“Give him a weapon,” Brad demanded.
“He can take nothing with him but his mind. Lie beside her,” Rowena told Jordan, then picked up the book. She closed her eyes, and it began to glow. “Ah, yes, I see. Take her hand.”
“Ive already got it.”
Rowena opened her eyes. The blazing blue was nearly black against the pure white of her skin. Her hair seemed to lift in an unseen wind. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah, Im ready.”
“Bring her back.” Flynn drew Malory close to his side as he looked down at Jordan. “Bring her home.”
“Count on it.” He felt that wind blow through him, fast and warm. He felt it whirl him through time, through space, throughshimmery silver curtains that parted with a sound like the sea.
And he was standing in the moonstruck night, staring at the black peaks and towers of Phantom Watch.
He sprinted toward it, noting the smoking fog, the scream of an owl. A dog would bay at that fat, full moon, he remembered, and felt a curious satisfaction when the sound echoed through the air.
Last chapter, he realized, and confirmed it when he saw the broken window.
Time to do. a little revising, he thought, and climbed through the shattered glass.
Chapter Twenty
WHAT can we do?” Malory held tight to Flynn. “There must be something we can do besides stand here and wait.”
“Keep close,”Pitte told her.
“Perhaps theres a bit more.” Rowena sat on the side of the bed, with the book in her lap. “Weve already broken our vow,” she said toPitte . “If there is punishment, it wont change if we do more.”
“Watch, then.” He ranged himself beside her. “But they deserve the chance to win this on their own. Read.” He laid his hand on her shoulders and merged his power with hers. “So the others can watch as well.”
She nodded and opened the book to the last chapter.
“She took the stairs at a limping run, and the fear was all around her, crowded close in the shadows of the Watch.”
AT the landing Dana started to veer right. There were dozens of rooms, hundreds of places to hide.
But for how long?
He would find her. The dark was no barrier for him.
Would he kill her? Could he? Kate had saved herself in the end, but she had fought a man, flesh and blood against flesh and blood.
How could she know how much of this was Kanes world and how much was Jordans? Even, she realized, how much was her own creation brought on by bits and pieces she remembered from the book, spiked by her own fear?
At the sound below, she whirled to see the shadow of Kane and the long white scarf glowing faintly blue in the path of the moonlight.
And she saw the fog, now cold and blue, begin to crawl up the steps toward her.
“Ill find you, Kate.” He crooned it. “Ill always find you.”
The killers words, she thought. She heard her answer spill out of her mouth without conscious thought. “I wont make it easy for you. It wont be like the others.”
She pivoted on the landing and charged up the next flight of stairs.
She needed distance, she thought frantically. Enough distance to buy enough time to clear her mind. Fear was clouding it, making it harder for her to separate herself and her actions from the characters.
She batted madly at cobwebs, had to stifle a scream as they clung to her hair and face. But somehow the innately human disgust steadied her.