At the mention of the word monsters Watch glanced in the direction of the castle. So far the other Cold People had not appeared. But Adam knew their luck couldn’t last forever. Watch’s dull expression trembled as he looked in the direction of his new partners. For a moment he appeared terribly sad. Adam took another step toward him. Watch was now only five feet away.

“Please try to remember,” Adam pleaded. “Your name is Watch. You’re a human being.”

For a second Watch’s dull expression vanished.

He smiled faintly. Adam smiled brightly.

“Watch!” Adam cried. He dropped his stick and moved to hug his friend.

But the smile faded. The cold light returned.

Watch leapt toward Adam, his fingers spread like claws.

Again, Adam felt a terrible blow and went down. Through a fog of physical and emotional pain, he saw Watch raise his claws to rip into his chest and pull out his heart and fill his body with Cryo fluid. But before Watch could strike again, Adam also saw the blur of a brown stick as it was brought down on the back of Watch’s head. His friend blinked and the wicked light in his eyes went out. Watch toppled aside.

“He has a hard head,” Sally said, setting aside the stick Adam had dropped. Adam noticed that the stick was broken in half. Sally must have hit Watch pretty hard. He lay sprawled on his back. He didn’t appear to be breathing. Adam knelt anxiously by his side.

“Is he dead?” he moaned.

Bum shook his head. “Cryo Creatures don’t breathe. I don’t even know if their hearts beat.”

“Is he all right?” Cindy called, staggering over, a hand to her head.

“He’s unconscious,” Adam said. “But we think he’s alive. How are you?”

“She looks terrible,” Sally muttered.

Cindy snorted in Sally’s direction. “You get hit the way I was and we’ll see how long you stay down.” She nodded to Watch. “Let’s get him into one of the balloons.”

“I don’t like this,” Bum said as he leaned over to pick up Watch. “But if we’re going to take him, we better take him now.” He nodded in the direction of the castle. “I think they heard us. They’re coming.”

Bum was right—four of the Cold People were climbing the cemetery walls. The monsters had three times as far to go to get to the balloons, but Adam wondered who was going to get there first. His leg seemed to be getting worse with each passing second. It was now almost completely numb, and the cold sensation was as high up as his right knee. He fell behind the others as they raced for the balloons. He wondered if he would be joining Watch as a monster soon.