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Smoke wafted across my face as I gaped up at the monster I’d summoned, horror crashing over me like waves. I had wanted a distraction butthis…Whathad I done?
Where was Mary?
“Run!” I shouted to Penn, to my crew, to anyone else who could hear and respond. At the same time, I lunged for the extinguished bonfire, free hands pushing off warm summer earth.
People took flight, captor and captive fleeing the beast. Others still watched Lirr in rapture, surrounded by thick, cloying smoke, oblivious to the danger. Lirr turned. Irritation transformed into shock as he watched the creature crawl out of the fabric of the world and settle in the trees right above our heads.
“Mary!” I coughed and covered my nose against the smoke, eyes burning as I tried to make her out in the remnants of the fire. But it was too dark, the smoke too thick, and heat still billowed up from blackened coals. I could not seeher—deador alive.
“Mary!” I shouted. “Mary!”
Above me, the larch shuddered. Lirr continued to stare at it, but his ghisting stalked down to the fireside, his form as otherworldly as the smoke all around us. Like me, the ghisting did not seem to find what he was looking for. Had Mary escaped in the chaos?
As if sensing my question, the ghisting looked up at me for the briefest moment. He had no face but he looked like Lirr, just then. HewasLirr.
The monster I had summoned gave a chattering, gut-melting snarl.
It descended. Bloody orange light washed over us as it came with impossible speed, becoming more and more substantial with every passing moment. Finally, its light waned as it seeped fully through the boundaries between worlds and settled into the arctic Ghistwold.
Even Lirr’s Magni power could not combat his crew’s fear. What remained of his crew broke. But the beast did not give chase. Instead it fixed its eyes on Lirr’s ghisting, and charged.
The ghisting vanished and, up on the ridge, Lirr disappeared into the murk. The beast roared in vexation and turned, limb by limb, to regard me. It spoke no words, but Iknewwhat it wanted.
A command.
I wanted to laugh and wretch. Tempting a creature to chase me into the physical world was one thing. But controlling it? The book had spoken of this, but could I truly do it?
“Cause chaos,” I said, willing all shock and uncertainty from my voice. “But do not kill.”
The monster shrieked and scuttled off into the trees after a pair of Lirr’s pirates. I was not completely sure it would obey, but it was no longer an immediate threat.
I sagged, shock and awe momentarily overcoming me. Then the screams rose to my ears, I saw Penn struggling to his feet, and I remembered who I was.
A pirate bolted past me in a swirl of displaced smoke. Without thinking I struck out with my left hand, landing a fist squarely on the man’s jaw. He went down and I stole the knife and cutlass from his belt. My injured arm was not strong, but the knife was not for me.
In a moment I was back at Penn’s side. I cut him free with quick movements and handed him the shorter blade.
“Regroup and hold fast,” I instructed the sailor. “Find Mr. Keo and Ms. Skarrow, if you can.”
“Aye, sir!” Penn’s bloodied leg barely took his weight on the loamy forest floor, but that did not stop him from starting to bellow a stream of orders. What remained of our crew and Demery’s pirates began to rally. Lirr’s crew would not be far behind, but with their leader vanished and their number scattered, we had a moment of reprieve.
On the edge of the chaos, a new specter separated from the shadows. I twisted and raised my cutlass into a long guard, only to see my own face staring back at me.
“Ben?” I breathed, half shedding my stance.
“Athe decided to trust me,” Benedict returned, flicking sweaty hair from his eyes. He was sodden and barely dressed for the cold, but then again, the cold was gone now. “I can be very persuasive. Was that monster your doing?”
Before I could answer, three pirates burst from the forest and attacked. Benedict and I parted instinctively. He parried a slash and drove his cutlass into an opponent’s chest. I opened another’s belly and faced the last just as Ben ran her through.
“Right, what is going on?” my twin shouted. “Give me an objective, man!”
“Where’s Lirr?” The voice came from Athe, who cracked off her pistol at a fleeing enemy and turned grey eyes on us. A ghisting appeared from herflesh—aghisting in the shape of abear—andbolted off into the forest. It passed a shadow as it went, a shadow I swore was James Demery and a woman in a long, ethereal dress. But they were gone before I could be sure.
“What are you doing?” I asked Athe, staring after the ghisting. “If you’re killed now, separate from yourghisting—”
“A risk I will take. The ghistings will find and corner Lirr faster alone,” the woman cut me off. “Did you see where that bastard went?”
I turned to sweep the ridge. It was still hard to see, but Lirr was nowhere to be seen.
