a8eb54fe2a7e7ca192cef2761fb9d6c0

“So what kind of clues would he have in his pockets?”

“An amulet controlling his free will. A note written in a moment of clear-headedness begging for rescue. And maybe he’s not a victim at all; maybe he’s helping her in return for a slice of the world domination pie.”

“Maybe I should never have taped thatScooby Doo marathon for you.”

“He’s a dog,” Austin snorted, jumping down and following Dean up the basement stairs. “He’s not going to notice anything he didn’t sniff off someone’s butt.I’m telling you there was something in the bedroom last night and probably the night before!”

“Okay, let’s say there was.” Dean bent and lifted the cat up onto the kitchen counter, sanitary issues losing out over the inconvenience of holding a conversation with someone six feet closer to the floor. “But just because you sensed something, that doesn’t mean it was Meryat. It’s notlike this place hasn’t hadvisitors before. Ghosts, imps,” he added when Austin merely scowled at him.

“I knew what you meant; I just think you’re an idiot.” Sitting down, he swept his tail regally around in front of his paws. “I talked to the mice.”

After a moment spent trying to match up the end of that declaration to the beginning, Dean surrendered.“Okay.”

“The mice,” Austin told him in a tone that suggestedidiot was actually a little high on the scale,“said that the dead mouse I found in room two was just a kid; six months old, prime of his little rodent life.”

“And?”

“Oh, for the love of kibble, would you at least try to connect the dots!” Leaping to his feet, he paced to the end of the counter and back again, his tail covering twice the horizontal distance. “That mouse had his life sucked out right next to the mummy!”

“So you’re saying that sucking the life out of that mouse gave Meryat—who can barely walk at the best of times—enough energy to get downstairs and then back upstairs again moving so fast that you couldn’t see her? Some mouse.”

“You’re forgetting her visit to you. The mouse only had to get her downstairs.”

“And you don’t think I’d notice if a reanimated Egyptian mummy was su…” Cheeks flushed, he suddenly decided there’d been a little too much use of the verbto suck in recent conversations.“…absorbing my energy?”

“You spent six months not noticing a hole to Hell,” Austin muttered, “I’m not sure you’d notice if a reanimated Egyptian mummy was doing the Macarena.”

“Hey! I’d notice. Nobody does the Macarena anymore.”

“Oh, give her a break! She’s been dead for three thousand years, it takes a while to catch up.”

“If we’re talking three thousand years,” Dean snapped, “she’d be doing the hustle!”

The silence that followed was so complete, the distant sound of skateboarders in a neighbor’s pool came clearly though the open dining room windows.

“Dude, what’s with the water?”

After another long moment during which it became clear that neither skateboards nor skateboarders could float, Dean managed to find his voice.

“Did I just make a disco reference?”

Austin nodded.

“Lord t’underin’ Jesus.”

Austin nodded again.“If that’s not a sign there’s evil energies about, I don’t know what is.”

“Granted. But that still doesn’t mean it’s Meryat.”

“Why are you so resistant to the obvious?”

“Maybe I just like the thought of people being in love without any sucking going on!”

Oh, yeah. Definitely too much use of the verbto suck. He kind of wished he’d remembered that.

But all Austin said was,“I wish Claire was here.”

ELEVEN

[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]

CLAIRE CLOSED HER FINGERS just a little too tightly around Lance’s arm. They were standing at one end of a massive hall—although massive didn’t really do the place justice—on a pair of circles made of the only red tiles visible in a blue-and-gold mosaic floor. Just to be on the safe side, she looked up and breathed a sigh of relief. So far, no falling anvils. Behind them was a set of what looked like fifty-foot-high, solid gold doors. In front of them, a double line of huge pillars disappeared into the darkness above. If they were supporting a roof, Claire couldn’t see it. The walls behind the pillars appeared to be covered in tiny black dots although, given how far away they were, it was entirely possible they were covered in huge black dots. Light levels were comfortably bright in spite of no visible light source—which was hardly surprising as ambient light was the one thing pretty much every reality took a crack at. If she’d been inone cave with phosphorescent fungus, she’d been in fifty.

“So. Where are we?” she asked, a little surprised by how calm she sounded. They were no longer on the Otherside—either Otherside—that much and that much alone she was sure of. Well, that and how much she’d like to kick Lance.

“I don’t know!”

Not exactly a surprise.

“What were you thinking when we went through the door?” Maybe calm wasn’t exactly the right word.Tight was closer.

“That if I didn’t get it right this time, you were going to give me hell.”

“This isn’t Hell.”

“How can you be so sure?” Lance demanded, turning to stare down at her with wide eyes.