“Take the handle,” Annalise said. “Don’t open it until I say go.”
I stepped around her and stood by the stove but kept my hands at my sides. She reached under her jacket and took out two more green ribbons. She closed her eyes.
I wondered if Catherine had told her everything about the sapphire dog, and whether I had told Catherine everything. Did she know it could pass through solid objects? Did she know about its tongue?
Annalise opened her eyes and nodded to me. I laid my hand on the handle. It was warm to the touch, but—
“Go!”
I yanked the door open and jumped back. The electric hum immediately stopped. The connection had been broken, but the light from inside didn’t shut off. There were no halogen lights, but the oven seemed to be full of light anyway. At the bottom, I saw the blackened silhouette of a tiny rib cage and a human skull.
This wasn’t the sapphire dog at all.
The churning light floated toward me just as Annalise threw her three green ribbons. The ribbons burst into flame—the same weird green hissing fire that I had seen her use to burn people down to their bones. I was already backing away.
The floating storm emerged from the wall of green fire, gases trailing behind it. Annalise said something, a curse, I think, and began throwing more ribbons.
Another billow of green flame struck the predator, then a brown ribbon flashed and the white-hot churning core of gasses I thought of as its face suddenly pointed the other way, moving toward the kitchen. Beams of blue light burst from a handful of thrown ribbons, some of them impaling the creature, all linking together to form a lattice. But the floating storm moved right through them, turning back to us.
Annalise’s face was grim as she reached under her vest for another ribbon. The predator was closing in on her.
The stairs were right behind me. I could have sprinted down to the back door and been out on the road in three minutes. I knew the predator couldn’t catch me out on the asphalt. But I couldn’t leave Annalise. I was her wooden man, and this predator needed to be destroyed.
The pipes leading through the roof down to the sink told me where the water tank was. But I’d missed my chance. The predator was already too far away from it to replay the water-sprinkler trick.
An old set of skis and poles stood in the corner. The poles were pitted and crooked, but they were made of aluminum. I grabbed one and ran across the room.
Annalise had stopped throwing spells at the creature. She grabbed a mattress off the floor and heaved it. The fabric was already burning when it struck the floating storm, but it had no more effect than it would on a column of smoke. Pieces of mattress fell into the corner and set fire to the wall.
I threw the aluminum pole like a spear. It flew crookedly, striking the predator at an angle. That weird red lightning played along the pole’s length as it passed through. Arcs jumped to other objects nearby, including the metal nails in the couch. The couch started burning.
The ski pole hit the floor, still sparking. The floating storm turned toward me. I backpedaled, drawing it away from Annalise as I went for the other ski pole.
Annalise picked up the burning couch and threw it. I think she was trying to kill the predator by breaking up the swirl of gases at its center, but all she managed to do was fan them out, set a new fire, and delay the thing for the few seconds it needed to pull itself back together.
I grabbed the other ski pole off the floor and, with two cuts from my ghost knife, shaved the end to a sharp point.
It was nearly on me. “Take this!” I shouted, and threw the pole through the predator. It sparked just like the other one did, shrinking the floating storm slightly. But not enough to kill it.
I backed toward the steps, the predator moving closer to me. Swirls of orange, yellow, and red curled around one another in sudden spirals and breaking wave fronts. It was like watching a half dozen small hurricanes collide in slow motion. In its own way, this thing was beautiful, too.
It passed over the burning couch, and now there was nothing between it and me. I backed down the stairs, well aware of what would happen if it got above me.
I hoped Annalise understood what I was doing.
Just as the predator moved into the stairwell, the ski pole shot through it and wedged into the wood paneling.
The floating storm froze in place. Red lightning flashed off it, draining into the wall studs. The paneling caught fire.
I bounded down the steps. The wall beside me groaned and the glass in the back door shattered. I turned away from the door and ran to the main part of the store.
There was a sudden, deafening blast from above. Hot air struck me from behind, followed a bare instant later by pieces of broken wood. I sprawled forward onto the trembling floor, feeling something huge and heavy land on my back. For a moment, I thought the terrible pressure of it wouldn’t stop until my back was broken.
For once, I wasn’t afraid. I pulled my knees under me and struggled to my feet, gratified that I still could. Firelight shone from behind me. I staggered toward the door but tripped over one of Yin’s men.
My balance was shot and my ears were ringing. I stood anyway and looked back at the office. A section of the wall was missing, and everything was on fire. I could see fire upstairs through holes in the floor. I stripped off my jacket, but it wasn’t burning.
The floating storm did not come through the doorway after me. I breathed a heavy sigh and leaned against a rack of winter coats. I needed to get out of this building, but for the moment, I didn’t trust myself to cross the room
