Her hands were shaking as she dropped to tie her laces. "Is this really necessary? Ninja dressing didn't keep Kris and Diana from being captured."

"I totally doubt it was the clothes that got them snagged," Kith snorted, tying off the end of her braid with a black elastic. "You walk the walk, you wear the cloth."

"Excuse me?"

"You gotta dress like you do."

"Yeah. Okay." Communication between seventeen and twenty-seven occasionally took place in two distinct languages. Buckling on the belt pouch, she hurried out of the dressing room in time to smack a piece of chocolate away from Lance's mouth.

"Hey!"

"If you ever want to go back, you can't eat or drink anything on this side that you didn't bring with you."

"But I'm hungry!"

Actually, so was she. "I've got food in my pack. Come on."

Her pack was with Diana's, just inside the front door. Claire dragged Lance through the milling crowd of mall elves, tossed him a power bar and a bottle of water, and began filling her belt pouch with preset possibilities.

"I'd send you back to Kingston if I could," she told him, tucking a folded piece of paper behind three gla.s.s marbles, "but with the darkside influencing the paths, I can't guarantee where you'd end up."

"I'm willing to take that chance in order to stop Meryat!"

"Since you're the only one who can stop Meryat and since she's with Dean, I'm not. We rescue Kris and Diana, we stop the darkside, we stop its influence, I send you to the guest house, you stop Meryat, and . . ."

"We all live happily ever after!"

"Sure. Why not." The small plastic packet of cayenne pepper got slid very carefully up against the flat side of the pouch. "But for now, you'll have to stay here in the store where you'll be safe."

"I'm not afraid to fight!"

"Good. If the store gets attacked, you'll have to." Fortunately, with Arthur out in the mall, there'd be no chance of that. Claire unzipped an outside pocket on Diana's pack, reached into it, and froze as her fingers closed around air. "The wand. Diana took the wand."

"That's bad?"

"When she used it against a minion, it nearly killed her. If she uses it against the darkside . . ."

"But I thought she was captured?"

"So?" It took all of Claire's strength to push that single syllable out against the certain knowledge that her little sister was as good as dead.

"So if it's that powerful, then she didn't get to use it before she was captured. After, well, they'll have taken it away from her so she can't use it. Right?"

Claire actually felt time start up again. "Right." For the first time since the beach, she looked at Lance with something other than pique. Like he was something other than an unwanted responsibility. "Thank you."

His cheeks flushed under the sunburn.

"So what's the holdup?" Sam jumped up onto the top of Claire's pack. "Why aren't we moving out?"

She zipped the belt pouch closed. "We?"

Amber eyes narrowed, and his tail traced one long, slow arc from side to side.

"You're right." Claire raised both hands in surrender, ignoring Lance's questioning glance. Some arguments didn't require actual dialogue. "But you're not coming with me because I need you go with Arthur. If he's challenged to single combat, he'll forget everything I've told him about why he shouldn't and leap forward to do what he considers the only honorable thing."

"I want . . ."

"Sam, there has to be someone there to tell him when he's being an idiot and that's one of the things cats do best."

"But Diana . . ."

"Needs my full attention. I can't be worrying about what Arthur's going to do if I'm to have a chance of saving her."

Sam's ears saddled. "You're that sure he'll answer a challenge?"

"I am. It's one of the benefits of working with an archetype." As Arthur climbed up onto the chair, she frowned thoughtfully and added, "Actually, it's pretty much the only benefit."

Arthur stared out at his a.s.sembled elves, raised his sword, opened his mouth, and closed it again.

The moment had long pa.s.sed.

He jerked his head toward the mall. "Let's go."

"So, we're winning, right? And this is part of your plan?"

Diana glanced over at Kris as the surrounding meat-minds shoved them along familiar corridors. "This?"

"Yeah. This." Her gesture took in the meat-minds and the back of the Shadowlord walking up ahead. "You know, being captured and taken back to that. . . hole. 'Cause that's where you want to be, right?"

"Kris, that hole is essentially an entrance to h.e.l.l."

"So, as a plan, it sucks. But it is a plan, right?"

Since the other girl so clearly needed to hear a specific answer, Diana smiled and lowered her voice. "Yeah, it's a plan. It's not much of one now, but it will be by the time we get there."

"Wicked."

Actually, yes, it being h.e.l.l and all, but Diana figured Kris didn't need to hear that right now. Closing h.e.l.l down in the real world had been difficult enough, closing it on the Otherside without access to the possibilities would be almost impossible. Rules would probably have to be broken. Hey, it's not like I haven't broken rules before.

Although not big ones.

Not on purpose anyway.

And intent counted.

I'm intending to save the world. That ought to count for something.

Destroying the bugs had been easy, once she'd plugged the small memory leak, as easy as tripping up the meat-minds by noticing how clumsy they looked, but h.e.l.l hadn't given either the bug or the meat-minds substance. People preferred their world to have form and function and by giving darkness definition, they gave it a physical presence. The mall elves had created their own monsters. Giant bugs, skittering around inside the walls, and big, slow-moving guys with short hair, beady eyes, heavy guts and hands that were too big for their bodies.