in the right place, forcing it to stop on that one tiny sliver, it should open the portal. Do you think we can take the whole wheel with us?”

“I doubt it, but we’re going to try,” I said.

The roulette wheel had fallen to the ground and broken during the fight. Gold coins and chips were everywhere. All the furniture in the entire room was now gone, save a single slot machine and the Wheel of Fortune, which still stood there. The surviving guards had fled, leaving us alone.

Elle cast a bolt at the last slot machine, and it exploded, spilling gold coins everywhere. Prepotente moved to start picking them up.

“I thought I saw it twitch,” she said.

Mordecai: If the Desperado Club is infested, you guys can’t go back. Those things are almost impossible to root out. The whole place will need to be fumigated. They have a special ability to avoid most detection spells. They’re like one of Carl’s level 15 traps. All but invisible. You should all devise safe words and quiz each other every day from now on. They can mimic crawlers, and the system will label them as such until you discover them.

Donut: I HAVE A METHOD OF DETECTION, BUT I THINK IT’LL ONLY WORK IF THEY’RE PRETENDING TO BE AN OBJECT AND NOT A PERSON.

We were all looking at Louis. Samantha was back to sobbing.

“I guess I’ll see you guys later,” Louis said. “You know, it’s funny. I’m not nearly as scared as I used to be. And I don’t mean just about the dungeon, either. I’ve been scared my whole life, ever since I was a kid, that I was screwing things up. I never wanted a job where I was responsible for anybody else because I was afraid if I messed things up, people might get hurt. No matter what happens next, it’s okay.” He let out a spray of water. “I know even if I end up in that Pineapple place, I’ll be stuck there, unable to leave. But it’s better than the alternative.”

Donut jumped to his shoulder, pushing Samantha away. “You need to be careful. You’re a father now, and Katia will kill us if something happens to her baby daddy.” She gave him a headbutt. “Be safe, Louis.”

“Yeah, you, too. Bye, Princess Donut. Bye, dog Carl.”

Imani turned the wheel to the correct spot, stepped on the button, and held the wheel in place. It hummed, and a moment later, the hole opened in the ground.

I held up my paw as I examined the portal. It was the same as the last time.

“We will figure something out,” I said as Donut returned to my side. “I swear to you, Louis. I swear to all of you. As long as I breathe, I will do everything I can to get you free, no matter where you may be.”

“I’ll go with you,” Samantha said as she choked back another sob.

“No, you won’t,” Louis said. “Later, guys. Oh, and, Elle, it’s heigh-ho, Silver. I’ll die on that hill.”

Elle grinned. “Go fuck yourself, Santiago.”

He turned, and he jumped into the hole, then disappeared.

Samantha turned to Prepotente. “Okay, I’ll give you one chance, but you gotta shave your body and bring Bianca in on it. And you have to be okay with me calling you Louis.”

Prepotente screamed.

“And you can’t do that.”

Donut sniffed. “Carl, do you think we’re ever going to see them again?”

“I hope so,” I said. I turned to regard Donut.

She hesitated and then she nuzzled against me. “I hope so, too.”

“Whatever happens, I think it’s for the best. They’re the safe ones.”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean I’m not— Carl! You’re doing it again! Put that thing away immediately!”

“Time’s ticking,” Imani said. She was trying to be stoic, but I’d never seen the woman look so tired, so frazzled. So done.

“Wait,” Donut said, looking up at the wheel. “Look at all the prizes on here! There’s a group of random skill potions! Can we try to get those? I think we should try to get those.”

I wagged my tail. “You said it yourself. The magic is gone.”

I tried to pull the wheel into my inventory anyway, but I received an error.

You may put this in your inventory, but it will break the magical connection.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

I turned, but Lucia was right there leaning over me. She was back to the beautiful-woman form. She went to one knee and patted me on the head.

“Good boy,” she said. She got up, turned, and walked from the room.

I exchanged a look with Florin, who shrugged.

Donut let out an undignified snort. “Dog people.”

We had two hours left to get to the finish line. Florin jogged ahead to scout, and he said because of the open awnings, the bugs were flying all over the place. They weren’t bunched like before, and it shouldn’t be a problem.

