DOMINIC COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. Ariel had repeated the accountant, word for word.

“Put those away,” she said, marching to them and plucking the thumb tips off their hands. “You amateurs! How dare you joke about my craft? It’s insulting!”

“We didn’t mean to insult you,” Dominic said. “We’re just exploring.”

“You have to admit,” Loop added, “a box of cutoff thumbs is cool.”

“Those are not cutoff thumbs,” Ariel said. “They’re thumb tips. Do you even know what they’re for?”

Dominic thought they were for Halloween costumes, but he was afraid to answer. So far, he’d been more wrong than right when Ariel was around.

“Like I said—amateurs!” She walked to the SILKS bin and pulled out a red handkerchief. She made a big show of waving it in the air. Then she made a loose fist with her left hand and tucked the red silk into it. She blew on her hand, and when she opened her fist, the silk was gone. She had made it disappear! Dominic remembered how she had done the same move during her routine over a month ago.

“That is beyond cool,” Loop said, “but how did you do it?”

Ariel could only shake her head. “Look here, noobs.” She splayed the fingers of her left hand and then—pulled off her thumb! Of course, it wasn’t her real thumb, but a thumb tip with the red silk stuffed inside.

“I get it!” Loop said, grabbing a thumb tip and a silk. He tried to do the trick himself, but when he stuffed the silk into the thumb tip, bits still poked out the edges.

“That’s the sloppiest technique I’ve ever seen,” Ariel complained. “You’ll never be a magician with such awful execution.”

“Ariel,” the accountant warned.

Dominic had forgotten about the man because he seemed so preoccupied—he still had his back to them as he punched numbers into his calculator—but apparently, he paid attention to everything that happened in the Vault.

Ariel glanced at him and rolled her eyes. Then she reached in her back pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. “I’m just saying that you obviously haven’t studied the art. Every beginner magician knows what a thumb tip is. You can probably buy thumb tips at Walmart. That’s how passé they are.”

Dominic glanced at his friends. They looked confused, probably because they didn’t know what “passé” meant. He was about to explain, but then Ariel flicked the top card of the deck, making it somersault like a world-class gymnast, and then caught it—all with one hand!

“If you really want a challenge,” she went on, “try hiding silks without a thumb tip.” This time, as she talked, she spread the cards into a perfect fan. She did the fan again, but used only one hand. Then she squared the deck, took the top card, and made it spin on her fingertip the way a Globetrotter spins a basketball. “There are a zillion ways to hide cards or coins,” she said. “You can palm them, back-palm them, sleeve them, or use a topit…” Without missing a beat, she lifted the cards and made them fall, one at a time, into her lower hand. “Of course, it takes hours and weeks, maybe even years to master the sleights. You guys have a long way to go.” As she spoke, she divided the deck into three sections, making them flip over one another but somehow keeping them connected, as if their corners were joined by hinges.

Z couldn’t contain himself any longer. “That is so cool! How did you do that?”

“This?” She did the fancy move again. “It’s called a Sybil cut.”

Z grabbed some cards and tried the move, but the whole deck slipped from his fingers. Cards flew everywhere. It was just like him, Dominic thought, to try something without thinking it through first.

“What a mess!” Ariel said as she continued to perform flawless Sybil cuts.

Z picked up the cards. “Looks like that move is too advanced. What was the other thing you did?”

“You mean this?” She made the cards fall from one hand to the other. “It’s called a cascade. And this is a fan, and when I spin the card, it’s called a pirouette. Don’t you know anything?”

Dominic and Loop shook their heads, while Z attempted to perform a cascade. Instead of landing in his hand, the cards landed all over the floor.

“You’ve heard of the Buck twins, right?” Ariel said. “Everybody knows who they are.”

“Do they live in Victoria?” Dominic asked.

“No!” She sounded offended. “They do not live in Victoria. Why would they live here? They’re famous.”

Dominic hated when he accidentally asked a stupid question.

“They are the masters of cardistry,” Ariel said. “You think my flourishes are cool? Wait till you see what they can do with cards. Plus, they’re supercute—and there’s two of them! They’re hand doubles for movie actors.”

“What’s a hand double?” Loop asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You know what a body double is, right?”

“Sure,” Loop said. “They do stunts for the actors.”

“So hand doubles do stunts for the actors’ hands. You can’t expect the actors to do card tricks or even simple flourishes like this.” She made the top card somersault again. “It takes real skill. I’d be surprised if even half of one percent of the entire human population could do it.”

“Ariel,” the accountant said again. “That’s enough.”

“I’m only stating a fact,” she replied. “Even people who know what a flourish is can’t actually do one.” With that, she started to cascade the cards again.

The accountant turned around. “Stop showing off,” he said. “A true magician hides his skill and performs his routines with the most natural and invisible sleights.”

“A true magician,” she countered, “uses cardistry to fascinate the spectators and show them just how spectacular card handling can be.”

Dominic smiled. He loved a good debate.

“All you’re doing,” the accountant said, pointing for emphasis, “is letting the audience know that you are adept at manipulating cards, which in turn robs your trick of power because they are expecting the spectacular rather than being surprised by it.”

Ariel sighed. “You are so old-school, Dad.”

Of course the accountant was her dad, Dominic realized. No wonder Ariel was a reigning champion. Her parents owned a magic shop!

“Today’s audiences,” she went on, “don’t have the patience for your type of magic. They’re used to David Blaine and Criss Angel.”

“Yeah!” Loop admitted. “Criss Angel’s my favorite. I love his geek magic.”

“See?” Ariel said. “My generation has no idea who Eugene Burger or the Professor are.”

This made the accountant stand up. “Show some respect,” he warned. “Those are classic magicians.”

“‘Classic’ is just another way of calling someone old-fashioned, or just plain old.”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong. Classic acts never go out of style. They’re timeless and beautiful.”

Ariel pretended to yawn. “They’re boring. Why do you think I’m the reigning champion of the Texas Association of Magicians’ teen stage contest? If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. If I had followed your advice, I would have come in last place. But I decided to appeal to the newer, hip generation, and I won!”

Her father’s mustache twitched. “Young lady, the classics never go out of style,” he said again, “and anyone can master magic with enough practice. It’s time you realized that and learned a little humility.”

“Humility is for losers, not for people who are born with talent, like me.”

Mr. Garza took off his baseball cap, ran his fingers through his hair, and put the cap back on. Then he reached into a drawer and pulled out some forms. He walked over to the boys and gave them the handouts. “Fill these out and get your parents’ signatures. You fellows are officially entering this year’s TAOM teen close-up contest. It’s in Houston at the end of August. You have three months to get ready, so we must begin our training immediately.”

“Dad!” Ariel was appalled. “They can’t be in the competition.”

“Sure they can,” he said. “One way or another, I’m going to show you that talent is earned, not given.” Then he turned to the boys. “Are you at least twelve years old?”

The boys nodded.

“Good. Every year, there’s a magic competition with a teen division for people twelve to seventeen years old. The contest alternates between stage and close-up acts. This year is a close-up year. You have to come up with a routine that lasts between four and seven minutes. Don’t worry. I can help you. I’ll even give you a fifteen percent discount on all merchandise as long as you promise to wear a Conjuring Cats T-shirt to the convention. How does that sound?”

The boys could only nod.

“Wait a minute!” Ariel said, but her father held up his hand to silence her. Then he returned to his desk and started tapping at the calculator again.

Ariel glared at the boys. “Fine!” she told them. “If you want to make fools of yourselves in front of a whole bunch of people, be my guest.” Before Dominic and his friends could answer, before they could even process what had just happened, she stomped out.