Moth was the first to step up into the train. He reached down for Lily.

When Leander shouted, Finn glanced over her shoulder. A large white shape was running toward them, its muzzle curled back from a cage of teeth. She spoke the name like a curse, "Crom cu."

"Hurry!" Moth held the doors open as Jack and Leander pushed Finn and Lily up the steps.

Caliban materialized from the pale hyena as if he'd shed white shadows. His gray coat billowing, he loped toward the station.

"Go! Go!" Jack yelled. Leander leaped up into the train. Jack followed.

Caliban halted, raised an arm, and aimed a revolver of white metal. A shot cracked out.

Finn and Leander grabbed Jack as the doors began to close. As Jack dove in and the doors hissed shut behind him, a second bullet struck the metal. The train lurched forward.

Jack pushed to his feet. "It seems the crom cu has left old school behind."

"Jack." Moth was somber. "You're bleeding."

Finn pushed aside Jack's coat and saw the hole in his shirt and the fresh blood. But the bullet wound was already closing. He lifted a bloody projectile between two fingers and she winced-it was a human molar. She met his gaze as relief mixed with dismay in her head and heart.

Moth said to Jack, "We need to make sure whoever else is on this train isn't going to be a problem."

"And if they are?" Lily was watching Jack.

"Then they're getting off this train." Jack stepped back. "Finn. Lily. We won't be long." As Moth and Leander strode down the aisle, Jack said to Finn, "Do you still have the silver dagger?"

"Yes."

"Use it if you need to, on anything that enters." He turned to follow Leander and Moth.

Finn dropped into the seat beside Lily, her mind blank, her body numb. Desperately, she said, "You're real, Lily, aren't you?"

Lily took the silver dagger from Finn. Before Finn could stop her, she'd sliced the ball of her thumb. As red blood welled, she met Finn's gaze. "I'm real. I had to tell myself that, every day, in that house. And if it weren't for Leander and Moth, I would have lost my mind. Time is different there. I feel like I've been away for years. I can't wait to get home"-she huddled in the seat, her knees drawn up beneath her chin as she looked out of the window-"and see Dad, and walk on the beach and go to the park and Fisherman's Wharf . . ."

Finn had forgotten to tell Lily that they'd moved. "Um . . . do you remember Gran Rose? She died, after you . . . Well, Da and I moved into her house in New York."

"That big old place?" Lily turned in her seat to face Finn. "In Fair Hollow? Huh. Gran Rose died . . . I barely remember her." Her eyes were dark, and Finn, who couldn't imagine what terrible memories might be slivered into her sister's brain, curled her hands into fists in her lap. Lily let her head fall back against the seat and said, "We didn't have a chance, did we? Leander smiled at me and pretended to be normal-even when I began to suspect. And Seth . . . all he had to do was look at me." She hung her head and her long hair veiled her face. "And promise to make me a queen of night and nothing."

Gently, Finn said, "Leander loves you, Lily."

"They're so good at pretending, Finn."

"Do you remember what you said . . . that night . . . 'They call us things with teeth.'"

Lily's mouth curved. "I got that from the first Fata I ever met. Norn."

"I've met her."

"You have?"

"She was part of Reiko's . . . family."

"It's the first thing Norn said when I saw her. It was in the woods in Vermont and the sun was setting and she came walking toward me like some kind of rebel angel, in jeans, tattooed and barefoot. And she said, 'Hello, little thing with teeth.'"

Finn shivered, imagining the Viking Fata girl approaching the child version of her sister.

"Mom told me once"-Lily's voice was soft as she gazed out the window-"that the first life-forms on earth to grow teeth were, technically, going to become the first humans. And Fatas, well, they were probably the first life-forms, right, but they're all spirit. But they can make themselves solid. And some use their teeth to-"

Lily went silent.

"Tickets, misses?" A figure dropped into the seat opposite them and Finn almost stabbed him with the silver dagger.

The Black Scissors smiled. He looked as if he'd just stepped from a neo-western in his black duster and wide-brimmed hat banded with bird skulls. He said, "Good evening, Misses Sullivan. I see you've broken all the rules to achieve your desires, as usual."

Gripping the arms of her seat, Lily straightened. "You."

"You know him . . ." Finn glanced at her sister.

The Black Scissors touched his hat brim. "We're acquainted. Has the Wolf stopped howling?"

"Why don't you go check?" Finn scowled. "And how did you get on this train? Cruithnear told us it's a ghost train between the Ghostlands and the realm of the dead."

