The itch also exists in her mind. The Fold has not felt complete since the moment she first closed it off and made this place her new whole world. The girl would make it complete.

And now she has made herself known.

As she runs, the fairy opens her mind to the weight and geography of the Fold, she gives it her power, and she readies to create a chink that will enable her to slip through.

* * *

When Vince heard the lightning, he thought that his time had come to die.

He’d been waiting for days for Mallian to take his revenge. Whenever he saw, heard, or smelled a Kin he hid, terrified that it had been sent by Mallian to murder him, and even more terrified that it had been sent to disable him and drag him back to the Nephilim. He could barely imagine the tortures Mallian might be intending for him. Maybe he’d be fed to the fallen angel, held to his mouth by a strong Kin while Mallian bit, chewed, and bit again. He’d eat him alive, just as Grace was eating the Kin she’d lured to her Fold.

Maybe he’d be pinned to the ground close to Mallian, thick sticks driven through his hands and feet to hold him there. Then Mallian would talk to him as he slowly died from hunger, thirst or exposure, telling him what he would do to the ones Vince loved if and when he finally escaped Grace’s bonds.

The potential for agonies to come was huge. The chance of escaping Mallian’s wrath, even though right now he was unable to move, was slight. The Nephilim held weight, not only in his frightening size but his personality and aura, his hold on other Kin. What he had done to the pombero proved that.

Vince had changed his long, lonely, hopeless future into something short and filled with dread.