Chapters (48)
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- The Undead Pool: An Excerpt
- Chapter 2
- About the Author
- Also by Kim Harrison
- Credits
- About the Publisher
There was another bang from outside, closer this time, and the lights flickered.
Two squirrels? I thought, then frowned. It was dark. There wouldn’t be any squirrels. Maybe someone was taking potshots at the streetlights again.
Curious, I set the frosting down and went to look out a window. The thumping at the door brought me spinning around, and Ceri blew in.
“Rachel?” she exclaimed, her heart-shaped face worried. “Rachel, thank God,” she said, coming forward and taking my hands. “I have to get you out of here.”
“What?” I said intelligently, then looked past her when Keasley trooped in, the older black man’s steps painfully quick despite his arthritis. “Ceri, what’s the matter?”
Keasley bobbed his head at me, then locked and barred the door.
“Hey!” I exclaimed. “Ivy isn’t in yet.”
“She’s not coming,” the old witch said, limping forward. “Do you have a sleeping bag?”
I stared at him. “No. I lost it in the great salt-dip of ’06.” There was a lot I had lost during my I.S. death threat, and replacing my sleeping bag was low on the list. “And how do you know Ivy’s not coming in?” I added.
Ignoring that, the old man headed down the hall and into my room.
“Hey!” I said again, then turned to Ceri when she gripped my arm. “What’s the matter?”
Ceri pointed at the TV, now a mishmash of noise and confusion. “He’s out,” she said, white-faced. “Al is walking this side of the lines. Free and under no one’s compulsion—whether the sun is up or not.”
Immediately my shoulders eased. “God, I’m sorry, Ceri. I meant to tell you. You really need to get a phone. I know. Al was at Trent’s rehearsal and dinner.”
The elf’s eyes widened. “It’s true?” she exclaimed, and I cringed.
“I was going to tell you as soon as I got home, but I forgot,” I pleaded, wondering how she’d found out already. “But it’s okay. He’s not after anyone but me. He can do the sun thing because he made a deal with Lee to possess his body until Lee kills me. And that’s not going to happen until he’s done with me.” I couldn’t tell her that the deal she’d made with Al was why he wanted me this time. It would prey on her.
Ceri hesitated. “Doesn’t Lee killing you come under the ‘him or his agents’ clause?”
My stomach clenched, and I glanced at Keasley at the top of the hallway, waiting for us with my summer comforter in his arms. “Al’s going to free Lee before he kills me, and since Lee has reason enough to want me dead, the agent clause won’t come into effect.”