I’m close to breaking. My chest shudders with unshed tears, and the only thing holding me together is Shy’s embrace.

“Shy,” Natalie says. “We have a problem.”

We look up to find six pairs of eyes in the darkness, followed by a chorus of howls.

My hellhounds have found me.

Then Lily’s corpse twitches.

“Dammit.” Shy looks at me. “Stay.”

When he shuts the door, Lily is on her feet again, and the hounds have come into the ring of light.

“W-why won’t she die?”

“Because she’s already dead,” Natalie says. “Her soul’s just been resurrected, which gives her the ability to fight but none of her humanity.”

Lily’s murderer has struck again.

“Why does he keep fighting her? If he can’t kill her?”

“Because all we can do is subdue her until the Order arrives.”

“But—” As much as I want this to end, I can’t be here when the Order arrives.

“Stay,” Natalie says and gets out of the cab. She joins Shy and Jacobi, creating a triangle around Lily.

All that talk about why resurrection is illegal makes sense to me now. Surely Thane wouldn’t want his mother back like this? This isn’t even a shell of what Lily used to be. This is something different, a monster, more animalistic than my hellhounds.

Lily bares her teeth and lashes out. All three Valryn jump back and rise off the ground, their wings spread wide. That’s when my hounds descend upon Lily. The sounds filling the air are horrific—a mix of growls and howls and whining. Their teeth clash and snap, biting down on Lily’s limbs, tearing into her dead flesh, and yet she gives as much as she takes, clawing at my hounds and biting into their flesh.

Then Lily jumps, moving above the hounds’ heads. She grabs onto one of Jacobi’s wings and jerks him to the ground. He lands headfirst and is still. I’m out of the car in an instant, running toward Jacobi. He can’t end up like Jake. I won’t let that happen. I have to end this.

“Jacobi!”

I grab the shovel, discarded in the grass, and run for them. Lily twists toward me, and I hit her with the shovel. She doesn’t budge but prepares to leap at me, so I call the only defense I have—the thread.

Shy calls after me. “Anora! No!”

The thread cuts through the air toward Lily. She dodges it, and I reel it back in as she charges for me. Her weight knocks the breath out of me, but my palm faces her chest as we go down, and the thread breaks through her back. As it consumes, I expect her soul to transform into a coin and land on my chest.