“David, there’s nothing you can do! David, no!” I shrieked when his slow lope shifted into a full run. Eyes lost in a killing frenzy, he barreled right for me. Sure, I didn’t want to be pulled into the ever-after, but I didn’t want to be dead, either.

Swearing, Al turned around. “Vacuefacio,” he said, his white-gloved hand outstretched.

I twisted on his shoulder to see. A black ball of force shot from him, meeting David’s silent attack two feet in front of us. David’s huge feet skidded, but he ran right into it. Yelping, he rolled, tumbling into a snow pile. The scent of singed hair rose and was gone.

“David!” I cried, not feeling the cold that pinched me. “Are you all right?”

I yelped as Al dumped me on the ground, a blocky hand squeezing my shoulder until I cried out in pain. The thick sheet of compressed snow on the pavement melted up through me, and my rear went numb with hurt and cold. “Idiot,” Al grumbled to himself. “You’ve got a familiar, why by your mother’s ashes aren’t you using her?”

He smiled at me, thick eyebrows high in anticipation. “Ready to work, Rachel, love?”

My breath froze in me. Panicking, I stared up at him, feeling my face go pale and my eyes go wide. “Please don’t,” I whispered.

He grinned all the wider. “Hold this for me,” he said.

A scream of pain ripped from me as Al tapped a line, sending its strength thundering into me. My muscles jerked and a spasm shook me until my face hit the pavement. I was on fire, and I clenched into a fetal position, hands over my ears. Scream upon scream beat upon me. I couldn’t block them out. They hammered at me, the only thing that was real besides the agony in my head. Like an explosion, the force of the line ran through me, settling into my center, spilling over to set my limbs on fire. My brain felt as if it had been dipped in acid, and all the time, that awful screaming racked my ears. I was on fire. I was burning.

I suddenly realized the screaming was coming from me. Huge, racking sobs took their place as I managed to stop. An eerie, keening wail rose, and I managed to stop that, too. Panting, I opened my eyes. My hands were pale and shaking in the light from the car. They weren’t charred. The scent of burnt amber wasn’t my skin peeling away. It was all in my head.

Oh God. My head felt like it was three places at once. I was hearing everything twice, smelling everything twice, and having no thoughts that weren’t my own. Al knew everything I was feeling, everything I was thinking. I could only pray that I hadn’t done this to Nick.

“Better?” Al said, and I jerked as if whipped, hearing his voice in my head as well as my ears. “Not bad,” he said, yanking me unresisting to my feet. “Ceri passed out with only half that much, and it took her three months to stop making that awful noise.”