"You have your mother's eyes," he said.

Sophia walked over to her father and placed her hand in his. He looked down at her, his eyes red.

"She was so beautiful," Sophia said.

"As are you, my dear. Now run along so I can finish my notes. If you're feeling up to it, perhaps we'll take a stroll when I finish."

Sophia started toward the door, but Von Strife called her back. "I almost forgot," he said. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out a package wrapped with a golden bow.

"Is that for me?" she asked, her blue eyes wide with excitement.

"As a matter of fact, it is," Von Strife said.

He smiled as Sophia carefully untied the bow. Inside was a wooden box with brass accents and a cherry finish. She looked to her father, who nodded. Then she unhooked the latch and opened the lid. A soft melody started to play as a porcelain ballerina inside the box spun in pirouettes.

"It's amazing," Sophia said.

"I thought you might enjoy it. Now run along, and I'll be with you shortly."

Sophia took her music box and left the room. Von Strife stared at the door long after his daughter was gone. Then he sat down at his desk, slumped over with his head in his hand as he wrote in his medical journal.

"The infusion of changeling blood into the test subject was successful; however, her conversion process from human to faerie continues to accelerate exponentially," he muttered as he wrote. "All tests to stunt the transformation have failed. If I am unable to stabilize her soon, the subject will lose every shred of her humanity within a month."

"Hold on," Raven said. "I'm going to flash forward."

The image went out of focus before it resumed. Von Strife was now standing in front of an iron door that was bolted shut. "Sophia, dear," he said, "I promise I will fix this."

There was a crash on the other side. Then the wailing began. "Father... please. Help me!" Sophia managed amid the snarling.

Von Strife stood with his back against the door. He held the music box in his hands, and the melody played as Sophia battered the door from the other side. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

The scene shifted once more.

Von Strife was standing in an observatory with a glass ceiling as flashes of lightning tore through the sky. Medical clockworks moved about the room, checking the conduits and readying the condensing rods.

Sophia lay on a gurney, unconscious. Her body was covered in soft green fur that looked like moss. Long feather-like tufts swept over her forehead. It was obvious why Von Strife had to sedate her. Her mouth was a beak, talons had replaced Sophia's feet, and her hands ended in sharp nails that looked like they could cut through rock.

At the end of the gurney, near her feet, stood an iron ring filled with shimmering light. Inside the base, gears turned as the machine hummed.

"I hope you can forgive me, but this is the only way," Von Strife said through trembling lips. "I'll come for you as soon as I can."

He looked over to a table where Sophia's music box sat open as the melody played. Von Strife closed his eyes before breathing deeply. Then he gave the order.

A pair of clockworks pulled on chains to raise lightning catchers that jutted into the angry sky outside. Another clockwork connected the wires from the lightning catchers to the machine at the base of the iron ring. Lightning flashed before shooting down the copper wires. It wound around the coils. The light inside the ring flared before it swirled into a vortex.

Von Strife looked down to realize he was clutching his daughter's hand. Her claws cut into his skin, but he didn't care. Sophia's body began to move toward the ring. Her feet were the first to pass through. Then, as the machine swallowed the rest of her body, she started convulsing.

"What have I done?" Von Strife wailed. He tightened his grip, trying to hold on, but the machine wouldn't let go. His hand slipped, and she was lost. He turned to stare at the porcelain ballerina as it twirled inside Sophia's music box.

Raven removed her hands from the journal, and the girls found themselves back in the dorm room.

"What just happened?" Natalia asked.

"As far as I can tell," Raven said, "Von Strife sent his daughter into the Shadowlands."

"That doesn't make sense," Natalia said. "Von Strife was going to break into the Shadowlands to bring her back. Why would he send her there?"

A SURPRISE GUEST.

The dark sky opened, releasing heavy rainfall over the entire campus. Harley and Max had forgotten their umbrellas, so they decided to cut through the school on their way to the subway depot. Sprig had morphed into a white tiger again. She was tormenting the nervous students, who gave her a wide berth.

"What do you suppose they're up to?" Max asked now that the girls were safely out of earshot.

"I doubt they're talking about you, if that's what you mean."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then why were you acting so weird in class?" Harley said.

"Was I that obvious?"

"You weren't exactly smooth."

"It's not what you think."

"Whatever you say."

Max paused as he looked to make sure nobody was listening. "It's just that... w-w-well..."

"When did you get a stuttering problem?"

"Knock it off," Max said as a grin spread across Harley's lips. "Do you think Brooke is mad at me?"

"Why would she be?"

"That's what I'm wondering," Max said. "I mean, she hasn't said a word to me in, I don't know, months. Did I do something wrong?"

"Don't ask me."

Max stopped at the glass door that opened out onto the wet lawn. He felt Sprig lick his hand as a streak of lightning shot across the sky. It didn't look like the rain was going to let up. "If we want to catch the next train to Avalon, we should get going."

