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Jenny spun Julian was standing beside a ticket booth with a brass telescope on top He was surrounded by ferns and fake pal the duster jacket again, and he had his hands in his pockets His hair was as white as a winter moon

It was up to her to face him, Jenny knew She was the only one who could do this

She stepped forward She tried to look hiaze see at her, but through her

"We’ve won," she said with more confidence than she felt "Finally It’s the last Game, and this time there’s no way you can bend the rules You have to let us go"

What was the look in those eyes? They were ht-colored and full of shadows-but there

was sonized when she felt a presence beside her To devilishly handso to let her face Julian alone His hand rested on her shoulder, lightly, not possessively As if to say he was there to back her up, whatever happened

"I ought to try to kill you," he said to Julian "I can’t, but I sure ought to try I will, if you pull anything this tinored hiht That was it Julian wasn’t exactly looking at Tolanced at Tom’s hand on her shoulder-and there istfulness in his eyes

The Shadow Man seeing the one thing he could never have, she thought Hu?" Toood question Jenny was braced for soue him out of it Every other time they’d won a Game, Julian had unveiled some weird twist at the last h at theain this time-so why hadn’t he? Why hadn’t he appeared before they got Tom and Zach untied? Why wasn’t he dressed as a pirate, fending the out that they had to get to To the Ga worse up his sleeve, she told herself That painted volcano will erupt Real lightning will strike Or

"We have won, haven’t we?" she said, suddenly uncertain She would have thought she would enjoy announcing her victory more than this

"You’ve won," Julian said, and there was no e at her And he did seem tired-his whole body looked tired

He looked-defeated

"So-I can leave"

"Yes"

Jenny was still looking for the catch "And take everyone with me"

"Yes"

"Even Too," To around her upper arm Jenny almost-not quite-shook him off This wasn’t like Julian at all

"I can go and I can take Tom," she persisted "And everyone It’s the last Game, and it’s over now"

For the first time Julian looked at her His eyes were fully dilated, with the look Jenny had seen in the cave An inward look, as if nothing mattered It was too brittle to be bitter A look like blue ice about to break up and fall into dark water

A-shattering

"It’s the last Gaain"

The corner of his, he whirled around

"Get out Get her out" Without looking at Tom, he spoke in a distorted voice, thick with restraint "Get her out of here! Before I do-so-"

"Julian-" Jenny said

"-we’ll all be sorry for-"

He gave a shudder of suppressed erabbed Jenny’s other arm and wheeled her in the opposite direction

There was a rough wooden door standing on the far side of the building It was set between two enorate But there was no fence or wall, just the door standing in space and looking tremendously solid, as if it had always been there

It was partly open, and inside Jenny could see her grandfather’s hallway, including the small telephone table with the white doily on it The phone was lying on the floor where it had fallen, receiver off the hook

"Ho that Jenny al hands But then she twisted away

Insanely, inexplicably, she wanted to stay and talk to Julian

Julian didn’t want to talk to her

"Leave Just go-now!"

Even without seeing his face, she could tell that his control was breaking She tried to turn him around

"Jenny, are you crazy?" Dee said Dee and Toet her away froive et her out of here!" Julian snarled

Everyone was shouting Suht off the two people she loved

best-Tom and Dee-for a reason she couldn’t even explain clearly to herself

She knew the risk; she understood why Su in Julian The air was hot and electric, as if heat lightning were about to explode He could do anything to theo

"Julian, please listen-"

He turned, then, whirling so fast that Jenny stepped back She was frightened by what she saw in his face

"You cannot saveeach word distinctly, biting it off Then he looked To to play this Game by the rules But if you don’t have her out in thirty seconds, all bets are off"

"I’m sorry, Thorny," Tom said and picked her up

"No!" Jenny was furious at the indignity, at being o, like a child And she was furious because she had just discovered the reason that she wanted to stay Julian had said it for her She wanted to save hin on Aba’s ood for evil That hat she wanted, to help if she could To return good for evil where it had the chance ofa difference

But Toht Dee was rimly on Jenny And Michael and Audrey, Zach and Suht little knot to escort Jenny hoh that door by your hair, if we have to, Sunshine," Dee said, just in case this wasn’t sufficiently clear

"There are tiood, and this is one of them," Audrey added

They all started for the door-but they never got there

Thethat had risen around Jenny on the bridge It was thick, interspersed with dark tendrils, and itmixture of white and black

Jenny remembered it very well-she’d seen it twice before Once when she was five years old, in a iving herself ao, when she’d relived the me, enraged, to shout at Julian Jenny slid from his ar to do with this

Looking around was like being plunged into a night on every surface It was creeping up the wooden poles with rusty lanterns that stood throughout the golf course It was coating the barrels labeled xxx and the boxes labeled black powder Icicles were growing on the tarred ropes linking the wharf pillars

Freezing wind blew Jenny’s hair straight back froly across her cheeks

"What’s happening?" Audrey screa

It was so cold-as cold as the water that had drowned her in the mine shaft So cold that it hurt It hurt to breathe and it hurt to stand still

Toer toward the door He’d h the fire

But not now The ice storht was painfully brilliant, and the dark tendrils lashed through it like whips, like supple reaching ar To everyone

Slowly the wind died down The blinding brightness faded Jenny could see again, and she saw that the dark ures

Figures with malevolent, ancient eyes

The other Shadow Men had come

"Oh, God," Audrey whispered She drew in closer to Jenny There were ice crystals in her spiky copper bangs "Oh, God-I didn’t know "

Jenny hadn’t known, either She didn’t understand She recognized the cruel and ravenous eyes-she couldn’t be wrong about them But the forms that ith the eyes