a8eb54fe2a7e7ca192cef2761fb9d6c0

“That was you, Friday night. You held Sam and me in the shadow so we didn’t get caught in the beam when the security guard flashed back the way he’d come.”

“Yeah. That was me. Now do me a favor and never use the wordflash in the same sentence as that scary old dude again.” Her lip curled, showing a crescent of teeth. “Bad image frying the wetware.”

Diana caught the image and shuddered.“Eww.”

“Big time.”

“But how did you…” She looked down at Kris’ hand, still around her wrist, and then up at the other girl’s face. “We weren’t even in the same reality.”

Kris shrugged.“Reality’s what you make it.”

“True enough. You got reasons for hanging on I should know about?”

“No.”

It was a familiar soundingno. Diana grinned as she followed Kris back out onto the concourse.Hey, Sam, I think she likes me.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine Sam’s response.

“And what am I, chopped liver?”

“No, I mean she likesme.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

Whatwas she going to do about it? And should she even do anything? And when? Actually, that last question was a no brainer.

Not now.

“Remember, stay low, move fast, and try not to look like a person. We’re in the bad guys’ fuckin’ territory.” Kris dropped into a crouch and scuttled across the side corridor, one arm crooked over her head.

She looked exactly like a person in a crouch with her arm over her head, but Diana figured she knew what she was doing, so she folded herself into a mirror image of the position and scuttled after. Shadows spilled out of the far end of the corridor, but they came with no accompanying feeling of being watched—a faint feeling of looking ridiculous but that passed as she reached the storefronts on the opposite side and straightened.

Tucked up tightly against the wall, Kris moved steadily toward the short hallway leading to the security office.

Security office?

Oh, great. What’s wrong with this picture?

Grabbing the back of Kris’ waistband, Diana dragged her to a stop. “What ifhe’s in the security office?” she hissed.

“What if he is? We still gotta go that way. It’s the only safe way to the food court.”

About to ask what definition of“safe” Kris was using, Diana jumped almost into the guard captain’s arms as a thick, purple tentacle slapped the glass beside her. “I didn’t do that!”

“Of course you didn’t.” Thedumbass was silent but clearly implied.“It’s the pet store.”

“Right. And that’s…?”

“Beats the fuck out of me, but it’s not a squid.”

“What happened to the puppies and kittens?”

“I’m guessing it ate them.”

“Of course it did.”

They reached the hall without further incident. Narrow and lit by every third bank of fluorescents in the dropped ceiling, it went back about thirty feet, ending in a cross corridor. Diana could just barely make out two signs on the back wall. The first read: Elevator to Rooftop Parking and included a red arrow pointing left. The second: Baby Change Room; arrow to the right. What the babies changed into was anyone’s guess. The closed door to the security office was about a third of the way up the hall, on the right. That far again was a small water fountain.

Noshunk kree. No advancing armies of darkness.

The only sound was the hum of the lights.

Like it would kill them to learn the words? Diana wondered as Kris began moving faster and she hurried to catch up.

Both walls were covered in crayon portraits that shifted. A great many of them seemed to be of a dark silhouette, horned and cloaked and possessing glowing red eyes. None of them were particularly good.

Although the eyes seem to be following Kris, Diana realized.Are following Kris, she amended as a pair of crimson orbs plopped out of a portrait and rolled almost to the mall elf’s heels. An emphatic poke turned Kris around as a pointing finger directed her gaze to the problem.

Kris rolled her own eyes and took a quick step back.

A sound like bubble wrap being popped.

A bit of waxy residue on the floor.

A quick glance at the rest of the portraits showed them all pointedly looking in different directions. Whatever dark power controlled them, it wasn’t strong enough to overcome basic self-preservation.

Passing the security office, Diana worked at remembering trig formulas and other useless bits of high school math rather than merely trying not to think about the old man opening the door. In this situation, getting caught up in the old“try not to think of a purple hippopotamus” problem could have disastrous results.

At the water fountain, Kris indicated she needed a boost.

Diana dropped to one knee, let Kris use the other as a step, and watched amazed as, standing on the edge of the fountain, she reached up and shoved one of the big ceiling tiles off the framework. Were the elves keeping supplies inside the dropped ceiling?

Kris braced her hands and smoothly boosted herself up and out of sight.