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Balthazar stepped hard on the brakes, tires squealing, and shifted Craig’s car into park so fast he could feel the gears grinding "If I go down, get the hell out of here If they coo to lose them Out of town, out of state, whatever you have to do Got it?" Quickly he popped the trunk

Craig began, "Wait a second--" But Balthazar was already out of the car, slarave said, "You again?"

Balthazar took out the crowbar he’d found there, ain," just before swinging the iron rod into Redgrave’s face

They were all on hith, and he’d never been angrier or uts, their groins, their heads, swinging so savagely that none of the held hi seen by humans ould misunderstand, not fear of capture, not any sense of sentiht even have been able to hurt Charity, if she’d been with the pain had never felt so good

Redgrave staggered backward, falling to his knees Through bloodied lips, he spat, "You know--this won’t--stop us So why--do you bother?"

"It’ll slow you down enough," Balthazar said, beating back one of the others "And then I’ to find out if it’s possible to behead you just by ripping your head off with my bare hands Never tried that before But you knohat? I bet it works"

Redgrave leaped up, but he was slower than a hus As his sire fell in the snow, a pathetic wreck of his old self, Balthazar heard hiain, so hard he heard the collarbone snap As Redgrave doubled over in pain, Balthazar shouted, "Where is she?"

"She flung herself in the river," Redgrave panted "Better to freeze than to bleed, I suppose Skye’s drowning or freezing to death right now … and you can’t be bothered to save her This time, we both lose Skye’s just like Charity--another pretty toy we broke between us"

Once rave, this time into the side of his head His old foe went down, unconscious, and the other va back, hoping that Balthazar would forget therave, they were merely vermin Let Black Cross handle therave he had to kill, Redgrave he had to punish for everything he’d done--

--but every second he spent here was one he wasn’t using to help Skye

As long as you wish to be hurave had said But keeping his soul huh to love Skye and to save her--was rave

Balthazar bolted for the car, leaving Redgrave behind Craig and Britnee were still there, though both of therown another head He slid into the driver’s seat, letting the crowbar fall to the floorboard, as he said, "Tell et to the other side of this river When we go over the bridge, you’ll have to hang on to the steering wheel"

As he put the car in reverse and backed out, burning rubber, Britnee said, very quietly, "Mr More? What’s going on?"

"We’re getting the hell out of here" Balthazar put the car in drive as Craigto save Skye"

His anger had left hirave All Balthazar could think was, Please let ht

SKYE UNDERSTOOD NOW

The visions weren’t merely visions They weren’t sons showing her the path Every death was a doorway

"And you can walk through," Dakota said He sat next to her in the snow, his forear on his bent knees She still lay on the riverbank, shaking, but the cold and the pain were very distant Her body own she’d tossed aside

Although she would have loved to embrace her brother, that was impossible the way they were now--spirits untethered to the physical world It would have been beside the point, too They were ether now--more fully aware of their love for each other--than they’d ever been before "What--what is this?"

Dakota ran one hand through his scruffy hair; he still looked just as he had the last tio shorts, braided necklace around his throat, and Teva sandals "It’s only the gate You go through, and you’re on the other side Afterward it seeht, and how she’d known, even before anybody answered, that ithorrible had happened The sound of hersilence that had followed before she could speak to tell them The first time she’d seen Dad cry, and how old he looked, as if the tears had etched his wrinkles deeper The funeral, with Dakota’s girlfriend Felicia trying to talk about how great a ti on the adventure that claimed his life How Mom and Dad had buried the the other child they had, maybe because she reminded them too painfully of the one they’d lost