“Doubt’s a terrible kind of trouble. It leads to thinking and ideas. Ideas that make you wonder if maybe the world could be different. Maybe you could be different. Maybe there’s a great deception brewing.”

Flick.

Sylous took two more steps toward Jamie and stuck his free hand inside the pocket of his slacks. “I’m gonna tell you a secret, kid, just between you and me. There is more deception in the air than you can possibly know.”

Jamie felt the man’s presence stir his fear. It was as though Sylous was surrounded by a force field and that field was pressing against Jamie. The tree bark dug deeper into his back.

“There are really only two paths in life,” Sylous continued. “One of safety and one of terrible danger. The first with protection and the second without. Safety has its requirements, naturally, and some might say those requirements compromise your freedom, which is true in some ways. But last night you saw just how dangerous freedom can be. The great deception is that you can have a little of both. Not true. You can’t serve two masters. You have to pick a path.”

Sylous grinned. “I promise you, freedom is a much harder path than safety.”

Flick.

“I offered you protection. A safety net. An escape from the world and the monsters that threaten it. And I offered that protection without asking for much in return, yes? All you have to do is follow the law. A law that keeps you good and pure and holy. A law that ensures you’re worth protecting.”

Sylous dropped the white pebble into his pocket, closed the gap between them, and squatted so his face was only an arm’s length from Jamie’s.

“You look like you could use some protection,” he said. “But you have to choose, my friend. Which master will you serve?”

Jamie’s bottom lip began to quiver as the fear of facing another night alone with the Fury coursed through his veins. “You,” he whispered.

Sylous took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m inclined to help you with this dying-in-the-woods situation you’ve found yourself in,” he said. “But I need assurances.”

“Anything,” Jamie croaked.

“I need you to kill your doubt. Fear me alone. Serve me only and fully. Do that and I will save your life and protect you from the Fury. What do you say?”

For a moment, Jamie wondered how this was different from what any of them had already done. Sylous seemed to be asking something more of him. But he was in no condition to question the man.

“I say yes,” he said.

Sylous nodded. “Wise choice. Don’t waver from it.”

“I won’t, I swear.”

“No. No you won’t.”