Nick reached for the earring.

“Clear!” Curran roared. “Clear if you want to live!”

People scattered, putting distance between them and the earring. We had to get it to Bahir’s box or it would claim another life, and we weren’t in any shape to stop another giant.

Nick’s fingers touched the gold. He took a step toward the circle. His eyes turned white.

His body snapped into a rigid stance. His hand crept up, shaking from the muscle strain. Muscles in his face jerked. An inch. Another inch. The lure of the djinn was too great. It promised Nick anything and everything, every desire fulfilled, every wish granted, unlimited power, untold wealth, supernatural justice . . . It told him he could have anything he wanted. Nick was about to slide the earring into his ear.

Curran smashed his forearm into the back of Nick’s head. The knight crumbled to the ground. The world slowed to a crawl. The earring flew through the air, painfully slow, and Curran’s fingers closed about it.

No.

Curran’s fur stood on its end. His face turned flat. He took a slow small step toward the circle. His eyes stared into the distance, unseeing, as if he had gone blind.

No, no, no.

“He can’t have you,” I told him. “You’re mine. Fight him. Fight him, Curran.”

The muscles on Curran’s face shook, reshaping his head. His jaws lengthened. Bigger fangs thrust out of his jaws. He was becoming something monstrous.

Another step. His fur began to smoke.

I was losing him. I could feel him slipping away behind the curtain of the djinn’s magic.

I stepped in front of him. “Curran, do you love me?”

He focused on me. Bald patches formed on his hand, the skin bubbling up.

A shape began to form in the air just ahead of us, translucent and weak, but I would recognize its outlines anywhere. The djinn had searched Curran’s mind for a powerful emotion and found hate he could use. He was conjuring Hugh d’Ambray, because Curran wanted to kill him. If Curran took the bait, I would lose him forever.

I cut my forearm. My blood ran down my skin, wetting it with liquid heat. “Give me the earring. If you love me, give me the earring.”

Curran shook, every muscle on his frame rigid with tension.

“If you ever loved me, you will give it to me. Just open your fingers and let it fall.” My blood snapped into a gauntlet, obeying my magic. It should shield me, at least for a few seconds.

Hugh’s form was almost solid.

Curran snarled. His fingers opened. The earring fell and I caught it with my gauntleted hand.

Power tore through me, flinging open doors inside my mind. Every secret place, every hidden memory, every guilty thought, it knew them all instantly. It savaged my soul.

I took a step. Far ahead of me flame streamed down from Bahir, lapping at the circle’s boundary, binding him and the box into one. He was holding the portal open.

Twenty yards left. Dear God.

Tears streamed down my face.

You can’t defeat your father, the voice whispered inside me. I can help you. I will give you power unlike any you have ever witnessed.

Agony racked me. Another step. My hair was burning.

I will give you his head. You will never have to worry about him killing anyone again.

A vision swirled in my mind: my father’s grave, Julie smiling, Curran kissing me, as we stood in the middle of paradise, happy, free, and safe.

I will free you from these shackles. I will lift you into the sweet air above and let you breathe. I will stop all pain. Take my hand.

Another step. Bahir and his circle were so impossibly far. So very far.

All you have to do is take my hand.

“Do you love me?” Curran asked.

Of course I love you.

“Give me the earring.”

No. The pain gripped me, threatening to pull me to my knees. No. Stay with me. Stay!

I loved him. I would do anything for him. I had to give him the earring.

STAY!

I let it fall.

Curran caught the chunk of gold. I collapsed on my knees into the giantess’s blood.

Curran took a slow step forward. I dragged myself up, sobbing. He would need me after he took that second step.

It took him thirty seconds to make it. He looked almost dead by the time he had done it and when I asked, he gave the earring to me. I took it, welcoming an eternity of pain.

We walked, two steps at a time. I fell once and had to crawl through the blood, but we were moving. The circle grew closer.

Look into your future. Look into the very depths of your heart. You know what your father wants.

The circle was almost within reach.