"The realm of the dead"-his mouth twisted-"doesn't bother me. I walk the borders. The dead and I have an understanding."

"Finn, don't be rude." Lily Rose tucked her hair behind her ears and leaned slightly forward. "Did you really expect my sister and her gorgeous boyfriend to kill the Wolf? We barely escaped. Why don't you grow a pair and kill him yourself?"

Finn looked from Lily to the Black Scissors. The Black Scissors said lightly, "I couldn't get near him. Believe me, I've tried. I gave your sister and Jack the means to kill him, but I didn't expect them to be assassins."

"Sylvie and Christie could have died," Finn said.

"They could die in the true world, too, Finn Sullivan. Now, they'll be helpful comrades to you and Jack when the time comes."

"Finn," Lily said. "Don't hit him."

"A girl named Hester Kierney found your key. She's dead. You used Moth and turned him into a key-and Thomas Luneht-what did you do to him?"

"I'm sorry about Hester Kierney-that was not my doing. However much that dragonfly key would have helped you, I didn't lure Miss Kierney into the Ghostlands. But someone did . . . someone who knew what that key was and wanted it in the possession of a girl who could only get it to you at the very moment you needed it. As for Moth, he was without memory or any sense of what he was when I found him, shimmering with the remnants of Fata enchantment. He was a void, as if someone had sculpted a persona around nothing. And Thomas . . . well, he's still fighting. He agreed to become an object of power for you . . ."

"So you turned him into a key?"

"To help you, Miss Sullivan. I've done these things to help you."

"You did them to help yourself."

"Miss Sullivan . . . what do you think your chances are against the Wolf when he comes to the true world?"

"Home team advantage." She felt everything go quiet inside of her. "Are you going to be here when the menfolk return? I wouldn't advise it."

The Black Scissors and Lily exchanged a look that send a chill through Finn, as if she'd just discovered a dark secret between them. How well did they know each other?

"Why, exactly, are you here?" Finn spoke softly.

"To make sure you get through this safely." He unfolded one hand and the dragonfly key glimmered on his palm. "And to retrieve Thomas Luneht. You don't need him anymore, but I still do." He rose gracefully. "Before your capricious and prosaic paramour returns, I'll go to another car. Oh, and, Miss Sullivan." He leaned down to whisper, "Don't look at your sister when this train passes through the darkness into the true world."

Finn sucked in a breath and glanced at Lily. Her sister was gazing broodingly out the window. Finn didn't think she'd heard.

The Black Scissors was already striding away, his coat swirling as he opened the rusting door to another car and stepped through.

Lily murmured, "What did that slinky socio just whisper in your ear?"

Finn breathed out. "Lily. Just how do you know the Black-"

The light outside the windows became darkness.

A gut-wrenching pain doubled Finn over, as if the elixir was rebelling inside of her. She reached out and grasped Lily's hand as night swept through the train. Lily's grip was painful, but Finn didn't dare let go, even as she hunched over and retched so violently she slid to her knees. She realized she could no longer see in the dark-the elixir was fading from her, which meant the train was leaving the Ghostlands behind. Closing her eyes and still clutching her sister's hand, she whispered, "Lily, are you still there?"

Her sister didn't answer. Her grip on Finn's hand was still painfully tight, and the blackness around Finn had become suffocating. As the train sped onward in the dark, and the hand clenching hers began to dig nails into her flesh, it became harder to resist looking.

She had to look, to see that Lily was still with her, or all the horror and risk, the death, had been for nothing. Her voice left her in shivers, "Lily . . . you need to answer me. Please. Please say something."

The temperature in the car dropped. A funereal fragrance of lilies drifted through the air and she was convinced that whatever sat there, holding her hand, was only pretending to be her sister and had become a thing now that they had left the Ghostlands. Had she been tricked again? Slowly, she lifted her gaze to what sat there, glimpsed white skin, the curl of a mouth- "Finn." Jack slid from the darkness. He carried a small lantern that glowed with electric light. "We're almost there."

Still holding the cold, clenching hand of whatever sat next to her, Finn whispered, "Jack, is Lily there? Please make sure it's her . . ."

"Finn-"

"Finn?"

Finn heard Lily's voice before the pain churning through her sent her plummeting into the dark.

