“But while youre here, youre of neither one world nor the other. Isnt that right?” There was something about the way they touched each other, Jordan thought. As if they would wither away without that small contact. “You can live as you choose to live, but within limitations. Within the boundaries of this dimension. Even so, youre not of it. You might feel the heat, but you dont burn. You might sleep at night, but when you wake in the morning, you havent aged. The hours havent changed you. Millions of hours cant.”

“And do you see that kind of… immortality,”Pitte inquired, “as a gift?”

“No, I dont.” Jordans glance shifted toPittes face and held. “I see it as a curse. A punishment, certainly, when youre locked out of your own world and spend those millions of hours here.”

Pittesexpression didnt change, but his eyes seemed to deepen, to heat. “Then you have excellent sight.”

“I see something else clearly enough. The penalty, if Dana fails to find the key, is a year of her life. A year of Malorys andZoes as well. From your standpoint thats nothing. But its a different matter when youre human and your life is already finite.”

“Ah.”Pitte draped an arm over the mantel. “So, have you come to renegotiate our contract?”

Before Dana could speak, tell Jordan to mind his own business, he shot her a look. “No, because Danas going to find the key, so it wont be an issue.”

“You have confidence in your woman,” Rowena said.

“Im not his woman,” Dana said quickly. “Has Kane watched us, too? From the beginning of our lives?”

“I cant say,” Rowena answered, then waved an impatient hand at Danas dubious expression. “I cant. There are, as Jordan said, certain boundaries we cant cross. Something has changed—we know this because he was able to draw both Malory and Flynn into dreams and to cause Flynn harm. He wasnt able, or perhaps didnt choose, to do so before.”

“Tell them what he did to you.” It wasnt phrased as a request, and this time Danas anger was sparked. But before she could snap at Jordan, Rowena took her arm.

“Kane? What happened?”

She told them, and found that this time her voice remained steady throughout the telling. More distance, she thought, less fear.

At least there was less until she saw a flicker of fear cross Rowenas face.

She didnt care to think what it took to frighten a god.

“There wasnt any real threat, right?” Her skin was prickling, icy little ants rushing down her back. “I mean, I couldnt have drowned when I jumped into the sea, because the sea didnt actually exist.”

“But it did,”Pitte corrected. There was a grim chill to his face. A soldiers face, Dana thought, as he watched the battle from a rise and waited for the time to draw his sword.

And she was the one down in the field, she realized, waging bloody war.

“It was conjured first by your fantasy, then by your fear. That doesnt make it less than real.”

“That just doesnt make sense,” she insisted. “When he had Malory in that fantasy, when she was painting, we could see her. We all saw her, just standing there in that attic.”

“Her body, perhaps part of her consciousness—she has a strong mind—remained. The rest…” Rowena drew a breath. “The rest of what she was had traveled to the other side. And if harm had come to her. To her body,” Rowena explained, holding out one hand. “To what you can call her essence.” Then the other. “On either side, the harm would be to all of her.”

“If she cut her hand in one existence,” Jordan said, “it would bleed in the other.”

“He could prevent it.” Obviously troubled, Rowena rose to pour more wine. “If, for instance, I wished to give you a gift, a harmless fantasy, I might send you into dreams, and watch over you to keep you from harm. But what Kane does is not harmless. He does it to tempt, and to terrorize.”

“Why didnt he just shove my head under the bathwater while I was out of it?”

“There are still limits. To maintain the illusion, he cant touch your corporeal body. And as it is your mind that forms the texture of the illusion, neither can he force you to harm yourself. Lie, yes. Deceive and frighten, even persuade, but he cant make you do anything against your will.”

“Thats how she broke back through.” It was the answer that Jordan had needed confirmed. “First, by choosing to see it as a trick, she changed the texture, as you said, of the world. Instead of paradise, nightmare.”

“Her knowledge and fear, and Kanes anger, yes,”Pitte agreed. “The fruit you dropped,” he said to Dana. “Your mind saw it then as rotten in the center. This was not your paradise but your prison.”

“And when she dived into the sea rather than let him take what she was, rather than accept the fantasy or the nightmare, she broke through both,” Jordan concluded. “So her weapon against him is staying true to herself, whatever he throws at her.”

“Simply put,”Pitte agreed.

“Too simply.” Rowena shook her head. “Hes wily and seductive. You must never underestimate him.”

“Hes already underestimated her. Hasnt he, Stretch?”

“I can handle myself.” His easy confidence went a long way toward quieting her nerves. “Whats to stop him from hitting onZoe , screwing with her while were focused on him screwing with me?”

“She is not yet an issue for him. But precautions can be taken,” Rowena mused, tapping a finger on the rim of her glass. “She can be protected, to an extent, until her time begins.”

“If it begins,”Pitte corrected.

“Hes pessimistic by nature,” Rowena smiled. “I have more faith.” She walked back to the sofa, sat on the arm with the fluid grace some women are born with. Reaching down, she took Danas face in her hands.

“You know the truth when you hear it. You may turn your ear from it, close your mind to it. As my man is pessimistic, you are stubborn by nature.”

“Got that in one,” Jordan muttered.

“But when you choose to hear it, the truth rings clear for you. This is your gift. He cant deceive you unless you allow it. When you accept what you already know youll have the rest.”

“You wouldnt like to be a little more specific?”

A smile touched the corners of Rowenas mouth. “You have enough to think of for now.”

