"Living forever isn't what most people want."

"It's what your sister wanted. It's what Hester wanted. It's what Jack wanted."

She said, with quiet precision, "It must be horrible, not having a soul. All that emptiness inside. Being nothing."

Something flashed in his eyes, something like terror, which could also have been a trick of the light. He casually set Eve Avaline's silver dagger in the middle of the table and said, "What did you intend to do with this, Serafina? I shall leave it here, and when Jack arrives, I'll show you what I intend to do with it."

She stared at the dagger shining within reach on the polished table. It had not begun to corrode at all, despite being taken from its wooden scabbard days ago.

The doors opened again and Jack, in a rabbit half mask of white wood, wrists wrapped in chains, was escorted into the room by two wolf Fatas in fur and leather.

He was shoved into the third chair. Beneath the mask, she could see that his jaw was bruised, one corner of his mouth caked with blood-somehow, the otherworldliness that had made him infallible had been taken from him, and that terrified her. His masked gaze met hers. "Are you all right?"

"Yes." She realized Seth Lot had put them in the masks to keep them from seeing each other properly.

"She's not all right, Jack. The elixir has poisoned her. If she returns to the true world, slivers of it will remain within her until she becomes something strange."

Jack made a sound that was almost a snarl. The chains around his wrists tightened.

Seth Lot continued, "Shall I make her my new queen? I'm afraid Lily and I have had a bit of a falling-out."

Finn glanced at the silver dagger Lot had set on the table to taunt them. Jack looked at it and went very still.

"Lot." Jack sounded peeled to the bone. "Don't. She wasn't responsible for Reiko-"

Leaning forward, Lot took up the silver dagger and traced the tip of it across Jack's throat. Finn stopped breathing. "Jack, the two of you killed Reiko and decimated the Mockingbirds. The Mockingbirds I don't mind, but Reiko . . . you'll both have to pay for that."

Finn met Jack's gaze as despair splintered through her.

The flames in the hearth burst outward, flowering into black-and-orange butterflies, an impossible storm of them. Finn screamed Jack's name as she was flung backward by thousands of parchment wings that beat against her with delicate, bruising force, pushing her toward the mirror- -through it.

FINN LIFTED HER HEAD. She lay in a night lit only by snow. Not far from her, a monstrous, spiky shadow crouched, surrounded by bones and blood, silently screaming horses, and mutilated men- Then she stood in a black room before a painting of a Fata man with russet hair knotted with leaves, his bare face and chest tattooed with spirals, his eyes those of a beast.

"See how I play this game, Serafina?" Lot circled her where they now stood in a cathedral-like hall with wooden pillars looming around them and immense arches curving toward a groined ceiling. Leaves and snow crackled beneath Finn's boots. Candles flickered. Primitive music accompanied a banshee voice singing softly as figures masked with ornate representations of animal skulls-birds, bears, stags-waltzed around them, candlelight caressing luxurious fabrics.

Turning her head, Finn frowned into a tarnished mirror in a knot of black briars. She saw a pale girl with jewels on her fingers, her silver eyes framed by dark ink. Her gray dress had become a gown, its sleeves nothing but ribbons of silver silk. There was a wreath of fresh roses on her brow.

"That was your sister's doing." Lot stood behind her. "The monarchs. She's learned some new tricks. It used to keep our relationship exciting. Lately, it's just become annoying."

Finn stepped back, frantically scanning the feral costume ball that surrounded her. She said, "This isn't real."

He slid a hand over her shoulder, turning her as music blazed through the dead air. Too disoriented to rebel, she allowed him to take her hands. "It is real if I wish it so."

"I thought only mortals could make wishes here." She wouldn't let his tricks or his distressing beauty throw her.

"I've told you, Serafina, you're not quite mortal anymore." He spoke as she concentrated on the dancers around them. A woman in a horned headdress inclined her head. A man whose face was concealed by a beaked mask bowed to her. There were cobwebs and splotches of mold and blood on their beautiful costumes.

"Did you ever wonder"-Seth Lot's hair fell forward to brush her cheek as his scent of expensive cologne and musk made her dizzy and sick-"what would happen if Jack had the chance to meet Reiko again?"

She thought of the Reiko before the Teind, the one haunting Lot's house, and ripped her hands from Lot's. Shadows crept through the forestlike ballroom, beyond the animal-masked Fatas moving languidly across the floor littered with debris, dying monarch butterflies, and snowflakes that didn't melt.

"Reiko is dead and gone." She thought she saw a crack in the Wolf's perfect faade and relentlessly continued, "Take me back to your house. Now."

He gestured. As if instinctively connected to him, the dancers drifted apart, forming an aisle. At the end of the aisle were two doors in a wall tangled with thorn-starred vines.

"Go on." He indicated the doors. "Pick one."

The dancers stood still in their beast masks as Finn walked toward the doors, snow and crimson leaves fluttering past her. She heard whispers, "The path of pins or the path of needles . . . the path of needles or the path of pins . . ."

