“Stay here,” I said, running and skidding to a stop at the top of the stairs just as Peggy opened the door.

“Peggy,” I shouted down the stairs, “the Waking is in three minutes. You need to lock yourself in a room.”

She looked up at me as if I were a nuisance, before making her way slowly up the stairs. Her room was on the ground floor; why was she coming upstairs? “I need to check on Magnus.”

I ran down halfway to meet her, getting behind her to push. “The hyena is going to be released in less than three minutes.”

She halted—the opposite of what I needed her to do. “W-what? What time is it?”

“Saba, help me!”

Saba rushed to my side, throwing Peggy over her shoulder without my having to ask.

I don’t know if Saba decided to reveal herself or Peggy thought she was being carried by an invisible entity, but she wouldn’t stop screaming, and we were under too vital a time crunch for me to do anything but roll my eyes. “Take her to my room—no, the closet. At the end of the hall. Hurry.”

“Kelela?” Peggy gasped as Saba passed, and she released a desperate moaning wail, like a banshee. “Oh God Almighty, what are you doing here? Get out of the hallway!”

Saba ran to the opposite end of the long hall, carrying the screaming woman like she weighed nothing. The closet was a petty choice when my room was available, but I didn’t want her looking through my things.

“I suppose that isn’t the strangest thing I’ve seen in this house,” Kelela breathed. Judging by her terrified shock, I knew she wasn’t talking about Peggy.

I took my position again, in front of a further-shaken Kelela, just as Saba shut the door and was running back. I could still hear Peggy shouting curses at me. She had the good sense to do it through the door.

Because the big clock downstairs was striking ten.

Dhong!

I took a deep breath.

Dhong!

A breath.

Eight more like it, and each time I breathed in courage until there wasn’t a scrap of fear left in me.

As the last gong echoed, the rush of swirling wind took its place in my ears, and with it sheets shifting, rustling. Then the click and scrape of claws on hardwood, the familiar jingle of bells with each pad.

The chalk marks sprung up in my mind as soon as the hyena’s paws hit the floor.

I flinted my welding pen and got to work.

I wasn’t even a minute in when the bedroom door rattled. Kelela yelped at the loud bang, and grabbed my shoulder, but I shrugged her off quickly. “Don’t touch me, I can’t mess this up.” Another minute went by. Another bang.

“Can’t he break the door?” Kelela asked, slightly frantic.