The Chase Page 0,26

last seen the paper house, it had been crushed flat to fit in the box. It was different now. It had been straightened and reinforced with black tape. But that wasn't what made Jenny's head spin and her breath catch. That wasn't what made her knees start to give way.

The paper house was exploded.

In shreds. Roof gone. Outer walls in tatters. Floors gutted.

As if something very large had burst out from the inside.

On the floor nearby, scratched impossibly deep into the concrete, was a mark. The rune Uruz. A letter from a magical alphabet, a spell to pierce the veil between the worlds. Jenny had seen it before on the inside of the box that had led them into the Shadow World. It was shaped like an angular and inverted U, with one stroke shorter than the other,

Right now she was looking at it upside-down, so that it should have looked like a regular U. But this particular rune was very uneven, the short stroke very short. From where she was standing it looked almost like a squared-off.

Like a signature.

Even as Jenny turned toward Dee, she felt herself falling.

"We're too late," she whispered. "He's out."

"Okay," Dee said, some minutes later, still holding her. "Okay, okay ..."

"It's not okay." She saw Cam and Angela peering in the doorway, and her head cleared a bit. "You two get back."

They came forward. "Is that it? What you've been looking for?" Cam squatted by the ruined house, his eyes as large and blue as Summer's. Light from the doorway made his dandelion hair glow at the edges. "What happened to it?"

Angela's dark eyes were huge-and despairing. "What happened to P.C.?"

Jenny looked at the house. It was gutted, every floor shredded. Her eyes filled again and she swallowed.

"I think he's probably dead," she said softly. "I'm sorry." The sight of Angela's misery cleared her head a little, brought her out of herself.

"Are you going to tell the police? About P.C. and me and this place?"

"The police," Jenny said bleakly, "are useless. We've learned that. There's nothing they can do. Maybe nothing anybody can do-" She stopped as an idea came to her. A desperate hope. "Angela, you said you didn't touch anything here-but are you sure? You didn't see anything on the floor, did you-like any jewelry?"

Angela shook her head. Jenny searched for it anyway. It had been inside the box; maybe it had just rolled away. It wouldn't make the police believe them, but it might just save her-if they could find it and destroy it-She looked in the opened box and all around on the concrete floor. She shook out the ruins of the paper house.

But it wasn't anywhere. The gold ring that Julian had put on her finger, the one she tried to throw away, was gone.

Chapter 8

"What can we do?"

They were at Audrey's house, in the second-best family room where no adults would disturb them. Michael was looking at Jenny, his spaniel eyes glazed.

"Well, that's the question, isn't it?" Zachary said crisply. "What can we do?"

"I don't know," Jenny whispered.

The paper house-or rather its remains-sat on the coffee table. Jenny had brought it with them, to keep it safe. Although what they were going to do with it, she had no idea.

She'd taken both Angela and Cam by the hand before they left Angela's house. Scared as she was, she wanted to thank them-and to give them what comfort she could.

"I know it wasn't easy to help us," she said. "Now you need to forget all about this, if you can. We're the ones who have to take care of it. But I'll always remember what you've done-both of you."

Then she and Angela, the soshe and the Crying Girl, had hugged.

Outside, on Filbert Street, she and Dee had found Tom. His RX-7 was parked behind Dee's jeep. Clearly, he'd been following them, although Jenny still didn't understand why.

Now he sat beside Jenny, his hazel eyes thoughtful. "You know, I don't think they'll hurt you, "he said to her. The emphasis on the last word was slight but noticeable.

"What do you mean, they?"

"The wolf and the snake. What did Julian call them? The Lurker and the Creeper."

Everyone stared.

"Tom, what are you talking about?"

"They're out, too. It was the wolf that followed you and Audrey on Monday. The Shadow Wolf. I only got a glimpse of it that night, but it wasn't a dog."

Audrey choked. "I've got wolf scratches on my car?"

"And that snake-I think maybe it's been around, too."

Jenny shut her