Donut returned Mongo back to his carrier and deigned to walk alongside me. “At least you’re not a cocker spaniel. Or one of those other idiot breeds. Like a Boston terrier or a French bulldog. I couldn’t handle you being a French bulldog.”

The dance floor to the Desperado had been abandoned, likely after the guards announced that mimics had gotten in. I turned to look, and that door to Orren’s office was still there. I wondered if Hamed was there, waiting. I wondered if he’d known about the mimics or not. The AI seemed to imply that they were at odds, but I just didn’t know anymore. Either way, I hoped Splash Zone and the others were safe. They didn’t yet know about Dong Quixote. I hoped I’d get a chance to tell them how their friend had died.

Clarabelle, likewise, was not in her spot when we left. I made Imani jot a note, and we left it on her chair.

Mimics have infested the Desperado Club. Do not go in if you can help it. You are always welcome in Safehome Yolanda.

“What a goddamned floor,” I muttered as we padded back toward the exit to Hungry Eyes.

Elle, grunting with annoyance because she had to walk in her goblin form, sidled up to me. She moved to chat.

Elle: Carl, what the hell was that at the end there with that evil-eye bullshit?

CARL: It was the Eye of the Bedlam Bride tattoo. It’s on the dog’s forehead, but I control it.

Elle: You’re keeping secrets from us. It’s going to bite us on the butt. I said from the start we should’ve confronted Britney, and we never did, and now she’s gone where we can’t help her. You need to tell us what’s going on with you.

CARL: Let’s get through this next floor, and let’s get you to your final upgrade, and we’ll talk. I promise.

“Jamal has kept the bugs away, Mr. Carl,” Jamal said as Donut, Samantha, and I approached. “They do not like it when they get a taste of my toasty emissions.” He paused. “It was only one bug, but he has not been back!”

I wagged my tail at the shark as I jumped in.

Donut paused. “Wait,” she finally said, sagging. “Wait.” She turned to me. “Do you think Bruna the gnu is back in their garage?”

“No,” I said. “She’s still on the track and will be until the race is over.”

Donut let out a little growl. “Okay. Give me two minutes, and I’ll be right back.”

“Wait!” I called, but she bounded away. She rushed to one of the garage doors, swiped, and went inside.

The keys, I realized. Dwight had two keys left, and she had looted them from him. She first went into the garage of the razor foxes and then into the garage of the Jugglers. The whole thing took maybe two minutes.

She returned to the truck, grumbling.

She’d just transferred Onikuma the bear and Old Shuck the dog to our garage.

“I’m not going to talk about it,” Donut said. “We’ll need them for the parade.”

I patted Donut with my paw. Or I tried to. She was taller than me.

“No, Carl,” Donut said. “We’re not doing that until you change back.”

Samantha, still sniffling, chomped on the steering wheel as we turned toward the exit.

“This driving thing is not nearly as fun as I hoped it would be,” she said as Donut pushed on the pedals.

The bugs were, indeed, gone. But something very strange happened.

Imani was there. The giant Imani. She was sitting in the middle lobby, clutching onto Gucci the Maltese.

We carefully eased forward. Most of the others had already gone through. I wasn’t sure how it worked with non-shells. I knew she wasn’t real-real, but I wanted to avoid hurting her if we could.

“It won’t let me leave the building,” she said. She was talking to us, I think.

If there were any bugs left, I didn’t see them.

“I don’t know what’s happening. This is like a nightmare.” She paused. “I should have left when I had the chance. I just felt so responsible for them because they’re all idiots who can’t take care of themselves. They’re family, you know. But . . . it doesn’t matter anymore, I guess. I should have left.” She pulled the struggling dog, who wanted to chase our truck, to her face. “I stayed, and they’re still killing themselves one by one.”

“Oh, darling,” Donut said, her voice suddenly amplified. She was using her headset microphone. “This is nothing but a dream. Out in the real world, you’ve already left them behind. You moved from Detroit, and you went to Washington, and you started a new life. You made the most wonderful friends, people named Yolanda and Brandon and Elle and more, and you met a man named Chris, and you fell in love, and you lived happily ever after. It’s all right. All you need to do is close your eyes and wait. It’ll be over in just a second.”

The giant Imani lowered her head into her dog and started to cry.

I clicked the rocket button, and we moved toward the stairwell, leaving this cursed level behind.