“Your shadows won’t help you. They are no longer yours.” His lips curled back as he bent forward, hissing right into Liam’s ear. “They belong to the Third Reich now. And with them, we shall be victorious. Ruling this world—and the next.”

Another soldier rushed into the room with the same dead eyes as the rest. “We’ve completed our search of the building, Herr Doktor. The proprietor is in custody now.”

Kreutzer leaned away from him with a frown. “There were no others in the building? You are sure?”

“Only these two and the proprietor.” The soldier spoke in a flat, rusty monotone. “But she will give us whatever information we need.”

Kreutzer whirled back to Liam. “I know there were more than just you two at Siegen. Where are they? Who else knows how to access the shadow world?”

“Dunno.” Liam shrugged, deliberately letting his bad shoulder drive into Kreutzer’s thumb. The pain spiraled through him, sparking behind his eyes. He welcomed it, letting it feed the darkness in him. He’d kept the rift open for far too long already, but he needed just a minute more . . . “But I know something else you don’t.”

Kreutzer’s smile didn’t touch his beady eyes. “And what is that?”

Liam focused on Daniel, calculating the distance between them. He had mere moments to act. Would it be enough? It had to be. The soldiers had said it themselves—no one was left in the church but Nazis now. Dozens of them down in the pews, watching their false gospel of triumph and tyranny. A handful here in this room.

Liam smiled at Kreutzer, then dove forward, freeing himself from Kreutzer’s grip and catching the switch on the projector with his free hand. The switch Helene explicitly told them not to touch.

An exposed wire sparked along the side of the projector and crackled, and the scent of ozone surrounded him.

Everything happened at once. Kreutzer jumping back, Liam leaping forward, the shadows unfurling around him like a cloak. The spark catching on the highly flammable film strips and their silver nitrate base. Helene certainly knew what she was doing, Liam had to give her that. She’d known this moment might come. Only he suspected she’d been prepared to burn herself down with the Nazis, if that was what it took.

The rush of flame whooshed around them as it leapt from reel to reel, the whole mess of film tangled all over the projection floor. And then the shadow closed around him and Daniel in a tight embrace.

Kreutzer’s face wrenched into a scream as he dissolved into a blur of fire and shadow when their world faded from view.

Liam and Daniel crashed into a muddy swamp inside the shadow realm. Only a dull outline of the church was visible around them, the soldiers screaming as the fire spread hungrily, eagerly from reel to reel.