I stand motionless beside a chair, listening to the man tied to it refuse my request. He won’t tell me where the other Ravens are. He is a waste of my precious time. His wife’s life force will only sustain me on this side for so long; I will need his to last longer.

My hand closes around his throat. I draw his life from him in a rush of heady power.

Then the motel room door flies open. Two boys enter, and Kaden tackles the youngest. The older comes for me.

My body is ragged and slow. The older boy puts a knife in my ribs. I leap for the window, but not before another knife lodges in my back. I must return to the Otherworld before my energy fades.

My knees threaten to buckle as the vision vanishes. The cold doesn’t recede from where Fin is touching me; it only grows. He stares down at me, his emerald eyes made bolder by the black and green mask.

His voice is ancient when he speaks. “You should never have gotten involved.”

Chapter 26: Colin

I should never have let Anna go off alone, plan or not.

It’s hard to keep track of her with all the people, most of whom are wearing black, and I can tell Gran and Nora are having just as much trouble. More than once I shove people out of the way to make sure that I keep her in sight, and they’re not happy when I don’t stop to apologize.

Anna reaches for a man in a devil’s mask. Her entire body goes rigid. Already I’m imagining the feel of my Saint Knives, leaning forward to slip through the crowd. But before I can even take a step, Anna recovers and moves on.

“Sweet blades, dude!” Someone claps me on the back and moves on. I stare down at the Saint Knives in my hands. It takes me a moment to force my tight grip to relax.

Then the knives begin to sing.

My head jerks up. Kaden stands directly ahead of me. The knives cry louder, but the sound is overcome by the music and voices.

The smile on Kaden’s lips sets fire to my skin and I long to knock it off, until I realize why he’s smiling. I move to the side, looking around him, but I can’t see her. Kaden was just a distraction.

Anna is gone.

Nora pushes through the crowd to where she was last, pale with fear. “Did you see where she went?”

I shake my head. Our plan is already falling apart. Anna must have found Fin, and now they’re both missing.