When she reached the doors, she halted, hands clenched in her gown. One door was white, carved into images of lilies. The other door, black, was hewn into the forms of loping jackals.

Seth Lot's voice carried to her as he moved down the aisle, toward her. "You'll remain here no matter which you choose, Serafina. But I'll give you a companion. Select which of your loved ones will leave my house-your sister or your Jack-and I'll allow it. The other will remain."

"I won't choose."

He said, tenderly, "Then, Serafina, I will kill both."

WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES SWEPT FINN through the mirror, Jack shot to his feet, the chains biting into his wrists as he lunged forward. Lot had also vanished in the storm of orange-and-black wings.

"Jack." The soft voice sent a razor pain through Jack, who raised his head, saw her reflection in the mirror, and didn't believe it. Even though her face was shadowed, he knew it was her. Another of Lot's tricks.

He closed his eyes against her, opened them to see if she'd gone.

Reiko came forward, her slip dress and gladiator sandals blood red against the chamber's darkness, her long black hair stranded with pearls. He yearned for her with an almost voluptuous shame, but he refused to turn and face her. The rabbit mask was his only shield against her. "Reiko."

"Why are you in that ridiculous disguise?" Cool fingers settled on his face to lift the mask. He thought of Finn, her warm skin and fragrant hair, her good heart. She was the opposite of this heartless young woman-Circean, lavish, nomadic-who had drawn him, smiling all the while, into the dark.

"Jack." Reiko's hands slid along his wrists, to the chains. "Who has done this to you? Was it Lot?"

The Wolf's house, Absalom and Leander had told him, is filled with memories.

When he'd been here with Reiko, long ago, he'd been a new Jack. This Reiko from the past, before Finn, before the Teind, the Reiko he had once loved, this Reiko had sheltered him from Seth Lot. He almost broke as her lips touched his. His body leaned toward hers. She spoke against his mouth. "You still love me, don't you?" She kissed him again. He was shaking by the time she drew back. She said, "You're different."

As he remembered her burning, he whispered, "Reiko."

She pressed a hand over his slamming heart. Her green eyes glowed. "A heart, Jack?"

"I'm not your Jack."

Her eyes silvered as fury curled her lips. "Then what are you?"

"I'm what caused you to die. As you caused those girls to die. And the boys. And all the innocents whose lives you sucked away like the parasite you are."

He saw the true Reiko then, beneath her skin, a scaled, thorn-toothed thing of blood and darkness. Then she was just a girl, turning away from him and walking from the room, heels clicking on the floor like a devil's cloven hooves. She said, over one shoulder, "I'll forgive you, Jack. I always do."

When she'd gone, he sank to a crouch, chained hands between his knees, and stared at the giant mirror framed by its grotesque and golden dance of imps, wolf skulls, and briars.

A reflective glint drew his attention to the silver dagger in the center of the table.

FINN STOOD BEFORE THE TWO DOORS. This time, there would be no tricking a Fata. Behind her, Seth Lot patiently waited as his court whispered among themselves.

" . . . pins . . . path of needles . . ."

She couldn't choose and Lily and Jack would die because of it. Here, she had no weapons with which to fight the Wolf, magical or otherwise.

She remembered Absalom Askew saying, Rules keep us in shape, and an idea cut through her hopelessness. She slowly turned to face Seth Lot. "You invited Lily here. You invited me here, and Jack, when you told us to come find you."

The whispering, skull-masked court went silent. Seth Lot's eyes narrowed, and shadows made his face hard as she continued, "By the invitation from thee to me, I invoke the law of hospitalit-"

"No." The word was more snarl than voice. "You will not-"

"Your laws." Finn pointed at him. "Laws that keep you from returning to night and nothing. What will happen if you break that law of not harming invited guests, Seth Lot?"

His smile was ugly, and she saw the old, hungry thing hiding beneath his skin. "I have broken many laws, Serafina. Don't you know? And this is such a little one . . ."

Glass shattered behind her. She whirled.

The two doors shimmered as if the air was a reel of melting film-and faded.

Then she was gazing at her reflection in a large mirror. There were only shadows behind her and a larger shadow among them, spiky and bestial, with silver eyes: Seth Lot.

The mirror glass began to crack. The point of a dagger emerged.

Lot stepped between her and the mirror and closed one hand around her throat. Softly, he said, "I see Jack has made his choice."

Someone came up behind Finn. A wooden knife carved with runes slid over her right shoulder, aimed unwaveringly at Lot's left eye. A familiar voice said, "Let her go."

"You can't kill me with that." Seth Lot didn't move.

"No. But it would ruin that mask you wear for a while, and you wouldn't want the pretty things to see what you really look like, would you?"

Seth Lot met the gaze of the knife bearer and released Finn, who twisted around. The knife bearer tore his beaked mask away, revealing Moth. He backed toward the enormous mirror, pulling Finn with him.

