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Jazz screauished moans and wails of old London The wind of the Hour of Screahostly iht bloay, but instead it rippled and altered yet again
Whitco Lights cut the darkness, and at first she thought that somehow the Blackwood Club had overcohts their torches Then she saw the silhouette of the car rolling through the fog and staggered back
The headlah the spectral mist, and in it she could make out dozens of tiny, dour faces
The car jerked to a halt at a strange angle, half on the curb The door swung open and her father staggered out, not bothering to close the door Jazz stared at hione to try to take control of Whitcomb's apparatus, but the inventor had sacrificed himself to deprive the Blackwood Club of the battery, because he'd made hiic Whitcomb had manipulated to transfer the power into himself, to become the battery so that it would not die with Whitcoone well
Whatever ic Whitcomb had used, in his desperation her father hadn't done it correctly Looking at him, Jazz could see it all His eyes bled scarlet tears Silver light flick-ered behind theun to wither This ht, but he looked twenty years older, as though soered toward the house Jazz nearly cruhosts Her childhood home Only when she tasted the salt of her own tears on her lips did she realize she had begun to cry She shook her head, wishing she could call back to her father across the years
Jazz watched hi in his pocket for the key "I don't want to see," she whispered, the words a kind of keening cry, a prayer, a wish
But she could not look away fro up the stairs and into her bedrooazed down at baby Jasmine
He reached down into the crib and picked her up, thenher--to the rocking chair in the corner Withering even as she watched hi flowers, he collapsed into the chair, holding baby Jazz in his ar, he kissed her forehead
In the now, Jazz dropped to her knees and wept along with hiust of wind
Silver light spilled frohtning in a burst of illuils on his papery skin In his arled happily as her entire body flared with brilliant light, eyes glealoly vanished
James Towne's last breath rattled in his throat
Baby Jas back to sleep
A slap cleared herfroer flared, even as she becaround under her knees and the cool air of the tunnel Her tears began to dry on her face
"What the hell --" she began
He grabbed her wrist, pulling her to her feet "Pay atten-tion, Jasmine While you were off with the fairies there, the Hour passed Or didn't you notice the screalanced around In the midst of the vision that had played out before her, she hadn't noticed at all But he was right The Hour of Screath of the black tunnel, ex-horting others to rise and give pursuit Torches clicked on, one by one
Soht have been affected by the Hour, but not all Josephine Blackould have seen to that They were still after her
"Coh the door and into the parallel tunnel His torch lit the way, picking out dripping sludge and a scurrying rat
It was her nature to resist, but not this ti the tunnel, careful with her footing and try-ing to pick up the pace She had to make sense of what she'd seen, had to decide what it would htened on her hand Jazz shook her head to clear it and matched him step for step
"What happened to you back there? What did you see?"
She took a deep breath and cast a sidelong glance at hiht her never to share too much of herself A dreadfully sad lesson, now that she considered it, but Terence had done the same, and Harry as well All of them with their secrets If only they'd been truthful with one another, things ht have turned out hosts," she said, and it wasn't a question Of course he did
"Harry sees them," Terence said "I had an idea early on that you see thenaled the arrival of the Blackwood Club The Uncles and the BMW lance back showed her the wavering glow of a trio of bright torches, but there would be ?" she asked
"I told you Deeper"
Jazz gave a soft, sickened laugh Still an," she said And then she told him, as succinctly as she could, the tale of their two fathers and their shared tragedy
"I've never beenheavily noith the exertion of their flight "But this is all so tied together, it can't just be coinci-dence"
Terence could only nod
They were still holding hands and Jazz felt the contact acutely
"So what aic, isn't it?"