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Perry nodded. “Yeah, when I was standing right there, I could hear them. I could hear her.”

“That’s the point,” Dew said. “We don’t know where the next gate is, Perry. The Jewells have to be there. If we find them, we find the gate. Chelsea talked to you. You have to go back in there and see if she makes contact again.”

“You have to do this,” Margaret said, her voice tight and cold. “We are not going to have let that woman die for nothing.”

Perry shook his head again. His eyes remained wide, his nostrils flaring with each breath.

“Perry,” Margaret said, “you’ve fought through so much. Tell me why you’re afraid of this little girl.”

“She’s not a little girl anymore,” Perry said. “She’s something else. She can . . . she can make people do things.”

“We’re with you, kid,” Dew said. “We’ll be right there, okay?”

“The answer is no, Dew,” Perry said. “You have to stop asking me to go in there. You just have to.”

“Those hatchlings are in their own little cages,” Dew said. “They cannot get to you. You need to stop being such a p.u.s.s.y and—”

Dew never saw Perry’s hand. Not even a blur. One second he was shaking and nodding like a rabid Saint Bernard, the next Dew felt a cast-iron vise on his throat and his feet dangled a foot off the ground.

“You don’t get it!” Perry screamed. “You just don’t get it!”

Dew clawed at Perry’s fingers, trying to isolate one, to bend it back and break it, but even the kid’s fingers were strong. Dew couldn’t pry one free.

Margaret grabbed Perry’s arm. She might as well have swung from a tree limb for all the effect she had. “Perry! Put him down!”

Perry shook Dew. Shook him. Dew’s vision blacked out for a moment, then came back—he only had a few seconds left. He kicked out, clumsily, trying to get his actions under control. One foot connected, but he’d kicked Margaret, not Perry.

She grabbed at her left thigh and fell to the ground. Dew suddenly found himself down there as well, coughing and spitting. Perry was so big, so strong, so fast. Dew now knew it had been nothing but dumb luck he’d won that fight.

“I’m not afraid of what she’ll do to me!” Perry screamed. “I’m afraid of what she’ll make me do to you!”

Dew rolled onto his back and looked up. Sooty snow melted into the seat of his pants. Perry was bent over him, staring down with insane eyes. Saliva flew when he talked.

Perry jabbed his finger repeatedly into his temple, punctuating his words.

“Don’t you get it? They rewrote my f.u.c.king brain! And when I go near those triangles, I can hear her. She’s f.u.c.king powerful, man. I don’t want you to end up like Bill. She told me to kill you!”

Dew hawked a loogie and spit. It came out thick with blood. “So why didn’t you?”

Perry didn’t say anything. The insanity slowly left his eyes.

“Why?” Dew said. “If she’s so powerful, why didn’t you kill me when she told you to? Why didn’t you kill me just now?”

“Because . . . because you can take me. You can beat me up.”