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I put myself in front of the mirror.

The hand drags down. Five nails leave five long streaks in the fog. Then it's gone, and the glass is only glass again, giving me back my own face and Maren's white one over my shoulder.

Everything stops.

Sid turns his head and looks at me. Straight at me, gold eyes flat and certain, in a way no animal has ever looked at me.

Then he heads toward the rear of the shop and freezes, fixed on the back door, tail low, a growl building far too deep for his body.

I don't need it spelled out.

I move toward the door.

The smell reaches me first. Rot. Smoke. Blood that isn't Maren's.

Something's standing in the dark past the back door. Waiting.

And it came around the side of the building to get there. Past the lit window. Past the scorched circle under the sill.

It knows exactly where she sleeps.

5

MAREN

ELEVEN DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN

Awoman without a face stands at the foot of my bed.

I know I'm dreaming. But, that doesn't help.

She's dressed head to toe in black, the same as the one in the mirror, the same as the one I've spent two days trying not to think about. Behind her, fire climbs into a starless sky. Women ring the flames. Dozens of them, gold on one side of the face and gone on the other.

Their mouths move as one.

Sister.

Sister.

Sister.

The faceless woman reaches for me. I tell my legs to run. They don't listen. Her hand closes around my ankle, and the cold of it drives straight to the bone.

"You're late," she says.

I wake up, kick free of the blankets and scramble upright. I look around at the dark room. My room. No fire. No women. No black dress at the end of the bed.

Only my own breath, ragged and too loud.

"Dream." My voice won't hold steady. "Fuck! It was only a dream."

Something warm sits on my chest.

Sid stares up at me, gold eyes catching what little light there is, unbothered as a gargoyle.

"You couldn't wake me the normal way?"

He doesn't blink. He turns toward the window instead, and every hair down his spine lifts at once.