I swallowed. “You’re after Stefan, aren’t you?”

He turned his flat gaze on me. “Give the little girl a cookie.”

“Why?” I asked him. “It seems like an awfully big risk to take.”

Jerry Dunham peeled off his welding glove and shrugged. “Well, now, Johnny here’s looking to stage a coup and take over in Pemkowet. His accomplices want to go back to doing what ghouls do best, and make other people’s lives miserable.” He nodded at Ray D and Mary Sudbury, the latter wrapped in the former’s arms. “Them two lovebirds just want to be left alone, only they need a source, and I reckon you’ll do for a while, since poor old Rosie’s gettin’ tapped out. And as for me . . .” He cocked his head and looked thoughtful. “You know what, blondie? I just really don’t like the guy.”

“And that’s enough?” I whispered.

Dunham flexed his hand again, contemplating it. “Sometimes you just gotta let the world burn.”

Let the world burn. . . .

The words echoed in my ears, evoking yesterday’s vision: the lake of fire, the bat wings, the fiery whip.

I shivered. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know what you could unleash.”

His mouth curled. “I heard the rumors. You gonna call your daddy, blondie? Risk unleashing hell on earth?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,” Mary sang, swaying back and forth in Ray’s arms. “Your house is on fire, and your children are all . . . Oh.” Her voice fell silent.

A wave of despair washed over me, fresh and tasty, by the way the ghouls responded. Al the Walrus groaned with pleasure. It was a disgusting feeling.

“Simmer down!” Dunham said sharply. “Whatever she’s broadcasting, we need it out there loud and clear, long enough for Ludovic to home in on it.”

“Could be a while.” There was a sheen of sweat on Johnny’s face. “It don’t exactly work like a GPS, you know.”

“We’ll wait as long as it takes.” Dunham strode across the room and banged on the side of the aquarium. “Come on, old gal! Muster up a bit of anguish.” Stooping, he picked up an extension cord with a frayed end. “Shall I give you a little jolt?”

The mermaid’s face contorted with fear and she shook her head, hair waving like seaweed.

The ghouls sighed with satisfaction.

Dunham dropped the cord. “That’ll do you for now.”