She tilts her head, listening to something I can’t hear. “You had a vision. No, I didn’t see it. Also, someone followed us.”

“What do you mean?” Colin scans the shop. “The place is empty.”

A low rumbling fills the room as Max presses low to the ground. The edges of his fur begin to flicker between solidity and translucence, a sure sign that he’s sensing bad magic.

Rose peers down at him as if she’s seeing him for the first time. “Don’t you think it’s strange that Seamus hasn’t come to greet us?”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I say absently, studying the mask in my hand. I’m no stranger to magical objects, and I’ve never heard of a mask that gives its wearer visions, but that much I can take. What’s got me fighting a shiver is that I’m pretty sure I just saw the same man Colin did in his vision, and I only saw him when I looked at Colin.

Plus, his eyes turned black, same as Colin’s in my dream. And there’s something else, too, something about those knives that I can’t get out of my head….

“I found him unconscious in his office,” Rose replies.

My head snaps up and I groan. “You should have led with that. Can you sense which way whoever followed us is? We can escape out the opposite door.”

Rose shakes her head. “I feel them everywhere.”

“How—” I start to ask, but stop when something moves by the wall. A grim reaper costume unhooks itself and lands on its feet. Its movements are stiff and jerky as it lifts its head, bone fingers curling around the shaft of its scythe.

It slashes for me and I throw my arms up reflexively. The blade slices along my forearm, and I stare in horror as blood wells from the cut.

“It’s real,” I whisper.

The grim reaper is no longer a costume, but flesh and blood, with a gleaming metal scythe.

And it does not look happy.

Chapter 17: Colin

My heart stops as the reaper lunges for Anna again.

I catch the shaft of the scythe on the downstroke and we struggle for control of the weapon. I twist around, putting my back into its chest and heaving. It flies over my head, slamming hard into the ground where Anna, Rose, and Max were a moment ago.

Except they’re gone.

I start to call out for them when the reaper’s foot connects with my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I throw my shoulder into its arm, and the scythe clatters to the ground. Still struggling for breath, I dive for it, seizing the shaft and turning as the reaper lunges for me. It drives its chest straight into the curved blade.