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I hated , but I ran It was survival instinct, nothingI could be proud of, and tears strea to ice in the cold, cold wind You should have tried, so inside me, but I knew better If I’d tried, I’d be dead

I was alone, and I couldn’t risk it

I had no warning of another approach, but suddenly there were hands onin theto block a punch, trying to break free, but stopped when I recognized the stark pale face, dark eyes, and rough growth of beard

Not dead, but definitely singed around the edges There was a quarter-sized raw burn on his cheek, and bruises forht you were dead!" I yelped, and his hand closed around my left wrist He silently jerked asp, because ere running straight for a thicket of thorns and he wasn’t slowing down

And the thorns pulled right out of the way I tripped, trying to twist around and stare, but Lewis’s grip around

"Wait," I panted "We can’t just-"

"Daht we can Run or die" He sounded raw and exhausted, but he was outpacinghi Lewis afraid and vulnerable orse to me than my own terrors The forest flew by in a blur of tree bark, flashing leaves, the occasional gliray cotton sky

It felt like we ran forever I caught one gli at the top of a hill, but itWhen I looked back again, I didn’t see anything No sign at all, just the sullen s from the place where Lewis and Kevin had coasped Lewis shook his head without answering, still struggling for breath He was holding his side with his left hand as we ran, and I didn’t like the color of his face and lips Or the bubbling sound when he took in air "You need to stop!"

"Not yet"

"No, we have to stop now!" I insisted

His effort to reply brought on a coughing fit, and when it was over he spat up blood A lot of it Enough to make my skin shrink all over

We needed help We needed it badly And we needed it now

And he must have known it, because he finally nodded I could read the exhaustion in his face

"Cave," he said "Over there"

Over there proved to be a long way off I forced him to move ns of a hot-pink sweater, or fire sprouting up around us Nothing The whole thing could have been a dream, except for the burned patches in ood half hour before an outcropping of rock caood view of the valley floor below, and had a low shelf of rock that jutted out over the cliff Below-far below-a shining ribbon of river glittered in the dull light The trees, tall as they were, reached only about halfway up the cliff face

"This way," he said, and edged around the side of the hive-shaped rock forer than the others Not what I’d call large, though Big enough to squeeze through, if you didn’tto kill you if you didn’t find a hiding place

Leithout co his way through in grim silence How that felt with broken ribs I didn’t even want to iine I took a deep breath and then had to let half of it out-I thought for a few seconds that I’d be stuck, but thento hold, and I pulled h

into fairyland

"Careful," Lewis said, and pointed up when I started to straighten Stalactites, dripping frozen froulped and ducked, following hiainst the wall There was a pool of dark, perfectly still water in front of us, and the cave was cool and silent Not war, either The only sounds were ones weteeth, the dripson the floor

"I can’t erous in an enclosed space Not sure I can e the carbon monoxide" He sounded mortally tired, but he opened the backpack he’d dumped on the floor-how the hell had he had the presence ofout soes He threo of them toward me, and I saw they were some kind of silvery theret undressed Your clothes are too wet It’ll just-"

If he aiting for me to have an attack of modesty, he was sorely disappointed "Whatever," I said, and began unbuttoning The drag of wet clothes was h intome undress OrHard to tell I only knew that I didn’t feel inhibited with hiallon drum of worms?

Lewis politely faced ahile I skinned out of the sopping-wet pants I decided to leave on the underwear, and wrappedsilver foil My skin felt like cold, wet plastic "So," I said through chattering teeth "What the hell just happened?"

He glanced over his shoulder at me, saasther Or at least, that was how it looked I waited Eventually Lewis said, "Those teren’t right They weren’t the the cold now like sharp needles all over, and shivering violently "There was so at me "What did you see?"

I didn’t want to tell hi definite Kind of a shadow" A shadow that kind of looked like me No, I didn’t want to say that

Lewis looked like he felt sicker than ever, but he nodded "I was afraid of that"

"Afraid of what?"

His sigh echoed cool from the stone "There’s a Deht it"

"Deht Whatever"

That definitely toldtour of Hell, andthe whole Derounds that, hey, keep your delusions to yourself, but Lewis kept on talking

"They don’t come from Hell," he said very earnestly, which only made him seem even nuttier "At least, not as I understand it They’re not from this plane of existence They come from somewhere else They’re drawn here to our world because of power; they need to feed on the aetheric, and the best way they can do that is to grab hold of a Warden, because we’re the equivalent of a straw to theh us The et"

We’d been talking for a while I wasn’t exactly believing in the whole Demon idea, but he was scarily , and besides, I’d seen a few i, well, him