Faye tried to move her arms. Her fingers had gone numb where the ties were cutting into her wrists. She felt faint, displaced. It was impossible to know how long it had been since she and Finn had been tied up. She was cold – the heat of the desert didn’t reach them here, holed up inside the mountain, surrounded by hard white tiles.

 

Faye had been trying to get Lucas to wake up for hours now, shouting at him endlessly. He moaned every now and then, and once or twice he’d even opened his eyes, but she couldn’t tell if he could actually see anything, or if he even knew what was happening. She didn’t know what Koskay had been doing to him, but it was obvious that he hadn’t just had him tied up all this time. Lucas looked pale and gaunt, as if an important part of him had drained away somewhere, leaving him somehow less than a whole person. The thought made her feel sick. Was Koskay doing the same thing he’d done to those men, out in the town? Was he slowly turning Lucas into one of his zombies?

 

Faye felt tears prick at her eyes. She was exhausted, but she couldn’t sleep. ‘Lucas,’ she called for the thousandth time. Her voice was fading, hoarse in the cold room. ‘Lucas, can you hear me? Wake up! Lucas!’

 

She saw Finn move stiffly, waking from the brief slumber he’d fallen into. He looked pale too, but at least he seemed better than when he’d been outside in the silver mine. The room was obviously shielding him from the worst effects.

 

‘Has he woken up?’ Finn asked, trying to loosen the stiffness in his shoulders.

 

Faye shook her head in despair. ‘No. I think he’s getting weaker, Finn. And there’s nothing we can do!’ She felt the tears she had been trying to hold back spill down her face. Giving into the misery, she sobbed, feeling Finn shuffle along as close to her as he could.

 

‘I don’t understand what they’re doing to him,’ Finn said. ‘I mean, he looks weaker – but why?’

 

‘I don’t know, but I think this is where those creatures come from – those things that attacked us. The zombies.’

 

‘What do you mean?’

 

Faye sighed. ‘I’ve been thinking about it. I’m sure they’re people. I think they’re the same as the men we saw going into the mine. They’re just . . . worse. Whatever Koskay’s doing to them, the longer he does it for, the more like those creatures they get.’ She looked up at Lucas, her eyes filling with tears again. ‘And Lucas is right at the beginning. He’s . . . he’s going to get worse and worse. He’s going to turn into one of those . . . one of those things.’

 

Finn was silent for a moment. ‘How did you know?’ he asked. ‘You were so sure that Lucas had been taken, even right at the beginning. How did you know?’

 

Faye shook her head, shutting her eyes and pulling her knees up to her chin, feeling the ropes bite into her ankles. ‘I don’t know. I didn’t know. It was just . . . a feeling. Like something was missing.’ She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. ‘I think it was because of the dream.’

 

‘What dream?’

 

‘I tried to tell you about it. For weeks I’ve been having this dream about a wolf. It chases me, and chases me – like it’s never going to give up – until something happens.’ Faye frowned, aware that she wasn’t really making sense. She didn’t know how to explain it, she just knew what she felt. ‘And then Lucas vanished. I knew he wouldn’t do that. You think he’s selfish, but he’s not. He wouldn’t just go without telling us. He wouldn’t.’

 

‘I’m sorry,’ Finn said, after another silence. His voice broke. ‘Faye, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If I had listened to you when Lucas first went missing . . . But I just thought . . . I just thought he’d taken off on his bike somewhere.’

 

Faye stared at him. ‘I told you he hadn’t. I told you something was wrong. But you wouldn’t listen to me. I’m your girlfriend, and you just wouldn’t listen to me.’

 

‘I know. I was pig-headed and stupid. I let my jealousy get in the way.’

 

Faye tried to take a deep breath to steady herself, but it just turned into another sob. ‘I don’t want to be with someone who can’t trust me,’ she whispered – and saw Finn go very still at her words. ‘And I don’t want to stop being friends with someone because you don’t like them. That’s just not fair.’