"Go." Moth gently shoved her. She turned to face the glass, saw the shadows behind Lot surging forward- She leaped at the mirror. Moth followed- She slammed into Jack in the dining hall and he reeled back. She flung her arms around him and kissed him once as Moth strode toward them, saying, "I was invited in by Leander Cyrus and Lily." He stripped off the fur-lined coat he'd worn to disguise himself and revealed a small arsenal of weapons, including the jackal-headed walking stick strapped across his back. "They're waiting for us."

Jack set his chained hands on the table. "You have anything to cut through these?"

Finn looked at the mirror, at Eve Avaline's silver dagger quivering in the glass. When something dark loomed behind the dagger in the mirror, she whispered, "He's coming."

As Moth stabbed a bronze knife into the lock of Jack's chains, Finn searched for something to smash the chains with. Moth, unsuccessful, backed away, then turned to face the mirror and said, "We need to leave. You'll have to run in the chains-"

The silver dagger hurtled out of the mirror and clattered at Moth's feet as a dark figure began to emerge from the reflective glass- Moth snatched up the silver blade and leaped forward.

The figure appearing in the mirror lunged-onto Eve's silver dagger.

Hester Kierney slid from the blade, clutching her bloody midsection and staring at a horrified Moth. Magnolia blossoms spilled from her mouth.

Finn ran to her as Moth dropped the dagger and caught Hester in his arms. Finn cried out, "Why is she bleeding if she's a Jill?"

"Because," Jack said, "she's fresh-made. She's still mostly mortal."

Moth, like death in his black clothes and black hoodie, bowed his head as Hester clutched at Finn, who laid trembling hands over the other girl's midriff and sought to stop the blood. She didn't want to look at the other girl, to see her pain, watch her . . . "Hester . . ."

Hester fumbled with something on a chain around her neck. She pressed a metal object into Finn's hand, and her breathing became a terrible, wet rasp. Her eyes widened as bloody petals frothed from her mouth.

Moth cried out, holding her. Finn brought the back of her own blood-streaked hand against her mouth as Hester convulsed, her breathing becoming a liquid gasping that seemed to rattle her bones. She wanted to end Hester's pain . . . didn't know how . . .

Moth reached down. "Look away," he told Finn softly, and she closed her eyes. She didn't see him snap Hester's neck. But she heard it. And felt as if Hester's pain had moved into her as silent sobs shuddered through her body.

Jack bowed his head.

Hester's skin, glazed like porcelain, cracked apart. White magnolia blossoms drifted away from her bones. Finn could hear Moth and Jack speaking, but she could only stare at Hester's remains. Then she hunched over and was sick on the floor.

Seth Lot stepped out of the mirror.

Moth rose to meet him with two blades in his hands. Lot came at him, swinging his walking stick as serenely as if he was strolling through a park.

"Finn!" Jack's voice was urgent.

Finn snatched up the silver dagger and ran to Jack. She stabbed the blade into the lock holding his chains together. As the horror of Hester's death began to cut through her shock, crippling her ability to think clearly, she heard Moth and Lot fighting, the blades and the walking stick shrieking and clanging against one another.

"The lock won't break," Jack grimly said. "Run."

She uncurled her other hand and raised what Hester had given her-a key shaped like a dragonfly. Jack whispered, "Where did you-"

She shoved the key into the lock of his chains. The lock clicked.

Moth slid across the floor on his back. Seth Lot was striding toward them, his face cold.

As his chains fell away, Jack grabbed Eve's silver knife from Finn, twirled it, and strode to meet Seth Lot, who slashed at him with his walking stick. Jack dodged. The Wolf grabbed him by the throat and flung him at the mirror. As Jack hit the glass, which shattered spectacularly all around him, a rain of silver, Lot stalked toward him, unsheathing a blade from his walking stick.

Jack had dropped the silver dagger and was painfully climbing to his feet. Finn, backing toward the door, felt her heel strike something and looked down at the jackal walking stick. She shouted to Moth, who dragged himself into a crouch. She shoved the walking stick across the floor. He caught it.

As Jack pushed himself up from the shards of glass, Moth, gripping the walking stick, rose unsteadily and ran at Lot, who turned.

Moth swung the walking stick and hit the Wolf in the skull. Lot dropped to one knee, hair falling over his face.

Finn turned to the door, still holding the dragonfly key, knowing it was the key the Black Scissors had given Sylvie to get her and Christie here. She wondered if that sly and dangerous enemy of the Fatas had suspected they'd end up with his key.

"Please work," she murmured as she heard Jack and Moth running toward her. She pushed the key into the lock.

Lot flung his sword. It slammed into Jack's shoulder, pinning him to the wall. Finn dropped the key with a cry.

Jack, bleeding from the mirror glass, looked as if he'd collapse any second. Moth grabbed the sword's hilt and frantically attempted to free him as Finn ducked down for the key. She glanced over her shoulder to see Lot had risen to his feet. As she straightened with the key, the Wolf said, "You won't get out."

Moth yanked the blade from Jack's shoulder-there was more blood-and held him up as Finn turned the dragonfly key in the lock.

As shadows began to swarm around the Wolf, the door opened.