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upon me, restraining me as if I’m on an operating table.
    Am I on an operating table? What in God’s name do they want?
    What is that snapping sound? That sensation in myshoulder? I feel as if my flesh is being pulled, pushed,
torn,
even. It doesn’t hurt, though.
Am I too cold? Or in shock?
    All I see for certain are wicked, broken, jagged teeth.
    I tell myself not to, but I can’t help it: I scream. “Celia!” I wail, realizing this will probably be the last thing I’ll
     ever say. “I love you!”
    They’ve pinned me down. They’re biting me.
They’re
eating
me, aren’t they?
    But then I hear a new noise through the fog.
Can it be?
    A
bark!
    “Feffer!” I shout. And the biting stops. Or, at least, it pauses. Do the Lost Ones sense the dog? Another piece of fresh meat
     for them?
    I look at the gaping wraith faces as they cast glowing yellow eyes around for the source of the noise. One of them starts
     moaning again. I look into its shadow-planed face and I recognize who it is. I’m in shock.
    Am I hallucinating, or is it the traitor of all traitors
—Tall Jonathan?
    Jonathan was a Freelander who’d betrayed one of our most important missions. Wisty almost died because of him. For a moment,
     it makes me almost happy to see him as a creature of ravenous evil.
    “Jonathan?” I say, but then he’s retreated into the mist. There’s a frenzy of furious moaning and snarling to my left. Either
     Feffer’s on the attack or the poor dog is making her last stand. The next thing I know, a large brown shape is tugging at
     my tattered shirt.
    “Feff!” I gasp as Jonathan resurfaces and lunges toward me again, along with a half dozen other horrifying shadow creatures
     who seem to be drooling.
    I stagger after the fearless dog, and though I’ve never been more glad to be alive, I almost hesitate as Feffer plunges back
     through the portal.
    Where is Celia?

Chapter 16

    Whit
    IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN AWAKENED by a mysterious crash in the middle of the night, you know the sensation of adrenaline that was pumping through
     me the second I became conscious. My body’s horsepower was revving at about four hundred. I’m talking luxury sports car, here.
    I’m not sure, but I guess that’s how Janine ended up on the floor next to me, flat on her back.
    Apparently, she’d been putting bandages and wraps on my arm, and the sensation of the tight grip freaked me out.
Reaction?
I involuntarily flipped and pinned her to the floor.
    Obviously Feffer must have saved me in the Shadowland, but that’s the last thing I remembered. Until right about now.
    “Oh God,” I say. “Sorry, Janine. I thought you were a Lost One. That I was still in the Shadowland. Are you okay?”
    “What, you think I can’t handle a takedown? I’m fine.” Janine props herself up on her hands. “You, on the other hand, are
     not.”
    I glance at my arm. “This? It’ll heal.”
    “Your arm might, sure. But…” Janine’s brow furrows. “There are other parts of you that are seriously hurt. Damaged, maybe
     beyond repair. Your
heart,
Whit.”
    Totaled, I think. Decimated, even. I don’t argue with her on that score.
    She goes back to her Nurse Janine routine with the wraps. “Everyone knows it’s a suicide mission to go to the Shadowland alone—at
     least not without a
lot
of experience or a trick to find your way back. Wisty and I are pretty upset with you. Do you know how much your sister loves
     you?”
    “I’m fine.” This sounds hollow, even to me.
    “Going on a suicide mission is
not
fine. We need you.
I
need you. Does that… mean
anything
to you?”
    “It does. I swear it does, Janine. I’m sorry I’ve been so…” The word Celia had used escapes me now.
    “Self-absorbed?” Janine finally smiles. “That’s okay. Happens to the best of us, I guess.”
    “Celia told me to think about the bigger picture. But sometimes I can’t think of anything else… but her.” I know it’s not
     a great idea to say this in