Colin yelled commands at Daemon, but Wyvern lifted into the sky, dove at Colin, plucked him off the ground, and flew into the clouds.

Kat, holding her right arm out with her fist clenched, began to chant, “Freeze with winter. Freeze with winter.”

“And you, you think you’re so powerful.” Moloch thrust his arm in her direction, and she froze, her spell backfiring on her.

“You see? I have them all under my power,” Moloch said.

Isaac went down on one knee, bracing against the wind and Moloch’s energy.

Isaac was alone, and the evil magic that Moloch mustered was running through Isaac, channeled through him, becoming stronger by the second, as he knelt before the dark fae.

The sky was a swirl of black clouds. Trees groaned and cracked in the forest.

“Give up, Isaac,” Moloch called. “I’m using you anyway. I’ll take the key and the Vault.”

Moloch moved close to Isaac and stretched one clawed finger out and hooked it under the chain around Isaac’s neck. He was helpless, frozen.

But the chain holding the key became welded to Isaac’s throat. No one can take this from you by force.

Moloch couldn’t take it. And though Isaac couldn’t tell, the chain must have emitted a shock to Moloch, who yanked back his hand with an angry growl.

“Give it to me, Isaac, and maybe I’ll spare them. And you.”

Only if you relinquish it.

Moloch continued, “Fine. I’ll take you with me. Yes. Think of what we can do together. With your abilities, why, you would be a prince of the Unseelie. You are part fae.” Moloch paused. His red eye glowed brighter. “I’ll not only spare your friends, you can bring them. Make them your pets.”

Isaac was silent. The wind howled and sleet ran down his cheeks.

Moloch moved closer and his voice became a purr. “Isaac. You can stop this human war. You can stop all wars, forever. Be the first hero of a new world. If we unite and take over the realms—both faerie and human—imagine.” Moloch’s red eye gleamed. His huge leathery wings expanded. “You’ll command armies. We’ll slaughter all who stand in our way.”

Spare his friends. Become a prince in a fairy-tale realm.

Stop the war. He could stop the Nazis. Isaac Wolf could stop the Nazis, could chase them out of Prague, could chase them off the face of the earth. He could find all the stolen people—Miss Rachel, her brother, all his vanished friends and neighbors. He could repair all that had been lost, prevent more atrocities. Isaac could see it—how glittering the new age was that he’d begin. How everyone would revere him. He’d be a true hero, a new kind of hero for a new world, a world right out of great tales.

Except that it would really be a world of darkness. An Unseelie world.