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terms with dying a natural, if early, death. Another to face it in a
burning building, to watch it threaten the people he cared about
most in the world.
Few things scared him anymore, but Alden filled him with a
terror bigger than he had ever known, because Alden had found
the only remaining things that could hurt Charles: Thom,
Minnie, and Cora.
He leaned to the side and tapped three times against the win-
dow to the library.
Immediately Thom, Minnie, and Cora were outside. “Where
are they headed?” Thom asked.
“Toward town.”
He nodded, and Charles noticed an odd bulge beneath his
vest. “What have you got there?”
Thom avoided his eyes, but Minnie gasped, turning to Cora.
“You didn’t!”
Cora glared at her. “I did, and you’ll keep your mouth shut
about it.”
A movement in the corner of his vision caught Charles’s eye,
and he had just enough time to see Arthur, melting between trees,
already following Alden and the bearded man.
“Arthur’s beaten us!” he said, standing and hurrying down the
steps.
“No, Charles, you stay here.” Thom grabbed his elbow, trying
to turn him back toward the boardinghouse.
“And leave me unprotected and alone? That’s precisely what
they have in mind.” Charles thought no such thing, but he was not
staying here.
“Come on, we’re going to lose him!” Minnie ran ahead, the
ribbons from her hat trailing behind her.
