"Yes," Jenny said.
Audrey gasped. "Jenny-for God's sake."
Jenny didn't look at her.
Tom made some movement. Jenny didn't look his way, either.
"Jenny ..." Dee whispered. "It's not worth it. I know your promises-you keep them. You'll be trapped. Don't do it for us."
Jenny turned, then. She looked straight into the dark eyes with the slightly amber-tinted whites. "Dee... I'm sorry. I know you don't understand-and I can't explain it to you. But please believe me, I'm staying because I want to. Audrey, can't you understand?"
Audrey slowly shook her copper head, highlights flaring.
"I don't have a lot of real friends," she said. "I don't want to lose you."
"You're going to anyway," Jenny said. "This way is just easier on everyone. And I want to stay. I swear I do."
Dee had been staring at Jenny hard. Now, abruptly, her ebony face went blank. Walled off. Utterly without expression.
"That's right," she said. "You have to look out for number one." She nodded at Jenny, face grim, eyes meeting Jenny's directly. "Go ahead, Sunshine. Good luck."
Jenny nodded back. If it hadn't been manifestly impossible, she would have said the glitter in Dee's eyes was tears.
She turned back to Julian, who took the ring from her.
"A short ceremony," he said again. "Give me your hand."
A stained-glass lampshade threw blue and purple light over him. Jenny gave him her hand, felt that his was as cool as hers.
"Oh, don't," Audrey said, as if involuntarily.
Jenny didn't move.
"Seventeenth-century poesy ring, used to be given as tokens between lovers," Julian explained, holding up the gold circlet. "With the inscription on the inside. It means you refuse all the world except the one who gives it to you. The words touch your skin and bind you with their power."
Jenny smiled at him.
Tom stood slowly, his chains scraping up the sides of the clock with a sound like ball bearings rolling on wood.
Julian ignored everything but Jenny. "Now you repeat after me. But remember-the promise is irrevocable." With a slight, grave formality, he said, as if quoting:
"This ring, the symbol of my oath, Will hold me to the words I speak: All I refuse and thee I choose."
Jenny repeated the words and felt the cool band slide onto her finger. Then she looked at it. It shone with a rich, warm light, as if it had always been there.
"Now if we seal the bargain with a kiss, it becomes irrevocable," Julian said again, looking down at her. As if giving her a last chance to back out. The circlet burned on Jenny's finger like cold fire.
Jenny turned her face up. She didn't have to go far on tiptoe to kiss him. It was a soft kiss, but not a quick one.
Julian was the one who lifted his head from it.
"Sworn mine," he whispered. "Now and forever."
The violence came from an unexpected quarter.
"No," said Zachary, surging forward as if he was going to attack Julian.
Julian didn't even bother to look at him. Zach slammed into an invisible wall and fell back into Dee.
Jenny did turn, to look at all of them. Audrey and Zach and Dee and Michael. Her friends.
"I knew you wouldn't like this-" she began, but Zach interrupted her. He was on his feet again, gray eyes flashing in a way Jenny had never seen, face more intense than ever.
"How could you?" he burst out. He seemed as angry on Tom's behalf as if he himself were being betrayed. "How could you?"
"Leave her alone," Michael said shortly. Jenny could see his opinion in his dark spaniel eyes-Mike thought she was making the best of a very bad situation. He didn't blame her for it. "What do you want her to do?" he said, and Zach shook his head in contempt.
"Not go willingly," he said. "Not give in-to that."
Tom was watching it all with blank eyes. Jenny could barely make herself look at him, but she did.
"I'm sorry, Tommy," she said. She saw his face twist slightly, and for a terrible moment she thought he was going to cry. Then he shrugged.
"I suppose it had to happen. That's the name of the Game, isn't it?" he said, looking at Julian.
Julian gave him an odd smile, and Jenny realized they were talking about something she didn't understand. "I keep my promises, too," he said. "All of them."
Jenny touched his sleeve. His face changed as he turned toward her, as if he were forgetting everyone else in the room.
"The ceremony's done," he said. "We're promised."
"I know." Jenny let out a deep breath. The ring made a little weight on her finger, but she felt very light, very free. She spoke calmly and casually, as if she were organizing a picnic or a redecorating project. Something that had to be done fast, but right.
"Let the others go now, Julian. I wish you'd let Tom go, too-but if not, can't you please make him more comfortable? I think in a few days you'll realize you don't need a hostage to keep me behaving."
He was searching her face, as if stricken by doubt for the first time. "Jenny-you really want to stay here? It's going to be strange for you�C�C"
"That is the understatement of the century." She looked up at him and spoke freely. "I only hope to God we can get a different view out the parlor window. But, yes, I want to stay. I never realized how much more there was to life than what I was getting. Now that I've seen it, I can't go back. I'm not the same person I was before."
He smiled. "No. In less than twelve hours you've changed. You've become ..."
Jenny raised her eyebrows. "What?"
