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“Through there is just before the auction,” she said to Drummond. “Just before she attacked. Far enough away from the ballroom that nobody should see us.”
“Right,” Drummond said. He held out his hand and Cassie looked at it in confusion.
“I’m going to take us into the shadows now,” he explained. “You have to hold my hand.”
“What? I didn’t hold your hand the last time, when I took us to your library.”
“That was different,” Drummond said. “The library itself was in the shadows. We went there together. I am taking myself into the shadows. If you come with me, we have to hold hands. And you can’t let go, do you understand?”
“What happens if I let go?” Cassie asked.
“You will fall out of the shadows,” Drummond said. “You will fall back into the real world.” He shook his head seriously. “Please do not let go, not when we are anywhere near the woman.”
“Hold his hand, Cassie,” Izzy called from behind them. “Hold it like it’s your favorite book.”
“Shut up!” Cassie muttered.
Drummond watched her hesitate, staring at his hand as if it were something strange and slightly scary. Then she reached out and their fingers intertwined. Her hand was cool and smooth, and Drummond felt himself shiver unexpectedly—delightfully—at the contact. Their eyes met, and Drummond thought that Cassie felt it too. She looked a little embarrassed, just as embarrassed as Drummond felt.
“So sweet, the two of you,” Izzy said behind them, mischievous and grinning.
“I told you to shut up!” Cassie barked.
“Ready?” Drummond asked.
Cassie gulped visibly and then nodded.
“Remember, we can’t talk, I won’t be able to hear you. Just stay together, whatever happens.”
She nodded, understanding.
They stepped through the doorway and into the past, closing the door behind them. Drummond pulled them into the shadows, and suddenly everything was gray and dreamlike, and he felt that familiar, pleasant sensation of floating through unreality.
They drifted through the hotel, through insubstantial walls and forgotten rooms, down to the ground floor where people were moving about, bulbous, noisy shapes in this unreal world. Drummond was used to seeing what humans looked like in the shadows, but he realized Cassie was not. He looked at her, next to him, and saw her eyes were wide and astonished. He tugged gently on her hand and she turned her head toward him. He flicked his chin:Okay?She nodded once and turned her eyes back to the scene before her.
They stood together, hand in hand, at the side of the ballroom andwatched the events they remembered, but this time seen as if underwater, in monochrome shades, and with the sounds muffled and echoing. They watched people scream and die, and they watched the Bookseller flee. They watched the woman destroy Okoro, and then Diego with the gun. They saw Izzy’s illusion, and they watched as Cassie screamed in shock and horror, at the moment she thought her friend had died, and then saw her flee through the doorway. Drummond watched his earlier self, saw him panic, saw his eyes darting about, and then that earlier, cowardly Drummond dissolved into nothingness, into his own shadows.
He felt a gentle tugging. Cassie pointed and he followed her finger to see the woman, the devastating angel, as she walked out of the ballroom. Drummond hurried after her, Cassie scurrying alongside him, her hand in his, and he put his free hand on the woman’s shoulder, gripping her and then letting himself be carried with her as she moved through the lobby. They didn’t need to run anymore. He looked at Cassie and she understood, lifting her feet from the floor. They were carried with the woman out into the New York night, trailing behind her like a cape tossed by the wind.
She took them to a car. Drummond and Cassie sat together in the back seat holding hands like shy lovers as the woman drove for hours through the night. At one point Drummond looked over and saw that Cassie’s eyes were closed, as if she was sleeping. She looked so peaceful, he thought, even as they journeyed with a nightmare creature. He let her sleep, wondering what sort of dreams she might have in the shadows, and watched the world roll by. The drive was silent. There was no radio, no music. Just the rumble of the engine and the woman’s eyes in the rearview mirror, flicking up occasionally to stare through Drummond to the road behind.
When the car stopped Cassie was awake. She looked at him, wide, worried eyes in the shadows, and he tried to squeeze her hand, tried to reassure her even though he was bristling with his own terror.
Drummond melted sideways out of the car, pulling Cassie with him. There were woods all around, and a house, and noise and light: anothervehicle. Cassie and Drummond floated behind the woman, watching mutely as she invited the two men into her house. Cassie tugged Drummond’s arm to get his attention and when he looked her way, she gestured urgently at the men.
What do we do?
Drummond shrugged and then shook his head with sorrow.Nothing.
Cassie tensed and pulled both her hands up to her face, pulling Drummond’s hand with her, until he resisted. She gave him a fierce look, and he could only nod:I know.
He led her through the walls of the house, following behind the two men as they descended into a basement.
Drummond positioned himself and Cassie at the side of the stairs, and waited, his stomach overfull with dread like he’d just finished eating too much. There was a buzzing in his ears that he realized was his own blood pumping faster and faster around his body.
The woman directed one of the men to a mattress in the corner, and the other to lie on the cold concrete floor. That man had hungry eyes, Drummond saw, hungry eyes that were blind to the threat. He thought he was in control. He thought this small, beautiful woman was no danger to him.
And then the incomprehension, the panic, as the floor swallowed him. Drummond forced himself to watch, forced himself to see every horrible second as the man fought and struggled. He watched the woman and the joy in her eyes at the suffering she was creating. Drummond made himself watch because it was a bulwark against any reservations he had about what they planned to do. This was who she was. This was why they had to stop her.
