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“Hush!”

Her whisper wraps around me in a spiral. She dangles the mouse by its tail. Its tiny claws splay out in fear. It tries to climb up itself. “So long, we’ve waited so long, so long. Now she will be free, and so will we all. For that was the bargain made long ago. One soul in exchange for the other.”

I cover my ears. “Stop!”

“As you wish,” she says. She opens her mouth and bites down hard on the mouse’s neck.

I wake with a start, my forehead damp. My nightgown clings to me as if I’ve broken a fever. I let my eyes adjust to the deep dark, and when my room takes shape, I know I’m really awake this time. The rain is splattering against my window, and my body aches. I’m as weak as a new kitten. I don’t hear Ann’s snoring.

“Ann?” I call. She’s not in her bed, and I know in my heart that she has gone into the realms with Felicity.

I have to go after them. I stumble down the stairs and into the kitchen, heading for the lawn and the door. A sharp rap at the window makes me jump. It is too dark to see who is there, and in truth, I am afraid to look. The rapping comes again. The window has fogged. I put my hands to the pane and peer into the night. Ithal puts his face to the pane, startling me. Ithal! I run to open the kitchen door. He stands on the threshold in the pouring rain.

“Ithal! Where have you been?” He looks grim. “What is the matter?”

“It is Kartik. They have taken him. You must save him.”

“Who has taken him?”

“There is no time. We must go now.”

I think of Ann and Felicity inside the realms. “I have to—”

He hands me a strip of soggy fabric from Kartik’s cloak. It has been branded with the Rakshana insignia. Fowlson.

“Take me,” I say, for if I can get to Kartik, he can help me with my friends.

I follow Ithal through the rain to where Freya waits. My legs are weak, and I stumble once or twice. Ithal’s eyes are so ringed in shadow they seem hollow.

“Where have you been?” I ask again. “Mother Elena has been terribly worried.”

“The men came for me.”

“Miller’s men? You must tell Inspector Kent! He will not let it stand,” I say, helping myself onto Freya’s back.

“Later. We must go to him now.”

He swings himself onto the horse, behind me, and I feel the coldness of him at my back. With a small kick to the horse’s flanks, we are off. Rain lashes my cheeks and soaks my hair as we gallop into the woods, turning left at the lake. The horse stops suddenly, spooked. She whinnies loudly, pacing before the edge of the water, sensing something.

“Freya, kele!” Ithal commands.

The horse will not go on. Instead, she pats her right hoof on the ground and sniffs at the water’s edge, as if searching for something she has lost.

The Gypsy gives a sharp tug on the reins, and Freya turns away, picking up speed until she is in a full gallop that makes my heart pound in rhythm with the strike of her hooves against the road. I can feel the night’s breath on my neck. Only small flashes of lightning brighten the path ahead of us.

We turn off at the graveyard. The sky’s an angry throb of light and sound. Freya weaves between the headstones. Her hooves catch in the mud, and she pitches me dangerously close to the sharp edge of one. I scream and cling to Ithal’s shirt as he rights her, guiding the horse onto a grassy path, which she takes at a more cautious clip.

“Where are we going?” I shout.

The storm is coming down heavier than before. It blinds me and I have to tuck my head to keep the water from my eyes. Ithal answers, but I can’t hear over the pounding of the rain.

“What did you say?” I ask.

It sounds like humming or praying. No, he’s chanting. Words fly past as fast as rain on wind, filling me with an icy dread.

“A sacrifice, a sacrifice, a sacrifice…”

The piece of cloth turns to snakes in my hand. I scream and the snakes turn to ashes. Just ahead, mounds of earth sit on either side of an open grave. Ithal steers Freya straight for it, gathering speed. I jab him with my elbows, but he doesn’t stop. With all my might, I pitch myself from the horse’s back. I land hard against the wet earth just as Freya screams and tumbles into the open grave. I do not hear her hit bottom.

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