Even though it wasn’t quite noon yet, the area was already full of folks in shorts, sandals, and tacky T-shirts, with cameras hanging off their necks and phones dangling from their fingers. The greasy scents of popcorn, funnel cakes, and sticky-sweet cotton candy filled the air, while flashing neon signs mounted on some of the larger, castle-shaped food carts invited folks to check out pralines and salt water taffy, among other treats.

But the Midway itself wasn’t the only place that tourists visited. Cobblestone walkways spiraled out from all sides of the enormous circle, leading to smaller squares full of hotels, along with shops, restaurants, game booths, go-cart tracks, movie theaters, ziplines, and more. But whether they were in the Midway or one of the outlying squares, almost all the businesses tied in with the town’s overall fairy-tale theme, with names like Ye Olde Bowling Alley and Her Majesty’s Mini Golfe and all the old-timey decorations and costumes to match. It was like being in the middle of the world’s cheesiest, most over-the-top renaissance faire.

But there were some actual magical attractions mixed in as well, like the Monstrous Museum, with its displays of stuffed monsters, educational programs about the creatures’ habitats, and zoos where kids could pet baby tree trolls and the like. Other museums showcased everything from the history of Cloudburst Falls to fun facts about the waterfalls to how bloodiron had been mined out of the mountain.

Some of the squares had even been turned into nature sanctuaries, where folks could wander through patches of woods and watch rockmunks use their razor-sharp talons to carve their nests into boulders, while their smaller chipmunk cousins looked on. All put together, the sanctuary squares were sort of like open-air butterfly houses. Only with teeth and claws instead of pretty wings.

The tourists weren’t the only ones moving through the Midway, however. In keeping with the overall ren-faire atmosphere, men and women wearing knee-high black boots, black pants, colorful shirts and cloaks, and matching cavalier hats topped with feathers stationed themselves throughout the crowd, keeping an eye on everything, their hands resting on the swords belted to their waists. I always thought they looked like extras from some old Three Musketeers movie, but more than one tourist stopped to snap photos of the costumed guards. Bits of gold, silver, and bronze glimmered on the guards’ wrists, denoting which Family each one belonged to, but it was easy to tell who was who, since the guards’ cloaks bore their Family’s color. Black for the Sinclairs, red for the Draconis, purple for the Itos, and so on and so forth.

Each Family had a different piece of the action. The Draconis ran the casinos, the Itos owned the hotels, the Salazars had the restaurants. From what I knew, the Sinclairs ran the banks, along with some other interests, like the nature sanctuaries and bloodiron mines on the mountain. And all of the Families made a sizable chunk of change in protection money by dealing with the wayward monsters who slithered around town in search of an easy tourist meal.

The Families had divvied up the Midway like wedges of a pie, and each Family had guards stationed in its section to deal with any problems. Customers who complained about high prices and sloppy service. Employees who skimmed cash out of the registers. Monsters who wandered a little too close to the crowds. Thieves like me.

I wondered how the Sinclairs were keeping up with everyone else, since Grant said that so many folks had left the Family, but several guards wearing silver hand and sword cuffs patrolled the Sinclair territory as usual. Perhaps things weren’t as bad as Grant had made them out to be.

“Come on,” Devon said. “Let’s head over to the arcade. I want to get this over with.”

He headed toward the north section of the Midway. Felix followed him, with Grant and me flanking them. The guards eyed me suspiciously as I passed, their gazes taking in the sword belted to my waist, since no one except Family guards were supposed to have weapons on the Midway. Please. As if I couldn’t swipe their cuffs right off their wrists if I wanted to. But their faces relaxed when they realized I was walking next to Grant. He smiled, waved, and called out greetings to the guards. He seemed to know almost all of them, including the Draconis.

We reached the arcade entrance, and Devon looked left and right.

“I don’t see her. Do you, Felix?”

Felix shook his head, and the two of them went over to the ticket booth to ask the clerk about whoever Devon was supposed to meet. Grant moved over to talk to some guards from the Volkov Family who were stationed by the arcade entrance, since this was their turf, although he made sure to keep Devon within sight. I leaned against a cardboard sign of a tree troll eating pancakes. Maybe this would be easier money than I’d thought—

A girl my own age stopped next to me, scanning the crowd. She was extremely pretty, with shoulder-length black hair, dark brown eyes, and skin that had a faint tan tint to it, like the inside of an almond. Despite her wedge sandals, she was several inches shorter than I was and wore a purple sundress with white polka-dots. A thin silver cuff glinted on her wrist, one that featured a cluster of wisteria flowers. So she was an Ito then.

She glanced at me, and we both did that quick smile strangers do. She started to move past me but stopped and let out a low whistle.

“Nice sword,” she said in an appreciative voice, leaning down to get a closer look. “Is that a black blade? I really like the star scrollwork.”

I wrapped my hand around the hilt, hiding the stars from sight. “Nah. Just a cheap imitation.”

She straightened up and looked me up and down, as if comparing me to my sword. Apparently, I passed her inspection because she smiled at me again.