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blood dribbled from her lips when she spoke.
    You denied me my war, Weir. The march on the daylight world that my army will have, at the end of all things. You think you’ve saved your pathetic little slice of the cosmos, but you’vemerely granted it a stay of execution.
    Cold took over Pete’s body inch by inch—not the chill of outside air, but the final cold of death, as her body shut down and her heart ceased to beat. She could see her breath when she whispered, “You might have Jack, but you’ll never have me. You’ll never have the end of my world that you want. Not while I’m alive.”
    The Morrigan snarled. “Then perhapswe should do something about that, since you’re Hell-bent on being the heroine of this story.”
    She reached for Pete, bloody talons wrapping around her throat, searing Pete with her cold touch, talons ripping through her skin, into her jugular vein. Pete felt hot blood gush forth, and the last thought she had was that she wouldn’t even have time to scream, wouldn’t have time to tell Lily one lasttime that she loved her …
    She woke up with a thrash and a scream, and Jack turned to stare at her, taking off his padded headphones and narrowing his eyes. From his MP3 player, Pete heard the strains of the Runaways.
    “Sorry,” she said. Her heart thudded so violently that her breastbone ached. “Bad dream.”
    Jack grimaced. “That sounded like a little more than a nightmare.”
    People were staring,and Pete shrank back into her seat, looking out again at the low gray land passing all around them.
    “You really can’t tell me anything else about these Prometheus Club bastards?” she asked. Jack huffed at her abrupt change of subject, but there was no way in any Hell that Pete was telling him what she’d seen.
    The Morrigan could try to scare her, but she could only reach Pete in her dreams. Inthe daylight world, at least for now, she was powerless.
    Jack shifted in his seat, and Pete caught sight of the tattoos along his wrist. She wondered just how long the Morrigan would remain in her dreams.
    She realized she was glad for the more pressing problem of the geas. The Morrigan able to reach into the larger world via Jack was a horror that didn’t bear contemplation.
    “I’m not holdingout on you, if that’s what you mean to say,” Jack said. “Nobody knows about the club except the members of the club, and nobody knows the members.” He shoved his MP3 player back into his bag and leaned his head back against the seat, rubbing his forehead.
    “ Supposedly, ” he said, “they’re a sort of ruling council of the UK, all the big muckety-mucks from this side of the Black and the other gatheringtogether to rule from the shadows, punish the little people who get out of line, all sorts of fun activities for the rich and wanky.” He played with the cord of his headphones. “I could tell you the exact weight and measure of the load of bollocks I think that is, but I bet you can guess.”
    It sounded like a load to Pete, too. Nobody could hope to control the Black. Nobody could even hope to controlthe mages and other magic-workers of the UK, never mind the demons, Fae, and other, less visible creatures skulking around the Black.
    If the Prometheus Club thought they were going to control her, they were in for a rude surprise.

 
    5.
    The train ride to Manchester was only a bit over two hours, but when Pete stepped off the carriage she felt as if she’d stepped onto the surface of another planet. The ever-present tide of the Black was gone, replaced by something that felt more akin to a brick wall, something you could scrape the back of your knuckles against and leave skin behind.
    Jack massaged the spot between his eyes.“Fucking hate this place,” he grumbled.
    Pete hefted her bag and joined the tide of people heading for the taxis and public transport. Jack lagged a few steps behind, squinting as if he’d just stepped into bright sun from total darkness. “I don’t think