“We might be able to do this without getting anyone else killed,” said Jack. “Dr. Bleak is dead. Even if we’re able to undo it—and I can’t guarantee we will be; he died at least once before I came to the Moors—he will still have been killed. He will still have died for the sake of giving me, and Alexis, the chance to get away. We don’t get to ignore that.”

“Alexis has died twice,” said Christopher. “She’s fine.”

“I’m not, though,” said Alexis. She twisted her apron in her hands. “I have lightning where my heart should be. If it goes away, my body stops functioning. I love Jack more than I ever thought it was possible to love another person, but it wouldn’t matter if I stopped loving her, because I can never leave her. There’s not another windmill within three days’ ride. I wouldn’t make it to another table, another lightning array, before I collapsed, helpless, food for whatever monster might come along. I can never safely bear my own children. I can never have my own home. I’ll be in this windmill as long as I’m alive, and sometimes living hurts. So no, second resurrections aren’t the easy things people want to pretend they are. Actions have consequences.”

Jack looked at her gloved fingers. “As my lovely lady so clearly states, we can’t count on bringing anyone back. It would be better if we could do this with a minimum of bloodshed.”

“I’m sorry,” whispered Christopher. “I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t. This isn’t your world. These aren’t the rules you learned to live by. We have certain advantages here that the world of my birth lacks—we have the lightning—but we must find a way to use them that serves us, and not the Master’s terrible goals.” She looked up again. “We’ll approach the acolytes of the Drowned Gods and ask their aid. If they’ll grant it to us, we may be able to end this.”

“When?” asked Sumi. “Do we wait until morning?”

Jack shook her head. “We leave at once. Dr. Bleak’s head lacks the scientific support I’ve given to his body. If he’s to have any chance to rise again, we must act quickly.”

“Wait,” said Christopher. “You said no one with any sense would want to be caught outside when the sun went down.”