“Don’t be daft, son, I know that.”

“How is he?” Kingdom asked quietly, nodding at Alex’s grandfather.

“I don’t know.” It come out as a fast sob. Alex looked around without really seeing anything, then noticed Kingdom carried Zia’s flowerpot. His gaze stuck on the evil plant, sagging limply on its stem.

“I met her running through the trees,” Kingdom explained. “Almost caught her, but she’s fast. And rather more vicious than I was expecting.” She displayed a long cut on her inner arm. “She dropped this, though. I thought it might be important.”

Harry had knelt by Alex’s grandfather. He touched his neck, then bent to listen for breath. “Still there. Fever. I’ve seen ’im like this before, Alex. It’s when ’e, y’know . . . When ’e gets older. We really need to keep ’im warm.”

“I dropped the blankets when I was fighting the girl.” Kingdom set the flower down, drew her rapier, and left at a run, Maia bounding beside her.

Alex flinched slightly as one of the other dogs pushed past him. Ignoring Harry’s grumbling complaints, the big animal stretched out and lay across Alex’s grandfather’s chest. One by one, the others followed suit, covering the old man entirely, like a heavy, living rug.

Alex and Harry stood back to watch them.

“Keep ’im warm, I suppose,” Harry said, after a moment.

Alex nodded. “Harry, do you think he’ll—”

“’E’s come through it before,” Harry said brusquely. He softened instantly and shrugged, before continuing with the distinct air of a man changing the subject. “’Ere, so, Alex. ’Ow did you, y’know, get rid of ’im? Your grandad’s dad, I mean? When ’e . . . took you over?”

“He let me go for a second. He was too busy trying to use this.” Alex lifted the toy robot.

“The tablet. Name of God. He knew everything about it, Harry. I think that was what caused him trouble, though. He was expecting to find more than he could get to; the tablet wasn’t working the way it should. He got caught up trying to work out why.”

“So, eh—well, why couldn’t ’e get at it?”

Alex frowned as he tried to explain, still trying to put it together himself.

“Grandad told me he thought the tablet had made a connection with me because of my blood getting on it, like waking it up. Because there was this magical element lying in my blood. But about the same time that happened, there was another guy at my school. Kenzie. He cut his finger on the robot, and some of his blood got inside, too. I think our blood must have got . . . mixed up in there.