THE CLATTERING MOTION OF THE TRAIN WOKE FINN. She opened her eyes, winced at the sunlight, and found herself in the seat beside Lily, who slept, her sneakered feet tucked beneath her, her hair pulled away from her face. Opposite, Moth also napped. Finn turned her head and gazed out the window at the snowy landscape dappled with the brilliant light of day. She saw cars and restaurants, power lines and concrete . . .

"Coffee?"

She looked up at Jack and smiled. "Thanks." She accepted the paper cup of coffee, inhaled its fragrance. "We're not on a Fata train anymore, are we?"

"No." He stepped back as a businessman brushed past. Across the aisle, a kid with a nose ring was listening to an iPod. A woman behind them was talking on a red cell phone. "Our phantom train kind of blended with a real one."

"Jack. It's day. We left at midnight-"

"It's eight thirty, Saturday, the morning after. We'll get you home in forty minutes and sneak you back in your room before your dad even wakes up."

She reached out to brush the hair from her sleeping sister's face, reassuring herself once again that Lily was real. She smiled and savored the sunlight on her skin. "That'll have to do. Where's Leander?"

Jack sank into the seat opposite her, next to Moth, and hunched forward. "Unlike me, Leander's still all Jack. He's not here anymore. It's daylight." He smiled ruefully. "It's a good thing Sylph Dragonfly's spell remained with me for all those wounds in the Ghostlands, because my body is a bit confused. If I suddenly blink out of existence, don't be alarmed."

She didn't understand at first. Her eyes widened when she did. "Leander's not here? You mean, he doesn't exist in the day? That can't . . . that's . . ." She frowned. "So, as Jacks, you and Leander, in the day, become . . . nothing?"

"That's right. Finn, Leander will find himself wherever he wished to be before he went away. We've gotten Lily Rose back and we'll deal with what comes afterwards, just as we've dealt with everything before that."

"Together," she whispered fiercely. She didn't want to ask any more about Leander. She'd never really thought of Jack not-existing, even when he'd once vanished in her arms as dawn cascaded into her room.

She sank back in her seat, drank bad coffee, and watched the magic of sunlight touch everything around her, including Jack.

CHAPTER 19.

Their life stood full at blessed noon; I, only I, had passed away: "Tomorrow and today," they cried; I was of yesterday.

-"AT HOME," CHRISTINA ROSSETTI Lily didn't ask about Leander's disappearance. When she woke, she stared around in amazement. As they stepped from the train into the crowded terminal, Finn watched her sister move hesitantly, avoiding pools of sunlight.

"Finn!"

Finn laughed breathlessly when she saw Christie and Sylvie, accompanied by Jane Emory, pushing through the crowds. Her eyes burned with tears as she met them in a big, jumbled hug.

Jane stepped back-and saw Lily. Christie and Sylvie slowly turned from Finn and also stared. Jane whispered, "Is that-"

"I'm Lily." Lily jutted her chin.

"You're just like Finn said." Sylvie was wide-eyed, as if meeting a celebrity. "I'm Sylvie. This is Christie. That's Jane."

As Jane and Lily gazed warily at each other, Jack spoke. "We need to separate. Jane, if you'll take me, Moth, and Lily, Finn can go home with Sylvie and Christopher."

"Like hell-" Lily began.

"You can't go home," Jack gently told her. "It's too dangerous. We need to keep you away from the obvious places."

"It won't be for long." Finn glanced at Jane. "How did you know we were coming here?"

"The Black Scissors told me." Jane was watching Lily. "I was leaving Lulu's Emporium after we got that damn key unhexed and Rowan had gone through to the Ghostlands, when the Black Scissors appeared and told me you'd be here today, that he was going to meet you on the train. He's damn unnerving-where is he?"

Jack leveled one of those stern looks on Finn that always made her feel like young King Arthur being scolded by Merlin. Finn shrugged. "The Black Scissors was just checking up on us. I don't know where he is."

Moth tilted his head back in annoyance. Jack frowned at Lily as if he knew she had secrets. Sylvie spoke up: "Where's Leander?"

As Jack explained, Lily moved to Finn and embraced her with willowy strength. Finn gripped her older sister, her best friend, as if letting go would cause her to evaporate. "You were always the brave one," Lily whispered. Then she stepped back and addressed Jack and Moth. "Let's go, boys."

"You girls might need these." Jane handed a pair of sunglasses to Finn, one to Lily.

"Perfect." Lily put them on against the sun she hadn't seen for a year. She walked into a pool of light and spun.

Jane turned to Jack. "Where, exactly, am I taking you, Jack?"