 

‘No,’ Finn agreed, and she could hear the desperation in his voice. ‘You’re right. It’s my problem, not yours. Maybe I just need to get to know Lucas better . . .’

 

Faye laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. ‘It looks like you’ve missed your chance there, doesn’t it? Look at him! He’s dying, Finn.’

 

‘Don’t say that. We’ll get out of here. We’ll all get out of here. I promise.’

 

‘How can you say that? Look where we are! And no one knows we’re here. There’s no one to help us.’

 

‘There’s the rest of the pack,’ Finn pointed out. ‘When they can’t find us, they’ll realize something’s wrong.’ He paused, and Faye glanced at him. His eyes were fixed on Lucas, the pain in them clear to see. ‘I shouldn’t have stayed,’ he murmured, almost to himself. ‘I shouldn’t have stayed in Winter Mill. I should have led the men better, and taken them back on the road. We weren’t made to stay in one place. Who am I trying to fool? I’m never going to have a normal life. I’m never going to—’

 

There was a sound behind them, and the heavy door grated open. Koskay appeared in the doorway; he was wearing a smart, tailored grey suit. His handsome, tanned face was smiling. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his lips with it before coming towards them.

 

‘Ahh,’ he said softly. ‘My children, my children. So sad, are we not? Such a pity, but it can’t be helped.’

 

‘Who are you? What do you want with us?’ Faye asked defiantly, staring up at the Russian. ‘And what have you done to Lucas?’

 

Koskay looked over his shoulder at the boy in the chair, and shrugged. ‘Well, that is a long story. I can tell you if you want, but it will take a while. Are you sure you are sitting comfortably?’ He chuckled at his own joke.

 

‘I’m going to get you, Koskay,’ Finn growled, straining against his bonds. ‘Just you wait and see.’

 

The man looked down at Finn and grinned widely. ‘Ah, but it seems that at the moment I have you, do I not? Two brothers, both as useful as each other. Marvellous! I could not have hoped for better.’

 

Faye and Finn looked at each other, shocked. How could the Russian know that Finn and Lucas were brothers? Unless . . .

 

‘This room is bugged,’ Finn spat. ‘Isn’t it?’

 

The Russian laughed again. ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures, don’t you think?’

 

Faye watched, her heart pounding, as Koskay turned towards the open door and snapped his fingers. One of the creatures came in with a chair, placing it in front of Faye and Finn. The Russian sat down on it and waved the creature away. Its bony feet clattered against the tiles.

 

‘Such a pity, isn’t it?’ Koskay said conversationally. ‘A side-effect, you see.’

 

‘A side-effect of what?’ Faye asked.

 

He turned to her and smiled, showing all his white teeth. ‘The process. They are loyal, you understand. Very, very loyal. They give me their lives, and I . . . take what I need.’

 

‘They’re human,’ Faye said, horrified to find her fears confirmed.

 

Koskay laughed. ‘Or they were once, anyway. Where else would they have come from – the underworld?’

 

Faye felt the blood draining from her face. ‘What . . . what do you know about the underworld?’

 

The Russian smiled. ‘Oh, my clever little chick, did you really think you and your friends were the only ones who know what walks this earth when we aren’t looking? I have known for years, for decades. Supernaturals – immortals! Isn’t it wonderful? All that immense, untapped . . . life.’

 

Faye felt sick. She couldn’t believe it was possible, but suddenly everything seemed much, much worse. If this madman was playing with the underworld – the same underworld that Mercy had traded the lives of humans into for centuries . . . Was that why he had taken Lucas? Was this some sort of revenge for Mercy’s years of pillaging the lives of others?

 

‘What are you doing?’ Finn asked, his voice cold and steady. He nodded towards Lucas. ‘What’s all this for?’

 

Koskay looked surprised at the question, as if it was so obvious that Finn shouldn’t even need to ask.

 

‘I want to live for ever, of course,’ he said. ‘And I want all that amazing, wonderful power. I want to control everything, supernatural or not, in this world . . . And I know exactly how to do it.’