"You're sure you don't want your armor?" Freydis asked for the umpteenth time. "I'd feel better knowing you had something between your skin and a half-mad vampire than a trenchcoat and flimsy clothing. You're not even properly attired for winter, let alone pitched battle."

I secured my sword as best as I could with the ties of the trenchcoat. It wasn't perfect, but as Freydis pointed out, my attire wasn't exactly battle-ready. Actually, it was a lot more Playboy Centerfold than Black Knight, but I had to make do. Still, I missed the warmth my gambeson offered when the frigid air lifted the coat, trailing icy fingers over my mostly bare legs. I was wearing stockings, but they were more for aesthetic than insulation. Sexy rarely paired well with practicality.

"Have the emergency kit ready," I said, ducking my head against the wind. "I'm not sure what condition he'll be in when I bring him back."

If I bring him back, my traitorous brain tacked on. Daniel said he was alive, but a lot could have happened in the twelve hours since I'd spoken with my brother. And even if Thomas was still breathing, there was no telling how mentally stable he'd be. I may have to hurt him to get him to stay still long enough to undo what had been done. If I couldn't salvage his mind, I might be bringing him back dead, or not at all.

I shook my head. I couldn't afford to think like that. If I went in with a fatalistic attitude, I'd never be able to do what needed to be done. I'd hesitate, and I'd end up dead or captured by whatever had snared Thomas.

I paused, considering that last thought. Was it possible that whatever had twisted his mind had done so with the intent to make him some sort of enforcer or bounty hunter? Could it have been an oblique attack on me, rather than an assault on Thomas directly? There were plenty of reasons someone would want him under their thumb that had nothing to do with me, but the niggling doubt persisted.

And ultimately, it didn't matter. Thomas was my friend, and you didn't leave your friends in the hands of monsters. Even if said monsters were setting a trap, and using your fuck-buddy as bait.

"I can help," Freydis said as I stepped off the deck and onto the pier. Someone had repaired it since I'd been here last. It had been in ruins when Nicodemus and company had used Hard Rock as their stronghold. "Let me come with you."

"No. I have protections that you don't. You're just going to have to trust me on this."

Her expression twisted briefly in concern, but she nodded, offering me a salute. "Good luck, seidrmadr."

I returned the salute and turned my back on her, approaching the island with long, purposeful strides. I kept my chin high and spine straight. Confidence was key when you were faced with the sort of predatory creatures that lived in this area. If you spotted a wolf, coyote, cougar, or even a black bear, making yourself larger and louder could often scare them off. Nature is all about the conservation of energy. If you couldn't get the drop on it and it looked like it would put up too much of a fuss, you moved on. There would always be more prey, and one loud meat sack wasn't worth your life. That strategy could apply to some supernatural predators too. Some of them were like wolves, only confident against mortals when surrounded by a pack. Then again, some of them were like tigers and would wreck your day just because they were bored, and flaying the flesh from your bones sounded like a good time.

The island felt like the latter. Quiet malevolence saturated the place, oozing over me, a cheese grater raking across my open wounds. The last time I'd been here, Lasciel had stood as a bulwark against the negative energy that shrouded the entire place. It had settled at the back of my mind like an uneasy weight but didn't trouble me unduly. There'd been too much going on to worry about the psychic attack trying to peel my sanity away inch by inch. Now I was going in raw, and it took every ounce of resolve to set foot on the island.

No doubt there were a few Mollys in my head, weeping or screaming uncontrollably as I climbed the stairs toward the top of the hill. I usually delegated trauma to the loose confederation of avatars that made up different parts of my brain, allowing them to schedule a breakdown at a more convenient time. I tended to skip my appointments, and not return their phone calls when they said I'd reached a deadline. I was kind of a bitch like that. Dad was probably right. It would come back to bite me someday.

Hopefully, today was not that day.

My teeth clacked together audibly as I ascended, both from the cold needling my skin, and the press of the practically sentient sense of malice that followed me. If I hadn't known better, I would have said the island itself was alive and waiting to devour me and digest the body slowly, like some kind of backwoods Sarlacc Pit. I was fairly sure it was emitting some kind of infrasound, a mystical frequency so specialized that only the most sensitive wizards could identify it. For most people, it was just a bad feeling, something you sensed, but couldn't really articulate. A result of the ley lines, or something more sinister?

