cowled coat aiming an ivory pistol at the remaining wolf. As Finn backed away with Hip Hop, the Rook’s hood fell back—revealing, not Hip Hop, but the scarred face of a young woman who resembled . . . Finn whispered, “Who . . . ?”
“I’m Jill Scarlet. Go!”
Finn turned and ran—
A black mass so cold it stopped her breath fell over her, entangling her limbs with an icy grip, lifting her. She couldn’t even scream as she was flung—
—she hit the ground and uncurled in a gloomy corridor. She lay there, shaking and glazed with cold sweat. Nausea and fear wrenched through her in a convulsive shiver.
The tentacled darkness churned back into the shape of Seth Lot. He strode to her and dragged her to her feet.
“Lot.” Looking like a prince of hell, Jack stepped into the corridor.
Lot hooked an arm around Finn’s throat and yanked her back against him. She felt the fur of his coat prick against her neck, flinched as sharp nails caressed the pulse beneath her left ear. Lot said, “Let’s see if you can get to her before I tear her open.”
Jack raised the ivory pistol the young woman called Jill Scarlet had carried, a Fata weapon shaped into a leaping hound. “Silver bullets coated with wolfsbane, Lot. They’ll hurt.”
“Jack.” Lot sounded disapproving. “You’re cheating.”
Finn slammed a heel into Lot’s right foot. He growled and tightened his grip, but she braced her other foot against the wall and pushed with all her might. She slid down, felt a sharp burn across her cheek from his nails, heard the crack of a gunshot. Lot released her.
Jack shouted her name as she launched herself toward him.
Lot, bleeding darkness from where the bullet had grazed the left side of his face, seized her wrist. She shouted as she felt a bone snap, and fell to one knee in agony.
Lot whipped the sword from his walking stick and speared it at Jack.
The blade struck Jack in the chest, exactly where his heart still beat, but it was Finn who made a faint, wounded sound as Jack collapsed, the pistol clattering across the floor. Lot said, in a voice rich with satisfaction, “I thought I’d taught you better, Jack—never bring a gun to a swordfight.”
Jack clutched the sword in his chest. Blood trickled from a corner of his mouth.
Lot smiled down at Finn. Then he walked away, snatching up the ivory pistol and snapping it in half, scattering the bullets, before leaving them. When she heard him call, “Li . . . ly . . .” she staggered to her feet, cradling her wrist.
Jack raised his head. “Go. Moth will help . . . I’ll follow in a sec—”
“Jack . . .”
“Go!”
Torn, she rushed to him, but he pushed her away. “He’ll kill your sister. Go to Moth!”
She stumbled back, turned, and ran.
THE SWORD HAD PIERCED HIS HEART.
Jack clutched the hilt, cried out as he pulled the blade from him and felt the mortal blood leaving him in hot, pulsing streams. No. I’m not human. I am already dead. This can’t kill me.
There was a shadow beneath him. His heart had stopped pumping. He was as cold as night and nothing.
“Not yet,” he gasped as his shadow rose before him, saturating the air with cold. Eyes as burning and bright as the sun glowed in the shadow’s jackal head. Dozens of wings seemed to flutter and thump and rustle behind it. What he had made a deal with in Rowan Cruithnear’s garden had come for him. At last.
He raised his head. “Not yet. Let me save her first. And then you’ll have me.”
SETH LOT HAD FOUND LILY and was dragging her up a flight of stairs, away from the mayhem around the feast table. Finn raced after them with only a steak knife in her good hand—her other wrist still hurt with a jagged, grinding pain. Lot was heading for an arch shaped like a face with a gaping mouth. Beyond, she saw an otherworldly forest cast in the violet glow of a primeval night, the leaves of the trees flickering with orbs—the Ghostlands.
“Finn!” Lily tore away from Lot. He slammed her against a stone pillar and she crumpled to the floor.
Then he strode toward Finn. “I will make you fear me every moment of your life, Serafina Sullivan, for what you did to my Reiko.”
“I didn’t kill Reiko.”
“You caused a beautiful, divine girl who had walked the earth for ages to burn. You snuffed out the life of a