“Are we ready?” he asked. When no one answered, Sandow forged ahead, murmuring
first in English, then in Spanish, then in a whispery language that Alex recognized as Dutch. Was that Portuguese next? Mandarin followed. She realized he was speaking the languages that Darlington knew.
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or if she really did hear the patter of paws, panting. A hound-dog casting. She thought of the hounds of Lethe, the surprisingly beautiful jackals Darlington had set on her that first day at Il Bastone. I forgive you, she thought. Just come home.
She heard a sudden howl and then the very distant sound of barking.
The candles flared, their flames gone vibrant green.
“We’ve found him!” cried Sandow in a trembling voice. He sounded almost frightened.
“Activate the deed!”
Amelia touched a candle to the papers lying at the center of the circle. Green light kindled and rose around the piles. She tossed something into the flame and it ignited in bright sparks like a firework.
Iron, Alex realized. She’d seen an experiment just like that in a science class once.
Words seemed to hover in the green flame over the document as the iron filings
sparked.
WITNESSETH
THAT THE
SAID GRANTOR
FOR GOOD AND VALUABLE
CONSIDERATION
FOR GOOD
FOR GOOD
The words curled in on themselves, rising in the fire and vanishing like smoke.
The candle flames shot even higher, then sputtered. The fire covering the deed banked
abruptly. They were left in darkness.
And then Black Elm came alive. All at once, the sconces on the walls flared to brightness, music blared from the speakers in the corner, and the halls echoed with the sound of a late-night newscast as somewhere in the house a television came on.
“Who the hell left all the lights on?” said an old man standing outside the circle. He was frighteningly thin, his hair a wisp on his head, his bathrobe hanging open to reveal an
emaciated chest and shriveled genitals. A cigarette hung from his mouth.
He wasn’t sharp and clear the way Grays usually were to Alex; he looked … well, gray.
As if she were viewing him through layers of milky chiffon. The Veil.
She knew she was looking at Daniel Tabor Arlington III. A moment later he was gone.
“It’s working!” shouted Josh.
“Use the bells,” cried Amelia. “Call him home!”
Alex lifted the silver bell at her feet and saw the others do the same. They rang the bells, the sweet sound rolling over the circle, over the din of the music and the chaos of
the house.
The windows blew open. Alex heard a squeal of tires and a loud crash from somewhere
below. Around her, she saw people dancing; a young man with a heavy mustache who distinctly resembled Darlington floated past, dressed in a suit that looked like it belonged
in a museum.
“Stop!” shouted Sandow. “Something’s wrong! Stop the ringing!”
Alex seized the clapper of her bell, trying to silence it, and saw the others do the same.
But the bells did not stop ringing. She could feel her bell still vibrating in her hand as if struck, hear the peals growing louder.
Alex’s cheeks felt flushed. The room had been icy moments before, but now she was
sweating in her clothes. The stink of sulfur filled the air. She heard a groan that seemed to rumble through the floor—a deep bass rattle. She remembered the crocodiles calling to
each other from the banks of the river in the borderlands. Whatever was out there, whatever had entered the room, was bigger. Much, much bigger. It sounded hungry.
The bells were screaming. They sounded like an angry crowd, a mob about to do
violence. Alex could feel the vibrations making her palms buzz.
Boom. The building shook.
Boom. Amelia lost her footing, clutched at Zelinski to keep her balance, the bell tumbling from her hands, still ringing and ringing.
Boom. The same sound Alex had heard that night at the prognostication, the sound of
something trying to break through the circle, to break through to their world. That night the Grays in the operating theater had pierced the Veil, splintered the railing. She’d thought they were trying to destroy the protection of the circle, but what if they were trying to get inside it? What if they were afraid of whatever was coming? That low rumbling groan shook the room again. It sounded like the jaws of something ancient creaking open.