“Stop, stop, stop! She’s no good to you dead or damaged.” Sawyer twisted his bloody wrists in the shackles.

“That’ll do,” Malmon said, and as if he’d merely paused for a drink, once again picked up the compass. “I’ve only to think of a location—coordinates, as I understand it. And this will take me. And through time, as well.”

Malmon tapped the compass, tried to turn it, searched for a mechanism. “Where is the watch?”

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“Isn’t it? We’ll keep it simple for the maiden voyage. To the villa and back again.” Malmon closed his eyes, murmured the coordinates he’d memorized.

And stayed exactly where he was.

“It’s not ruby slippers, you idiot.” He’d keep them focused on him, Sawyer thought, keep their attention away from Annika. If he could somehow disable Malmon, she could sing. She could escape.

Nothing mattered more.

It cost him another vicious shock. When he could breathe again, he hissed out a laugh. “Yeah, that’ll work. Keep that up, see where it gets you.”

“Convince him.”

With a nod, Yadin picked up a knife, set it down, a stiletto, laid it back. Settled on a scalpel. “I can slice him, dice him, clip off his thumbs, put out his eyes. It will take some time, and I’ll enjoy it. But there are some who take the pain. And there is a quicker way.”

Yadin turned, gestured toward Annika.

“Convince him,” Malmon said again.

Yadin turned the controls, and Annika’s world became agony.

Through it, through her own screams, she heard Sawyer, shouting, cursing, begging. When the pain stopped, when she could only sink weakly to lie on the bottom of the tank, she looked through the glass at his bruised, bloody face, at the grief in his eyes. Could only shake her head.

Don’t give them what they want, she thought, as hard as she could. Don’t give them anything.

“I have to. Don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt her again. I can’t tell you how it works. I can’t tell you!” He all but screamed it when Yadin reached for the controls again. “I have to show you. Don’t hurt her. Leave her alone, and I’ll show you.”

“It’s love, you see.” Yadin lifted his hands. “A man might suffer through unimagined pain for a cause, and die for it. But love? It defeats him.”

Malmon signed to one of the men. “Let him down. If you try anything, anything, Yadin will turn up the current. She won’t die, but she’ll never be the same.”

“I said I’d show you.” Sawyer dropped to his knees when the chain unhooked.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

When Sawyer reached out his cuffed hands for the compass, Malmon kicked him sharply in the ribs. In the tank, Annika slammed her tail into the glass.

Yadin turned, wagged a finger at her.

“Do you think I’ll just hand it back to you?”

“I have to hold it. It’s the only way to pass it to another. I . . .” He bought time, mind spinning, through a coughing fit. “The first traveling has to be done with me. It’s the only way to pass it, and give someone else the right to use it. Fuck it, Malmon, I don’t make the rules.”

He looked up then, so far into the pain he’d moved beyond it. “All I’m asking is you don’t hurt her. You’re going to kill me, once you’ve got the compass. That’s the way it goes. But you’ve got no reason to hurt her. She’s caught.”

Malmon leaned down, gripped Sawyer by the throat. Nails longer, sharper than they should have been pricked through the skin. “Where is the Fire Star?”

“I don’t—”

“Hit her again, Yadin.”

“No, no, no. Bran’s hidden it with magick. I can take you to where it is, but I swear to God, I don’t know if I can get to it, actually get to it. I can take you, show you. For fuck’s sake, Malmon, I’m telling you the truth. I’ll do anything you want. Don’t hurt her.”

“So it’s the witch? Bring Berger in, and send for Commander Trake,” he ordered one of the men, and rose to walk to the tank. Staring at Annika, he spoke to Yadin. “Put a hole in him—nonlethal, of course.”

Annika beat on the glass as Yadin chose a knife. Her eyes pleaded.

“Is he telling me the truth? If you lie . . .” Malmon watched her face as Sawyer choked off a scream. “I’ll have his thumbs removed next.”

She kept her eyes on Malmon’s, on those dark glasses, pressed both hands to her heart as if swearing.

“That’ll do.”

Malmon turned; Yadin slid the knife out from between Sawyer’s ribs. And another man strode into the cave.

He stood tall, straight, with Viking blue eyes and close-cropped hair so blond it read nearly white.

He studied Annika. “So it’s true.” His voice was brisk, lightly accented. “The world is full of mysteries. Will you fuck her?”

“No need to be crude, Franz.”

“Just curious. I would, just to see how it could be done.” He shifted, looked down at Sawyer. “Messy business. A bullet in the brain’s more efficient.”

“I prefer my way.”

After a shrug for Yadin, Berger gave Malmon his attention. “The remaining targets just arrived back at their base.”

“Riggs, the seer. You have her description.”

“I do. The blonde. The quite fetching blonde.”