"Can you turn into an umbrella?" Harley asked Sprig. She growled her disapproval as Harley pushed the door open and walked out into the storm.

Max followed, grasping the neck of his jacket to keep the water from seeping in. Sprig decided to morph into a mallard. Water beaded on her feathers as she flew across the lawn and into the entryway of the subway depot.

By the time the boys reached her, they looked like they had jumped into a shower with their clothes on. Harley peeled off his sweatshirt and wrung it out as Max shook some of the water from his hair. Then Sprig jumped into his arms, nestling in for warmth as Max stroked the back of her neck.

"I guess it wouldn't bug me if she wasn't hanging out with Natalia all the time," Max said as they went down the escalator.

"Are we talking about Brooke again?" Harley asked.

"She's not talking to me. Neither is Ernie. And when was the last time Natalia blew us off?"

"I don't know."

"Never."

"So what's your point?"

"I don't know.... It kind of feels like the Grey Griffins are falling apart."

"Why?" Harley said. "Because Ernie's acting like a twit and the girls are hanging out together?"

"So you don't think-"

"No, I don't," Harley interrupted.

The boys rode in relative silence as the gears beneath the escalator churned. Sprig snored in Max's arms.

"Hey, is that Logan?" Harley asked, pointing to a man leaning against a brick pillar below.

"What's he doing here?"

"He's your bodyguard, not mine," Harley said.

"Good afternoon, fellas," Logan said as the boys stepped off the escalator.

"Are we in trouble or something?" Max asked, deciding to get to the point.

"What makes you say that?"

"You've never met us here before."

"I was thinking about taking you blokes for a bit of a diversion, but if you don't have the time..."

"We were just going to go to the Spider's Web," Max said, "but I guess we could hang out with you instead."

Harley shrugged.

"Who could pass up enthusiasm like that?" Logan said. He put one hand on Max's shoulder and another on Harley's.

"Can Sprig come?" Max asked.

Logan looked down at the faerie in Max's arms. "It doesn't bother me, but I don't think she'll like it. There'll be iron, and lots of it."

"Did you hear that?" Max asked Sprig.

"Yes, we heard," Sprig said. Like most faeries, spriggans were allergic to iron. She didn't bother to open her eyes.

"So what do you want to do?"

Sprig jumped out of his arms. Then, without a word, she turned back into a white tiger before prowling up the escalator and onto the front lawn.

The ground started to rumble as a stream of light flared out from the tunnel in the distance. Moments later the Zephyr appeared. Its brakes echoed against the brick walls long after it came to a stop.

"Where are we headed?" Max asked as the boys followed Logan into one of the cars.

"If I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?"

A STRANGE THEORY.

The Zephyr pulled into the Farringdon Street station. Logan led the boys out the door and up the steps into the bustling heart of New Victoria. "Stay close," he said as they wound through foggy streets filled with sounds of clanging steel, whirring motors, and peddlers selling everything from fresh fish to miracle cures.

"Are we going to Monti's lab?" Max asked as they crossed over to Walpole Road.

"It's hard to slip one past you," Logan said.

Monti's lab was in the warehouse district, an older part of the city that sometimes got dangerous after nightfall. The massive lab was made of brick, steel girders, and glass. Clouds of steam poured out of Monti's chimneys as Max, Harley, and Logan walked to the loading dock in the back.

Logan knocked on the door. Moments later, a horizontal slat snapped open to reveal a set of amber eyes that glowed in the murk. "So good of you to come by, sir," a mechanical voice said.

"I brought the munchkins," Logan said.

"The master will be pleased."

The slat shut. It was followed by the sound of bolts being unlocked from the inside. The door swung open to reveal a clockwork that would have almost looked human if it weren't wrapped in brass casing.

"This way, if you please," it said before shuffling across the floor of a room that could have fit three gymnasiums side by side.

An entire wall was covered with a network of pipes, gauges, and wheels. There were hoists and welding machines, cranes, and carts rolling over tracks. Overhead, catwalks crisscrossed beneath a ceiling that was constructed of interlocking steel girders filled with giant panes of glass. They were beaded with raindrops, but Max could still see the silhouettes of zeppelins flying lazily through the dark sky.

A hacking sound bellowed above the noise.

"What was that?" Max asked.

"Monti," Harley said.

As they followed the clockwork around a partition, they found Monti coughing. The clockwork fetched a bottle of water and handed it to Monti, who took a few sips and closed his eyes.

"You still haven't gone to the doctor, have you?" Harley asked.

"I thought I'd be better by now," Monti said. He was wearing a white lab coat covered by a leather apron, with thick boots, his horn-rimmed glasses, and a pair of brass goggles pushed up over his thinning hair.

"You're a bit off-color," Logan said.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, pale as a ghost."