"I'll tell you later. I'll enjoy telling you, taking a long time to do it." He turned.
"You can all go." Jenny heard Tom's chains rattle and clank to the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him hold his hands up, free.
"Out!" Julian said with a snap of his fingers. For an instant Jenny thought he meant it for Dee and the others, but then the phantom wolf, which had been bristling, lowered its head and slunk off. Straight through the wall, apparently. The luminous snake slithered and poured itself through the floor. Some compartment in Jenny's mind noticed with awe how long that took, how much length there was to pour.
The door home stood open, unguarded. From this angle Jenny could see the rune Uruz on it, the inverted U flaring fire-red with power.
Through the door-and through the small window-she could see midnight blue. She glanced at the clock, which was still ticking away. 5:50 a.m.
Dawn was coming fast.
"Go on," Julian said, as if eager to be rid of them.
"Not without Jenny," Dee said.
Michael, Jenny thought, was surprised. He looked at Dee, opened his mouth. Zach's mouth was curled angrily. Audrey was shaking her head in doubt. Tom just stood.
Jenny looked away.
Julian's voice was impatient. "Well, go, stay, do whatever you want," he said. "I'll leave you to argue it out. But, remember, that door closes at dawn. Six-eleven sharp. If you're still inside, you're here for good-and I might not be in the mood for company."
He turned to Jenny. "This place is crowded."
"I know. There's a couch downstairs. We can sit on it and get acquainted."
They went.
The sofa in Jenny's grandfather's basement was shabby and lumpy but wide and very soft. It sank under their weight. Jenny found it odd to be sitting beside Julian like this, with no animosity, no need to pull away. No battles to fight.
It was a very private place. She knew the others wouldn't open the stairway door and come down, or even look in before they left the Shadow House. Julian's warning about not wanting company was sufficient. They all knew what he could do.
She looked up at him, to find him looking at her. So close. His eyes the color of a May morning.
Very deep, but very gentle.
She could feel his hunger.
And could feel herself trembling slightly. Her nerves jangling with excitement-and fear. But he didn't even touch her, at first. He just looked at her, with an expression she'd never seen on his face before. A look of wonder. The tenderness she'd seen when he was impersonating Zach.
"Are you frightened?" he said.
"A little." She was trying not to show it. She said lightly, "So you're the youngest Shadow Man."
"And the nicest."
"I believe that," Jenny said earnestly.
He did touch her, then, fingers light on her hair. Jenny felt the little inner stillness, the change in perception that comes before response. She shut her eyes and told herself not to think, not to feel anything but the featherlike touch. The lighter it was, the more it moved her.
She was surprised when it stopped. She opened her eyes-and was even more surprised at the anger in his face.
For an instant Jenny was really frightened, and the reality of what she was doing came home to her. Then she saw that Julian wasn't angry at her but-for her.
"You're so-innocent," he said. "That boyfriend of yours, that-Tommy, that spoiled, swaggering-he never thought about you, did he? Only about himself. And he botched it. I'd like to kill him."
This wasn't at all what Jenny wanted to think about. She started to say so, but Julian was going on, his eyes full of wild blue light.
"You want to watch out for that cousin of yours, too. He really does think about you, you know. I took that impression from life."
Knowing it was completely inappropriate, Jenny burst into slightly hysterical, but genuine laughter.
"... you're jealous," she said, when she could get her breath. "Of Zach. Zach doesn't like people, only lenses and things."
The dark look disappeared from his face. "It doesn't matter," he said. "He won't be able to get at you here. No one will, ever. I'll keep you safe. ..."
Jenny reached for him and lightly pressed her lips to his. He forgot about talking, then, and kissed back-such a soft kiss, his warm lips barely brushing hers.
But the soft kisses developed into slow shivery kisses and then into white-hot ones. She was still afraid of him, even as she clung to him-was it true that fear had to be a part of passion? Everywhere he touched she felt fire and ice.
Upstairs, the clock struck six.
Jenny pulled away from Julian, reluctantly. "I have to breathe," she whispered. She shook herself a little, then stood up. "Things are happening so fast."
He smiled as she walked around, getting her breath back, feeling her flushed cheeks cool. She couldn't look at him right now; she needed to regain her composure. Scarcely seeing it, she fingered the cobalt bracelet on the shelf.
"Why did you let me through my nightmare?" she said abruptly. "Sentimental reasons?"
"Not at all." He laughed. "I did play the Game fairly. I don't lie, even if I sometimes-withhold information. Your nightmare was remembering what happened that day. You couldn't see it, but the door appeared as soon as you remembered opening the closet."
"Oh," Jenny said softly. "The closet." Then she added, "What did he want from you? My grandfather?"
"What everybody else wants. Power, knowledge-the easy way. A free ride."
"And runes really work," Jenny said, shaking her head slightly in wonder.
"A lot of things work. A lot of things don't. People can't tell which are which until they try them-and then they're usually surprised."