Ahead of them lay the sea, great and roiling and terrible; something about it called to Cora and repulsed her at the same time, cautioning her that these depths would hold things she’d never seen in the Trenches, things that might not be as friendly as the monsters she’d already faced and defeated. Behind them loomed the mountains, craggy peaks covered in snow and dotted with castles. Kade knew without asking that there would be goblins, of a sort, in those high reaches, and that they would know him if he went to them, if he bowed his head and asked to see their king.

To the right stretched open fields, heading toward some distant village, some unknown monster. And to the left there stood a windmill, and beyond that in the far distance, a village splashed across the hills like it had fallen from some great and unknowable height, watched over by the towering, somehow terrible shape of a castle which seemed to defy all laws of architecture and good taste at the same time. It was a monster in its own right, and when it opened its mouth to feed, it would devour the world.

Sumi looked up and smiled serenely. “Look at the moon,” she said. “It’s like the sugared cherry on the biggest murder sundae in the whole world.”

“Not a bad description,” said Jack. “The Moon and the Moors are connected; She watches over us, and while She might not always approve, She remembers all.”

“That sounds almost like superstition; Jack, I didn’t know you had it in you,” said Kade, teasing to cover his own nervousness.

Jack looked at him blandly. “It’s not superstition when it’s a proven scientific fact. The rules are different here. Remember that, and you’ll be fine. Now we need to hurry.”

“I thought you said we had until the next full moon,” said Cora.

“We do, but the Moon waxes and wanes more quickly here than she does in the world we were all born to: the last full moon was six days ago, and the next will come three days from now. At the moment, however, that is less important than the fact that sunset is approaching, and no one with any sense wants to be caught outside when the sun goes down.”

Christopher blinked slowly. “You mean it isn’t night already?” The world was overcast and gray, and together with the nearness of the bloody moon, it seemed reasonable to assume they were walking washed in moonlight, with no reason for the sun to get involved.

“Night is a much deeper darkness,” said Alexis. “We need to get to cover. The windmill will welcome us.” Unspoken was the fact that, if Dr. Bleak still lived, they would find him there.

“Lead the way,” said Kade.