CHAPTER 173

She didn't know what to expect, but silence wasn't it. A minute later, Marco stepped out of his vehicle and opened the trunk. He slammed the lid and started walking back toward the house at a clipped pace.

Kisa crawled out of her hiding spot and tailed him. The hour was late, and only a few people roamed the darkness, but when Marco stopped beneath a streetlight, he pulled out his cellphone and called someone. He had a baseball bat casually slung over his shoulder. When he turned in her direction, she felt an intense urge to hide, so slid behind a parked car and made herself small.

From where she sat, she could see that his eyes had gone completely black. He was too far away for her to hear the conversation, but a large grin broke across his face as he hung up the phone and stuck it in his pocket. He whistled as he walked back to the house, then stopped a block away.

Almost nobody was out now, and Kisa stayed hidden away, watching and waiting. Nearly forty minutes later, a car pulled up and a woman got out. She wore a black trenchcoat and had a very long braid that hung from the back of her head down to her waist.

After a couple of minutes, the newcomer's face turned to one of surprise, and Marco nodded. They seemed to be coming to some sort of agreement, so Kisa tried to move closer, hoping to catch the tail end of it.

"—and all I want in return is the house itself," Marco said, his voice slightly distorted as if speaking at two discordant pitches. "This body won't last more than a couple of days at most, so I will need a new vessel. This man simply has no magic to sustain me, so I consume his life force instead."

"You shall have that, and more, if you can actually deliver." The woman looked tired and angry, and she leaned toward Marco with a sneer on her face. "Though I wonder how you will manage with those accursed lions protecting the place."

Marco grinned. "Oh, don't worry about those. I've been invited, after all, they won't touch me. Once inside, it will take some time to get you what you want, but you have my guarantee, as your goals align with my own. With any luck, I will leave before he comes home, and then we can come up with a plan to strike while he's devastated by his losses."

The woman nodded, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a wand and handed it to him. "If you should fail, I want you to know that Amir is not a forgiving man, and he is in a terribly foul mood. For your sake, you had better not be wasting our time." She opened up the door of her car and put one foot inside before looking back. "You have until dawn to signal me for extraction. Otherwise, you are on your own."

With that, she slammed the door and left. Marco was practically skipping down the sidewalk toward the Radley house. He even stopped to pet the lions on the way in while Kisa hid behind the neighbor's car.

"I've missed you so much," he told them. "And I cannot wait to make you mine again." He pulled himself up the wall and trailed his fingers along the cold stone muzzle of the beast and pulled his phone out again. He seemed enchanted by something on the display, and then let out a burst of laughter that raised the fur on Kisa's neck.

"It may be Samhain, but you know what happens at midnight?" he asked the lion while stroking its paw. "Dia de Muertos. The day when the dead shall walk again." He hopped off the lion and hid the bat behind himself.

Sulyvahn stepped onto the walkway to block his approach. The dullahan wore a friendly grin that definitely didn't extend to the rest of his features, and he made a shoo-ing gesture with his hands.

"There'll nay be trouble here tonight, lad, so jes' you—"

Marco was now close enough that he spun around and used the bat to knock Sulyvahn's head clean off and across the yard. Sulyvahn's body stumbled about and made a grab for Marco, but he deftly sidestepped around the spirit and ran to the front door, the wand in his hand radiating energy.

"Knock knock," he said, then pointed the wand. The front door exploded inward and he ran inside. Panicking, Kisa ran into the yard, following the angry cries from Sulyvahn until she found his head. It had landed next to the Jabberwock, who hadn't moved a muscle.

"Find Yuki!" he said as she tossed his head toward his body. "Tink, too. Tell them the house is under attack!"

"How do I find them?" she asked.

He picked up his head and stuck it on his neck with a macabre grin. "Wasn't talkin' to ye." He pointed to the sky and she looked up in time to see Abella, wings spread wide, shoot out into the neighborhood.

There was a flash of light from inside the house, followed by a scream. Sulyvahn broke into a run, and Kisa was right behind him. They made it into the living room together and saw that Beth was busy picking herself off the ground, one hand clutching her face.

"Lass, be ye okay?" Sulyvahn asked.

"He went out back," she told them, then lowered her hand. There was blood on her palms and a wicked cut along her brow that bled heavily. "I was asleep on the couch. I wanted to make sure Tink and Yuki made it home okay. He took the key to the gate from me. How did he even get in?"

"It was the shadow man," Kisa said. "I saw them talking, and I think he's riding around inside of this Marco guy."