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Prologue

ONE YEAR EARLIER

The hallucinations orsening rapidly

She halted at the top of the staircase and tried to steady herself The hall of dark mirrors stretched away into infinity, a treacherous fun house filled with night and shifting shadows She had to forge a path through this disorienting landscape before she lost her grip on the last remnants of her sanity

The planes and angles of the shadowed corridor wereinto bizarre shapes that re and no end She did not kno ed for sleep but she could not give in to the nearly overwhel she had to do first

The electricity had flickered out of existence a h the narros at either end of the endless corridor She gazed down the length of the writhing passage and saw a sharp sliver of silver She knew it marked the entrance to the library Fourth door on the left

A desperate urgency swept through her If she could get to that shard of light she could leave her e

“Bethany?” The killer’s voice came from shadows at the foot of the stairs “Where are you? Let me help you You must be very sleepy by now”

A bolt of icy panic gave her the energy required to overcorip on the strap of her purse, staggered a few steps down the hall and caht to remember what it was that she had to do It had been so clear there at the botto away

She stared into the nearest of the dozens of black looilded and scrolled fralass She searched the bottolass for wisps of her memory

There was so she had to do before she went to sleep

“I can help you, Bethany”

She thought she saw a shifting of the shadows in the old looking glass An iled to et to the library Yes That was it She had to go there before the killer found her

A nu memory

Four

The entrance to the library was the fourth door on the left

She clung gratefully to the nu else could have done She was at home in the universe of mathematics; comfortable and serenely content in a way she had never been in the world where huical

Four doors down on the left

Getting there auntlet of e almost paralyzed her

“There’s no need to hide from me, Bethany I only want to help you”

She had to do this Deke would need answers He would not be able to rest until he got them And Thomas would help him because Deke was his brother and the Walker brothers stuck together She had never fully understood the depths of that kind of bond, but her logical th of the link that existed between Deke and Thomas It was as real as any mathematical relationship

Su every ounce of will she possessed, she ht that marked the library door

The hallucinations intensified Strange creatures pulsed behind the reflective surfaces of the antique looking glasses that surrounded her They beckoned her to join them

Not yet

She set her teeth and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other

She dared not look directly into any of the old, dark mirrors for fear that she would be sucked into the world on the other side It was not that she was afraid to go there, it was just that she knew she had to stay in this universe for a few more minutes She owed that much to Deke and Thomas