“Lou!” He tried to place his hands on her shoulders, but the magnetic barrier kept them separated. “Wake up. You’re dreaming again. All you have to do is open your eyes.” But she didn’t move.

Her head was lying at an odd angle on the wooden floor. He tried to lift it, to rest it on his lap, but it was like attempting to bend a marble statue. “Lou, please!”

Her skin paled to an ashy gray, and her eyes seemed to sink into their sockets. If the house was attacking her as it had back in the library, she must be trapped inside another horrifying vision. The evil that lived here was using her fear to save itself. Her cheekbones protruded, as if something were draining her life away.

“No!” Jason cried out. He attempted to place his palm on her forehead, to gain access to her mind, but it didn’t work this time. Something invisible smacked at his hand, and he clutched it to his chest for a moment.

Holding it up, he saw several red lines across his skin where claws had scraped him.

If he couldn’t reach Lou through her thoughts, there was only one other way to save her.

Destroy the dollhouse.

But they were still trapped inside! He wondered where Connie was. She’d brought him here to help her save the house’s five new victims. To put an end to the creature, or the house, or the secret society of men who were behind all of it. As difficult as it was to look at his sister’s wasting frame, he wondered if he could be as strong as her, or all the others to whom the house had called and who had fought back.

If he were to stay inside Larkspur, could he ever be as brave as Connie? Or would his soul shatter in the way Marcus’s had? How much could anybody take before the house changed them forever?

He ran over to the massive double doors at the front of the foyer. Swinging his fists at them, Jason met a powerful force that flung him back down the steps toward Lou.

Fighting felt suddenly pointless.

He stared at his sister. Lou had become a shadow of herself. Shaking, he held back a scream of rage. Jason stretched out on the floor beside her. He didn’t care if there was still a barrier between them. He tried to wrap his arms around her, hoping she could still sense that she wasn’t alone.

Then, with a shove that felt like a car crash, Jason found himself standing outside the dollhouse again.

“No!” he sobbed, desperate to be by his sister’s side. “No, Lou, no …” Wiping at his face, he dropped to his knees and peered through the windows into the foyer where Lou was lying at the center of the circular parquet pattern.