* * *

LATER, when they were alone, Rowena curled on the sofa besidePitte , rested her head on his shoulder and watched the fire. In the flames she studied Dana, her hands competent on the steering wheel as she drove through the night toward the quiet valley below the Peak.

She admired competence, in gods and mortals.

“She worries him,” she said quietly.

Pittewatched the fire, and the images in it as well. “Whom does she worry? The soul-stealer or the story-spinner?”

Absently, for comfort, Rowena rubbed her cheek againstPittes shoulder. “Both, certainly. And both have hurt her, though only one with intent. But a lovers blade slices deeper than any enemys. She worries Kane,” she said, “but the man is worried for her.”

“They have heat.”Pitte turned his head to brush his lips over Rowenas hair. “He should take her to bed and let the heat seal old wounds.”

“So like a male, to think bedding is always the answer.”

“Its a good one.”Pitte gave her a little shove, and when she fell, it was onto the big bed they shared.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. Her silver dress had melted away so that she wore only her own skin. Such things, she knew, were one of his more playful, and interesting, habits.

“Heat isnt enough.” She spread her arms, and dozens of candles flared into flame. “Its warmth, my love, my only love, that heals the wounded heart.”

With her arms still open wide, she sat up and welcomed him to her.

* * *

DANA had hardly gotten back in the door—and kept Jordan out—had barely settled down with Othello again and cleared her mind enough to focus on the task at hand, when there was another knock.

Figuring Jordan had come back with some new ploy to wheedle his way in, she ignored it.

She was, by Jesus, going to spend two hours working on this book angle, and then she was going to think about the drive to the Peak, what had been said there. What hadnt been said on the drive home.

If she had to think about Jordan, she sure as hell wasnt going to do it when he was around.

Hed sniff it out of her head like a bloodhound. There was another knock, more insistent this time. She merely bared her teeth and kept scanning the play.

But the barking got her attention.

Realizing that she would get nowhere until the door was answered, she got up and opened it. “What the hell are you doing here? Both of you.” She scowled at Flynn, then leaned down to rub Moes floppy ears and make kissing noises. “Did Malory kick you out? Poor baby.” Her sympathetic tone turned icy as she straightened and peered at her brother. “Youre not sleeping here.”

“Dont plan to.”

“Then whats in the bag?”

“Stuff.” He squeezed inside, around his dog and his sister. “I hear you had a rough one last night.”

“It was an experience, and Im not in the mood to rehash it. Its after ten. Im working, then Im sleeping.”

With, she thought, every light in the apartment burning, just as she had the night before.

“Fine. Heres his stuff.”

“Whose stuff?”

“Moes. Ill haul over the big-ass bag of dog food tomorrow, but theres enough in there for his breakfast.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” She looked in the bag hed shoved into her arms and saw a mangled tennis ball, a tattered rope, a box of dog biscuits on top of about five pounds of dry dog food.

“What the hell is this?”

“His stuff,” Flynn repeated cheerfully, and grunted when Moe leaped up to plant his paws on his shoulders. “Moes your new temporary roommate. Well,gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

“Oh, no, you dont.” She tossed the bag on a chair, beat him to the door by a step, and threw herself against it. “Youre not walking out that door without this dog.”

He gave her a smile that was both mildly quizzical and wholly innocent. “You just said I couldnt sleep here.”

“You cant. Neither can he.” “Now look, youve hurt his feelings.” He looked sorrowfully at Moe, who was trying to nose his way into the bag. “Its all right, big guy. She didnt mean it.”

“Give me a break.”

“You dont know what dogs understand. Scientific tests are inconclusive.” He gave Dana a brotherly pat on the cheek. “So anyway, Moes going to stay for a couple weeks. Play guard dog.”

“Guard dog?” She noted that Moe was now chewing on the bag. “Give me a serious break.”

Obviously not finding the brown paper to his taste, Moe wandered off to sniff for crumbs, and Flynn sat down, stretched out his legs. Hed reconsidered his strategy and decided that this tack was foolproof with Dana. “Okay. Ill stay and be guard dog since you have no faith in Moe. Lets flip a coin for the bed.”

“Im the only one sleeping in my bed, and I have less faith in you than I do in that big mutt, who is currently chasing his own tail. Moe! Cut that out before you wreck my place.”

She considered just tearing out her own hair when Moe bashed against a table in his desperate attempt to latch teeth onto tail, and sent books thudding down on his head.

He gave a startled bark and scrambled toward Flynn for protection.

“Go away, Flynn, and take your klutzy dog with you.”

Flynn simply lifted his legs and used Moe as a footstool. “Lets just go over our options,” he began.

Twenty minutes later Dana stomped into the kitchen. She stopped short, hissed through her teeth when she saw the contents of her trash can strewed from one end of the floor to the other and Moe happily sprawled over the mess of it, chewing on a wad of paper towels.

“How does he do it? How the hell did he talk me into this?” And that, she admitted, was the mystery of Flynn Hennessy. You never knew just how he managed to box you into the corner of his choice.

She crouched down, got nose to nose with Moe.

Moe rolled his eyes to the side, avoiding hers. Dana swore that if dogs could whistle, shed have heard the I-wasnt-doing-anything tune coming out of the dogs mouth. “Okay, pal, you and I are going to go over the rules of the household.”

He responded by licking her face, then flopping over to expose his belly. * * *

SHE woke with the sun streaming over her face and her legs paralyzed. The sun was easy to explain. Shed forgotten to draw the curtains again. And her legs werent paralyzed, she realized after a moment of panic. They were trapped under the massive bulk of Moe.