I gritted my teeth against the psychic sawing of the cheese grater and kept moving. I'd pay for it later when Thomas was safe. For now, I just had to stay on my feet. There was something big going on in the lighthouse. I was familiar enough with faerie power to know that something cold, patient, and unhappy was lurking nearby and that it was most likely one of the Sidhe. The chill that settled in my bones, a cold so biting and focused that it couldn't have possibly been natural, told me it wasn't one of my old friends from Summer, either. A Winter faerie was on the island, doing God only knew what. Probably to Thomas.

There was someone trapped in a web of enchantment, but the cocoon was too thick to pierce without resorting to my sight. And if I was gazing at one of the lords or ladies of Winter, the tableau going on inside might be too beautiful or terrible to keep a solid grip on sanity. Perhaps both at the same time. Faeries were like that. Committing atrocities and looking impossibly beautiful all throughout. But did I really have a choice in the matter? The person inside could be Thomas, and I could only feel out the spells with my senses. It was essentially groping in the dark, hoping you didn't hit the third rail.

I'd almost decided to risk it when a bolt of viridian lightning split the sky. One second, I'd been perched near the top of the hill, staring at the seemingly empty lighthouse, fighting not to remember who'd been trapped inside the last time I'd been here. The next, there was something standing feet away, towering over me like a huge stone monolith. It was twice my height, which put it comfortably in the twelve-foot-tall range. It looked human in only the loosest definition of the word. Its shoulders were too broad, its stance crooked. It wore a cloak that enveloped almost every inch of its massive frame. Twin embers of viridian light burned far back in the cloak, the only indication it had a face.

Animals had appeared in the tree line, watching it approach with an odd, drag-thump. Foxes, deer, and even the shaggy outlines of a few bears. I felt hundreds of small eyes on me, could sense them patiently waiting for input from this...thing. If it told them to charge me, they would, and I'd have no choice but to go up against them in the worst live-action rendition of Snow White ever or run back to the dock. I stood, one hand on the hilt of my sword, tensed and ready as I waited for the thing to make a move.

"I've come to take Thomas Raith home," I said, sounding a damn sight calmer than I felt. "If you give him to me, this doesn't have to end in a fight."

I flinched, drawing the sword half out of its sheath when the thing lifted an arm. I expected it to swing at me, using its enormous stone limb to knock my head loose. But it just held the hand aloft, one shadowy finger peeking from the robe. I followed the direction it was pointing. There was a small footpath worn into the earth, and fresh footprints in the dusting of snow on the ground. Someone had been through here recently.

"THE PHAGE IS THAT WAY."

The words hit me like a Mack truck, taking me off my feet. Its voice in my head was its own minor seismic event, leaving me shaking and breathless with terror on the ground. Blood poured from my nose and ears. I tried to stagger upright, but my muscles were roughly the consistency of jelly, and any will to move them had temporarily evaporated. I curled into a ball, biting the inside of my cheek to contain a scream of agony. Sounds like that would draw the Sidhe out of hiding. They were predators, pure and simple, and at the moment I was an injured gazelle.

Recovering took time, and the thing watched me gather myself. I couldn't quite get a read on it. The enormous shape didn't strike me when I was helpless, nor did it offer help. It was as remote as a mountain and about as capable of feeling. It didn't judge you or move to end your life, because you were too insignificant to trifle with. It was a force of nature, a feature that had been wrought before you, and would exist long after your bones had crumbled to dust.

I fell on my ass twice before I was able to stand up straight and face it again. I dabbed at the blood dripping from my chin. "How do I know you aren't lying? There's someone in the lighthouse with a faerie. It might be Thomas."

The thing shook its great stone head and pointed firmly in the same direction. This time the motion was accompanied by a barrage of images. He was on a hill on the opposite side of the island facing out toward Lake Michigan. There was a sheer rock face where a hill had once stood. Time had weakened the earth there until a section of it had fallen into the waters of Lake Michigan. It left a jagged wound in the earth that had yet to be softened or filled. Thomas' legs dangled in open air as he considered the water, his face remote. I couldn't sense a lie, or even the desire to lie from the figure. For all I knew, it was too ancient to even know the concept of deception.

"PHAGE," it insisted.

I was better prepared this time, but the voice still staggered me. I backed away from it, moving in the direction it had indicated. If I didn't follow instructions, it would probably pound me into the earth with the force of its voice alone. Whatever was on the other side had allied with this thing, and there was no way I was getting past it alone. I wasn't sure I could beat it, even with Freydis at my back.

The mystery of the man in the icy web would have to wait for another day. Right now, I had a vampire to save.