ABOUT THE BOOK

Alice is out for revenge.

Her uncle Geryon has been keeping a terrible secret from her – he is responsible for her father’s death.

Now she must journey through strange worlds of fire and ice to find the Palace of Glass. There lies a book with great power – a spell to trap Geryon and help her discover the truth.

The trouble is, anyone who goes there is driven mad. If they return at all . . .

Title Page

Dedication

This one is for your cat!

Prologue

PROLOGUE

IN HER NIGHTMARES, Alice looked into the magic mirror and watched the steamship burn all over again.

Her father had been on that ship, the Gideon, rushing to South America for reasons she still didn’t understand. When his ship had sunk with no survivors, Uncle Geryon had taken her in, giving her a place to live at his Pittsburgh estate with its fantastic library. When she’d fallen inside a book, it was Geryon who’d explained that this made her a Reader, like him, able to wield magic. To summon fantastic creatures out of books, to use their powers and even take on their forms. He’d introduced her to Ending the labyrinthine: a creature with the form of a great black cat who could manipulate space and distance and control the endless labyrinth of his library.

It was Geryon who’d saved her life, when she might have died fighting one of those creatures. And it was Geryon who’d sent her to the fortress of the Reader Esau-of-the-Waters, where she’d fought the labyrinthine Torment and his mad apprentice. Deep in the maze-demon’s sanctum, she’d found the magic mirror and called up a vision of what had happened to her father.

And it was Geryon she’d seen in the mirror, Geryon who’d let the Gideon burn.

He’d been lying to her all along, claiming to know nothing about her father’s fate, when he’d been responsible for his death.

When she woke from the latest nightmare, she lay in her small bed, beside the pair of stuffed rabbits she’d rescued from her former life, and shouted her rage into her pillow. She thumped the mattress, imagining it was the old Reader’s face.

He can’t get away with it. He won’t get away with it.

Alice would have her revenge.

CHAPTER ONE

THE SIEGE

THE DISTANT BUZZING grew louder and louder.

“Isaac!” Alice shouted. “They’re coming over the wall!”

“You have to keep them back!” he called. “If they get to the flower, this is all for nothing!”

That’s not very helpful. Alice bit back a caustic remark. She could hear Isaac’s summoned creatures fighting, the sleep-inducing song of the Siren and the whoosh of the salamander spitting flames, and she guessed he had his own problems.